A DISCOURSE OF THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL.  
By PETER STERRY, Sometimes Fellow of Emmanuel College in Cambridge.  HEB. 13. 2. 
Be not forgetful to entertain STRANGERS: for thereby some have entertained ANGELS unawares.  
LONDON: Printed for John Starkey, at the Mitre near Temple-Bar, in Fleetstreet. 1675.   

The Printer to the Reader.  
THe Author having written so large a Preface to his following Discourse; and therein given the Reader such a delightful taste of his excellent Spirit: The Publishers decline saying any thing either of it or him. Only I am desired by them to inform thee, that this Discourse is posthumous, and not Originally designed for the Press, but the private satisfaction of some worthy persons, who begged the Author's sense concerning this Argument: and to whom he was pleased at several times by set discourses to communicate his thoughts so plentifully, that they and some other Friends importuned him to peruse what he had dictated to them upon this Subject, to make some additions to it, and to fit it for Public View. Whilst the Author was perfecting this undertaking, it pleased God to take him out of this life, but in pursuance of his own desire before his death, thou hast here with all possible integrity delivered to thee so much of his intended Discourse as came to the Publishers hands either in his own Copies, or those of his Friends which were examined and owned by himself; there being nothing altered, or added by them but the Title Page. By these means it is now grown into a Book, and thou art acquainted with all this not to bespeak thy greater gentleness and candour in reading it, but to do the Author right, and give thyself the true account, why thou art wholly disappointed of what he designed upon that Argument taken from the proper form and essence of Liberty; and not so fully satisfied in the application of the argument drawn from the Knowledge of God; and those other two taken from the nature of the Soul, and the Mediation of Christ: the Scripture cited and promised to be opened from the 1. Gen. being omitted in the explication of the former, and in the other nothing said concerning the progress and propagation of the Mediatory Work of Jesus Christ through his whole Body.  
I have only this further to add concerning the many Erratas that have escaped the Press, which thou wilt find set down and corrected to thy hand at the end of the Book. That the impatience of some Friends to have this Discourse out; and the fears of others lest it should be stifled in the birth; with some other difficulties of the Copy, have by precipitating the Press, and perplexing the Printer, occasioned so great a number of mistakes. That yet there is not so many as at first view the Reader may apprehend, because for the sake of the more ordinary capacity, more words are made use of for the reforming of most of them than would else have been necessary. And lastly that thou wilt find they are generally Errors only in the points, which are easily and without defacing the Book to be mended; although otherwise of great moment to the sense: and are therefore with great care corrected in the last page for the service of the Vulgar Reader: who may be in some places not a little helped in his perusing of this Treatise by thereby observing where to place most usefully the points.   

THE PREFACE TO THE READER.  
Christian and Candid Reader,  
I Entreat some few things of thee, for thine own sake and for mine:  
1. Study the Love of God, the Nature of God, as he is Love, the Work of God, as it is a Work of Love. Moses in his dying Song beginneth with God, and the perfection of his Work; He is the Rock, his Work is perfect. St. Paul descended from the Paradise in the Third Heavens, bringeth this with him down into the World, as the Sacred Mystery, and rich ground of all Truth, from which all the Beauties and Sweetnesses of Paradise, of all the Heaven's spring; That Love is the band of Perfection. It is Love then, which runneth through the whole Work of God, which frameth, informeth, uniteth it all into one Masterpiece of Divine Love.  
If God be Love, the Attributes of God are the Attributes of this Love; the Purity, Simplicity, the Sovereignty, the Wisdom, the Almightiness, the Unchangeableness, the Infiniteness, the eternity of Divine Love. If God be Love, his Work is the Work of Love, of a Love unmixed, unconfined, supreme, infinite in Wisdom and Power, not limited in its workings by any pre-existent matter, but bringing forth freely ●…nd entirely from itself its whole work both matter and form, according to its own inclination and complacency in itself.  
Leo Hebraeus, inflamed with the Beauty, and languishing in the Love of the heavenly Sophia, the heavenly Wisdom, which is the first and freshest life of all Beauties in one Face, immortal, and ever-flourishing, is instructed by this Divine Mistress in those excellent Dialogues between her and himself to Court and Woe her into his Embraces, by enquiring into the Nature of Love. Pursuing this enquiry, by the bright Conduct of her shining Beauties, he is led through the whole nature of things above and below, with all the Varieties and Changes as manifold streams of Divine Love; in divers breadths and depths, with innumer able, sportful windings and turnings, flowing forth from its own full Sea of eternal Sweetness, and through all its Channels, hasting thither again.  
Campanella teacheth us, That all second Causes, are Causa prima modificata, so many Modifications of the first Cause, so many forms and shapes in which the first Cause appears and acts. All the Works of God, are the Divine Love, in so many Modes and Dresses. There is diversity of Manifestations, there are diversities of Operations, which compose the whole frame and business of this Creation, which are as divers persons acting divers parts upon this stage. But there is one Spirit, one Lord, one God, one Love, which worketh all in all.  
It is the Divine Love, with its unsearchable Riches, which is the fullness that filleth all persons, and all parts upon the stage of Time or Eternity. If any man know not the way to the Sea, let him follow a River in the course of its stream, saith the Comedian.  
Dear Reader, if thou wouldst be lead to that Sea, which is as the gathering together, and confluence of all the waters of Life, of all Truths, Goodness, Joys, Beauties and Blessedness; follow the stream of the Divine Love, as it holdeth on its course, from its head in eternity through every work of God, through every Creature. So shalt thou be not only happy in thine end, but in thy way; while this stream of Love shall not only be thy guide by thy side, but shall carry thee along in its soft and delicious bosom, bearing thee up in the bright Arms of its own Divine Power, sporting with thee all along, washing thee white as snow in its own pure floods, and bathing thy whole Spirit and Person in heavenly unexpressible sweetnesses.  
This is my first Request to you.  
2. Study and practise that great Command of Love, as the Lesson of thy whole Life, with which alone thou art to entertain thyself, and all the heavenly Company, both here and in eternity. This is the first and great Command; That thou love God with thy whole self; and then, That thou love thy Neighbour as thyself, which is a second Law, a second Love, like unto the first. Indeed it is so like, that it is one with it. Be thou thyself in thy whole Person, the Sacrifice of a whole Burnt-Offering, ascending in a Sacred flame of heavenly love to God, the only and eternal Beauty. As the zeal of the House of God, which is Love flaming, did eat up David and Christ; so let this heavenly Love of the Divine Beauty, which is the Beauty itself, descending in a pure and sweet flame upon thee, by consuming thee, convert thee into one spiritual flame with itself. Now live thou no where, but where thou lovest, in thy Beloved. Let thy Beloved alone now live in thee; when thou hast thus lost thyself by an heavenly Love in thy Beloved, in thy God; when thou hast thus by the Sacred and sweet mystery of this Love found thy Beloved, thy God, in the place of thyself; Then love thy Neighbour as thy self. Love thy Neighbour in thy Jesus, thy God. Love thy Jesus, thy God, in thy Neighbour. Let this Neighbourhood of Divine Love be as large as the God of Love himself is. Let every other Person and Spirit, which lives and moves, and hath its being in God, within the encompassing, upon the Ground and Root of the Divine Being, be thy Neighbour, thy Brother, another self, as thyself to thyself; the Object to thee of an heavenly and incorruptible Love.  
Upon this Commandment, saith Jesus Christ, hang all the Law and the Prophets. This Love is the Centre and the Circle of all the Works of God, of all Motions and Rests, of all mysteries in Nature and Grace, in Time and Eternity. Plato saith, That three sorts of Persons are led to God, The Musician by Harmony, the Philosopher by the beam of Truth, the Lover by the light of Beauty. All these Conductors to the supreme Being meet in this Love, of which we speak; the first and only true Beauty, being the first Birth, the first Effulgency, the essential Image of the supreme Goodness, is also the first, the supreme, the only Truth; the Original, the measure, the end of all Truth; which by its amiable attractive Light, conducteth all Understandings in the search of Truth, and giveth them rest only in its transparent and blissful Bosom. This also is the first, the only, the universal Harmony, the Music of all things in Heaven and on Earth; the Music, in which all things of Earth and of Heaven, meet to make one melodious Consort.  
While the holy Lover than pursues the tracts of this Beauty, through all the works and ways of God, he is encompassed with the Light of Divine Truth shining through him, and round about him. He is carried on in the Spirit by the force of the Divine Harmony; He carrieth along this Harmony of things, charming all things round about him, as he passeth on. So he seeth the God of Gods at last on Mount Zion, the perfection of Beauty, Harmony, Truth and Goodness, which all Centre in the Divine Love, the Divine Unity, the band of perfection.  
3. Let no differences of Principles or Practices divide thee in thine affections from any person. He who seems to me as a Samaritan to a Jew, most worthy of contempt and hatred, most apt to wound or kill me, may hide under the shape of a Samaritan, a generous, affectionate Neighbour, Brother and Friend. When I lie wounded and dying, neglected by those who are nearest to me, most esteemed by me; This person may pour Wine and Oil into my Wounds, with tender and constant care, at his own expense, bring me back to life and joy. How evident hath it been in the History of all times, that in Parties most remote one from the other, most opposed one to the other; Persons have been found of equal excellencies, in all kinds, of equal integrity to Truth and Goodness. Our most Orthodox Divines, who have been heated and heightened with the greatest zeal of Opposition to the Pope, as the Antichrist, yet have believed a Pope to have ascended from the Papal Chair, to a Throne in Heaven. Had my Education, my Acquaintance, the several Circumstances and Concurrences been the same to me, as to this person from whom I now most of all dissent, that which is now his sense and state, might have been mine. Have the same just, equal, tender respects and thoughts with the same allowances of another, which thou requirest from him to thyself. It is a Rule in Philosophy, That there is the same reason of Contrarieties. Two opposed Parties or Persons, by reason of the opposition, for the most part looking through the same disturbed and coloured Medium, behold one another under the same uncomely form, in the same displeasing Colours. Hath there not been frequent experience of those, who by being of differing Parties, alienated, exasperated, having their fancies filled with strange Images of each other, when they have been brought together by some intervening Providence, have discovered such agreeable Beauties of Morality and Humanity, such an harmonious agreement in essential, in radical Principles of Divine Truth, of the true and ever lasting good, that they have conversed with highest delight, they have departed with an higher esteem of each other, their Souls have been inseparably united with Angelical kisses and embraces? Some entertaining Strangers, have entertained Angels. Do thou so believe, that in every encounter, thou mayest meet under the disguise of an Enemy, a Friend, a Brother, who, when his Helmet shall be taken off, may disclose a beautiful, and a well known face, which shall charm all thy Opposition into love and delight at the sight of it.  
But now, Reader, I fall at thy feet, I take hold of thy knees, by all things moving and obliging I beseech thee, If there be any Bowels, or comforts of Love, any Peace, Pleasantness, Strength, Prosperity in Union, any good in Unity, that thou wouldst take deeply into thine Heart, and treasure up safely there, and frequently with fixed, studious eyes, contemplate this (as I humbly conceive it) most sure and reconciling Truth, which I shall now, as I am able, represent to thee.  
Often, yea for the most part, two opposed Parties have something on each side, excellently good, something exorbitantly evil; although perhaps in unequal degrees. Both mutually set after an unmoveable manner before their eyes, their own good, the evil on the other part. Thus they blind their minds to all sense or belief of any good there. Thus they lift up themselves above all sense of their own evil. So they heighten themselves by self-justifications, by mutual Condemnations, unto an extinguishing of every beam of good, to an increase of their evils, unto a blackness of darkness, until by these mutual mistakes they have drawn on upon themselves mutual and absolute ruin. How much better were it to obey that Precept of the Holy Ghost, which offereth itself to us, like an Olive-branch in the mouth of this Sacred Dove, To look every man not to his own things, but to the things of another.  
O that now I had an hundred Mouths, an hundred Tongues, a voice like Thunder, like the Voice of God, that rends the Rocks, to cry to all sorts of Persons and Spirits in this Land, in all the Christian World through the whole Creation; Let all that differ in Principles, Professions, or Opinions, and Forms, see that good which is in each other, and the evil in themselves. Join in thi●…, to extirpate the evil, the common evil, your common enemy, and so quench that fire which burns upon your Estates, your Houses, your Relations, your Bodies, your Souls, even to the nethermost Hell. Unite the good which is in you, so shall the good on one side make up that which is imperfect and defective in the good on the other side, unto a perfection of good in both. So shall the good on one side be as a proper Antitode to extinguish the evil on the other side. Thus while the evil is the privation, the loss of yourselves, and the good your true-selves, (as Hor ace calls Virgil, Dimidium animae meae,) you will meet like two halves of each other, filling up the circle of each others Being, Beauties, Joys, and be now completed in one. How unexpressible would the fruits of this Union be? How would it heighten you in all the Beauties and Blessednesses of Truth and Goodness, in which your immortality and conformity to God are placed? yea, how would this Union strengthen those outward Interests, and sweeten those natural Enjoyments, for whose sake, now like Adders, you stop your Ears to the wisest Charmer, and the most potent Charms, that would draw you home into the bosom of each other, for whose sake now you cast down to the ground all ingenuity and integrity. You make your way over their sweetest Beauties and tenderest Bowels, to the heartblood of one another, until you have drowned in blood those very darling Interests and Enjoyments, together with your own Lives and Persons, your native Country, the Christian World, the face of the whole Earth? But ab, when will poor Mankind on Earth be wise, to understand its own good, or be good, that it may me wise? Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lorld. We wait for thy Salvation, thy Jesus, O God To him shall the gathering of the people be, the true Shiloe, for whom this Glory is reserved.  
It seemeth indeed, according to my humble sense, necessary to divide those Principles and Practices, which divide Mankind into three Heads:  
1. Some seem to be of a nature perfectly indifferent, neither good nor evil, but according to the intention and spirit which acteth them.  
2. Some differ in the degrees, mixtures, or varieties of good and evil.  
3. Others differ in the whole kind of good and evil.  
In this last state of things, it is the part of every Child of Light, to maintain the Divine Love in his Spirit, like the Sun in the Firmament, encompassing the whole Earth, from one end to the other, shining upon all, both good and bad, upon dry and sandy Deserts, the Habitations of wild Beasts, and venomous Serpents, as well as cultivated Gardens, flourishing with wholesome Herbs, pleasant Flowers, and all sorts of fruits. Thus God himself is propounded to us for a Pattern by the Son of God.  
Distinguish between the good and evil. Love takes pleasure in the good. Hate the evil. Advance the good. Oppose the evil upon all occasions, with all your forces. But every where distinguish carefully, with all tenderness of Spirit, between the person, and the evil of the person. Be wise as Serpents, but innocent as Doves, according to the Counsel and Command of Jesus Christ, who is the supreme Wisdom and Love both in one. Discern the evil with a quick and curious eye, guard yourselves with all your might from it, maintain an aversion, an enmity to it, eternally irreconcilable. Thus be a Serpent to the evil, but at the same time be a Dove to the person, without gall, without any thing to offend, moaning over it, groaning for it, as your Mate, till it be recovered from the evil, which captivates it into a fellowship with you, in the purity and love of the Divine Nature.  
Have always most tender bowels for, and a most sensible sympathy with all Mankind in their greatest Deformities and Defilements, as thy Brethren tied unto thee by a double Consanguinity.  
1. All men are made of the same blood in Adam.  
2. All men are redeemed by the same blood of the Lord Jesus, who hath given himself a Ransom for all, to be testified, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the proper times. Each person which hath his part in this Ransom, hath its proper time for its discovery in him. Thine may be now sooner. This person also now most of all lost in the depth of all evils, may have his proper time yet to come, for the taking off the disguise of these filthy Rags from him, for the discovery of the Glory, as of a Son of God in him. As his time comes later, so it may come with a fuller Glory. As Zipporah said to Moses, whether bitterly, or in the sweet sense of a Sacred mystery, pointing to the Messias, Thou art an Husband to me in bloods. So look thou on every man, as a Brother to thee, in both these bloods, of which one was once pure and precious, as that of the Sacred Image of God in Paradise. The other is eternally pure and precious, as the blood of God himself.  
Forgiving one another freely for Christ's sake, is the language of St. Paul. Look upon every person through this twofold Glass, the Blood, and the Beauties of Christ. Christ hath died for all. The natural Being of every person hath his Root in the Grave of Christ, and is watered with his blood. Christ lives in all. His Resurrection is the life of the whole Creation. He is the Wisdom, the Power, the Righteousness of God in every work of Nature, as well as of Grace. He is the Root, out of which every natural, as well as every spiritual, Plant springs, which brings forth himself through every natural existence, and brings forth himself out of it, as the flower, the brightness of the Glory of God. He is the Root and Truth of all things. All things are by him, and for him, to the praise and glory of God in him. His Name is excellent through all the Earth. Read then this Name of Excellency, of Glory, the Name of Christ in every part and point of the ●…arth, the darkest, the lowest, the least; forgive the spots upon this Name in every person, for the Names-sake engrav●…n upon it.  
Receive one another into the Glory of God, is the Rule of St. Paul. Divines distinguish between the person, together with the nature of the De●…il and the evil. The person, the nature, springs forth from God, and so is good, hath a Divinity and Glory in it; a Divine Root, a Divine Image. It stands in the Glory of God, as a Flower in the Garden, a B●…am in the Sun, it is maintained by a continual emanation from the bosom of the supreme Glory. Thus thou art to receive every person, clouded with the greatest evils, as he is the work of Nature, and of God into the Glory of God. Thus every other person is to be thy Neighbour, thy ●…rother in the Glory of God; and the Object of a Divine Love.  
No evil, as evil is the nature or choice of any person, but the mishap, and the disease. Truth is the only Object of every Understanding, the only white at which it aims. Like the Marigold, it opens itself only to this Sun, or that which shines upon it in the glorious form of this Sun, and so descends in seeming beams of this Divine Beauty into its bosom. Good is the only Object of the William. As the Needle touched by the Loadstone, is governed in its motion and rest by the North-pole; so is the Will moved and attracted by that alone, which toucheth it with a sense of good. It resteth in no bosom, but that which courteth and wooeth it und●…r the Divine Form of good, with the seeming Charms of this its only Beloved and Bridegroom.  
St. Paul saith, Sin deceived me, and slew me. No person is willingly d●…ceived in his belief of Truth, on disappointed in his expectation of good. Every evil is a degree of death; a diseafe, in the end death. When it appeareth like itself, all things fly from it, as from death. But as Cupid, in the form of the young and flourishing Prince Ascanius, by treacherous embraces and kisses, breathed a fatal poison into the veins of the Carthaginean Queen. So doth sin and evil by the hellish enchantments of the Prince of Darkness, form itself into the most alluring resemblance of the heavenly Image, composed of Truth and Goodness, meeting in one immortal form. It adorneth itself all over with the most curious and sparkling Counterfeit of all its most amiable, most Divine Sweetnesses and Beauties. Thus it insinuates itself into the eyes and hearts of the Sons of God, and fills them with its false sweetnesses, inflames them with a false Love, as the poison and fire from Hell. Yet still in the midst of these enchantments and deaths, as the Athenians in the midst of their Atheism and Idolatry, had an Altar inscribed, To the unknown God; The Understanding and the Will, according to their own proper natures, stand in every natural Spirit, as Altars in a Temple, shining and burning, with continual fires by night and by day, aspiring to the highest and clearest Heavens, through all opposed Clouds of Darkness, while this inscription in clear Characters appeareth engraven round these Altars, To the Unknown Good, the Unknown God, to the unknown Truth, the unknown Jesus.  
If any person then be fallen into any evil, Let those that are spiritual restore him with a spiritual skill, with a spirit of Meekness and Divine Love. Apply Reproofs, Chastisements to evil persons in their seasons, as a Brother gives an Antidote to a beloved Brother, that by a mistake hath been surprised and drunk in poison; or as one hand applies a Medicine to the other hand, or to the eye, when it suffers by any wound or distemper.  
If thou art an Angel, and hast to do with a Devil, use no reviling Language, for so the Angel himself is by the Spirit of God marked with a Character of Honour for this, that he used no reviling Speeches to the Devil.  
Preserve thyself from that bitter zeal, which St. James mentioneth, upon which he setteth so evil a mark, branding it deeply with the fire of Hell; as a Devil transfiguring himself into the form of an Angel. If there be (saith he) amongst you bitter envying; this wisdom is not from above, but earthly, sensual and devilish; We read it, bitter envying. In Greek it is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, bitter zeal. Take heed of suffering thy zeal against the evil, to be mingled and tempered with a bittern●…ss against the person. As Lightning from Heaven melts the Sword, but doth no harm to the Scabbard. Discover thou in all thy Reproofs and Chastisements an equal love to the person, and hatred to the evil, an equal desire to destroy the evil, and save the person. Or rather, let thy zeal against the evil be love to the person, flaming forth, and burning with a great, but with a sweet, and Divine force, that it may consume the Dross for the Golds-sake, to which the dross cleaves, that of the Gold, thus refined, it may make a Jewel for the Bosom, or a Crown for the Head of Jesus Christ. Suffer not thy zeal against evil, to be like the Locusts from the bottomless-pit, which have faces like men, hair soft and delicate like women, Crowns of Glory upon their heads like Angels, but venomous and kill stings in their tails. Let it not be like Culinary fire, or the fire of Hell, black, sooty, and devouring; but like the fire from the golden Altar, mingled with sweet Incense, filling all round about, and carrying up that upon which it feeds, as a Sacrifice to Heaven, with the rich Odours and Perfumes of a Divine Love.  
If I be lifted up to Heaven by manifold excellencies, together with Corazin and Bethsaida, from whence I look down upon another far beneath me, lying like Sodom and Gomorrah, in a loathed and hated deep of darknesses, defilements, disgraces; Let me then think, That this Sodom may have a better Spirit, a better ground of good at the bottom of its Spirit than myself. That if the seed of Love and Light which hath been sown in me, had been sown with the like advantage there, it would have far excelled me in its fruits. Yea, let me think that it may not only have a better ground, but a Divine seed, hid deep in that ground beneath all this soil and dung, beneath all this darkness, deformity, and deadness of its Winter-season, which may rise up in its proper Spring into pleasant Flowers and Fruits, as the Garden of God. Thus let me think, and let these thoughts instruct me to love every other person, removed to the greatest distance from me, cast down to the greatest depth beneath me, as my Neighbour, my Brother, my self.  
This is my double Request to thee, gentle Reader.  
1. That thou love every other person, as thy Neighbour, thy Friend, thyself, with that Divine Love, in whose flame thou sacrificest thyself, and all things to receive thyself again, and all things together with thyself in a more excellent and durable form.  
2. That thou suffer nothing to slain the Candour of this Love, whose Reasons being altogether Divine, subject all other reason to themselves. Give me leave to strengthen this twofold Request, by presenting to thee thine own Interest, after the highest manner contained in it, after a twofold form.  
1. This Divine Love, at this height, in this Latitude, is all that is true in Religion, all that is good in Man, all that is acceptable with God, all the hope of future Glory, and of blessed immortality. If I give all my Goods to the Poor, and my Body to be burnt, and have not Charity, I am nothing. Is there any Charity or Love to Man greater than this, to give all my Goods to the Poor? Is there any Charity or Love to God more Divine than this, to give my Body to be burnt for him? Yes, there is a Charity, a Love, which transcends all this, which, if I want, I may yet have all this, and be nothing. This is that Divine Love, of which I speak, which lifteth not itself up above any of the works of God, but keepeth the Unity of the eternal Workman, of his Divine Design and Work, in the golden band of an universal Peace, and Divine Amity. This is that Divine Love which behaveth not itself uncomely, seeketh not its own things, breaketh not the Harmony of the whole, dividing itself from the whole, by a particular self-love. In the universal Beauty and Melody of the Divine Wisdom and Work, it respecteth itself as a part, and all parts, as it self, having one Beauty and Joy together, in the Beauty, Joy, and harmonious Perfection of the Divine Figure in the whole piece.  
This Love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, suffereth all things. This we read of the Divine Love, 1 Cor. 13. 7. The first expression in that verse is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which we render, beareth all things. I have three Reasons against this translation of it.  
1. It makes the last Clause of this verse a tautology, a vain repetition; It suffereth all things, which is the same with the first.  
2. It is the remotest sense of the Greek word, two senses being nearer:  

1. To cover.  
2. To contain or comprehend.   
3. These two nearer senses are more agreeable, more full and Divine.  
1. The Divine Love covereth all things with the Divine loveliness and beauty of the universal Harmony, which is the Righteousness of God in Christ, the first, the fairest Image of the invisible God, in which every other Image of God standeth, as in the Original, the all-comprehending Glory. This is that which Solomon saith, Love covereth all sin. And St. Paul, of the Divine Workman, of the Divine Love; He putteth the highest comeliness, that is, the universal Comeliness of the Divine Image in its entireness and perfection upon every part, even upon the most uncomely parts; That there may be no schism or division in the Body, that there may be one glory of all.  
2. The Divine Love in every Person or Spirit lives not in itself as a part, but in the life of the whole, in the Divine, the Universal Spirit, the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of the whole. I live not, saith St. Paul, but Christ liveth in me. Again, If you live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit. Thus the Divine Love having its life in each person, in the life of the whole, the Universal Spirit, being one Spirit with that Spirit, which is the Unity of the whole, comprehendeth all things with strictest tenderest embraces in itself, as one self with itself. So faith the holy Apostle, All things are yours, you are Christ's, and Christ is Gods. All things are yours, as you are Christ's, as Christ is Gods; that is, in the Unity of the eternal Spirit, which is Love itself.  
Now from this covering Beauty, and comprehensive Virtue, in Divine Love these effects naturally flow; To believe all things, to hope all things; We easily believe and hope that which we desire. The Divine Love hath a complacency in all things, as it comprehendeth them in their Divine Root. It hath a good will to all things, as they stand in the same Divine Root with itself. From this Complacency, this Desire, this Divine Root it believeth, it hopeth all things. It believeth all things to be Divine Tabernacles, like that in the Wilderness, which though moving through Des●…ts, through a Land of Graves, through a Land of fiery Serpents, yet answer to their Pattern on the top of the Mount; though covered with a course Tent, exposed to the fury of the Sun, and tempests in the midst of Clouds, of dust; yet are all-glorious within, composed of rich materials, bearing a Divine Figure, filled with the Divine Presence and Glory. It hopeth all things, light in the midst of darkness, a flourishing Garden of Lilies and Roses, in a ground covered, and bound up with all the darknesses and rigours of the hardest Winter; a treasure of Honey-Combs in the body of a Lion.  
The Master of the Sentences hath such an high esteem of this Charity, or Divine Love, which is the subject of St. Paul's Discourse in this Chapter, That he affirmeth it to be the holy Spirit himself, the third Person in the Trinity, which is the Love in the Divine Nature, and so the Virtue, the Power; As the second Person, the Lord Jesus is the Beauty, the Wisdom.  
St. James reasoneth after this manner, Can the same Fountain bring forth sweet and bitter waters? with the same mouth you bless God, and curse man, made after the Image of God. If from the same heart thou bringest forth that Love to some men, by which thou givest all thy Goods to them to supply their wants, and ragest with wrath or hatred against others, who as they have any making, are made after the same Divine Image with the rest of Mankind; Who as they have any Being, have the same Divine Root, are sealed with the same Divine Impression, thou hast not Charity, thou hast not Divine Love, thou hast not the Spirit; the universal, the eternal Spirit, thou art nothing. If thou hast the gist of Prophecy, if thou understandest all divine Mysteries, if thou hast a divine Faith, if with the same heart thou lovest God to so high a degree, that thou givest thy Body to be burnt for him, and yet burnest in rage against any man, made after the Image of God; All these Divine Gifts or Graces in which thou gloriest, are nothing; thou art nothing, thou hast not Charity. Thou hast not the Divine Love, thou hast not the Spirit of Christ and of God, which is the universal Spirit, the Spring, the Seal, the Band of the Divine Unity.  
Dear Reader, follow after this Divine Love, without which all that, which thou hast, is nothing, which, if thou hast, it is the band of perfection, never faileth, never falleth short of the Glory of God; but by the incorruptibleness of a meek spirit, preserveth in itself a Divine Beauty and Sweetness, which is ever perfect, which never passeth away, in the midst of all changes of Life, in Death, to Eternity.  
This is thy first Interest, in preserving the Divine Love entire in thy heart.  
2. The measure which thou measurest to others, shall be measured to thee again. If you do well, who will harm you? St. Paul distinguisheth between a righteous man and a good man. This doing well is that goodness of Divine Love, pouring forth round about it, heavenly beams upon all things, which maketh men to be so far from any inclination to harm the person, in whom this goodness discovereth itself, that they are willing to die for him. St. John giveth us a lively figure of the Divine Love, in a light of Glory, by these words, He that loveth his Brother, walketh in the light, and there is none offence in him. The last words are capable of two senses, which very agreeably meet here.  
1. There is nothing in this person, at which any man taketh any offence.  
2. There is nothing, of which this person receiveth any Image, into his Spirit, which offends him.  
He, who is this Divine Lover, walketh always in those blessed Regions of Divine Light, where every thing presenteth itself in his heart, as it lieth in the heart of God, springing forth from the womb of an eternal Love, acted by that eternal Spirit, which is Love itself, clothed with an ever-flourishing loveliness, lying in the universal Harmony of the Divine Wisdom, being one piece with it, having the Glory of God resulting from it, and resting upon it. He, that is, this Divine Lover, shines forth in all his Discourses, Conversation and Actions, upon all eyes and hearts, with such a sweet light and heavenly lustre of the Divine Nature, of the supreme Love itself, the Unity, the Mother, the Sister, the Desire of all things, the Joy of the whole Earth, that nothing takes offence at this Person, nothing can harm him.  
O what a Conquest had we attained, if we once did so live, that we convinced all persons, that we loved them in truth and in deed, that we had a Divine Love for them, that we esteemed all things in ourselves of no value, of no effect to our present Beauty and Peace, to our eternal Life and Glory, to be altogether nothing, except this Divine Love alone? How would this demonstration of an heavenly Wisdom, in an heavenly meekness of Divine Love, disarm all hands of the weapons lifted up against us, and all hearts of their wrath conceived against us, like the Music of David's Harp, the sweet force of this Love would chase away every evil Spirit from every Breast?  
There is no power in Nature like to that of Similitude. Every thing draws and attracts its like to it. Where this Divine Love flourisheth in any person, all the blessed immortal Spirits of heavenly Love above, in eternity, with all the joys and glories of Love resort to this Person, to this Heart, planting themselves round about, as heavenly Guards, and heavenly Ministers to it, inhabiting in it, as their proper Paradise, and Heaven here below. In all things below, through all their differences, distances and divisions, the Spirit of Love, which bath in it the Root and Idea of each Creature, which is in each Creature, as the proper Root of that Creature, as it's Ideal, and primitive Form, discloseth itself to, shineth forth upon, and in all forms of things circleth in this person, this heart, being attracted by it, drawn to it, as its proper Centre.  
Some Divine Philosophers teach us, That according to the property or power which predominateth in us here, such will that Divine Idea be, which shall be our eternal Habitation and Palace above, in which we shall enjoy all things, being sealed to us by this Idea. If the Divine universal Love reign in thee here, Love, which seems to be the highest and sweetest of all Ideas, in the Divine Nature, the Divine Nature itself in its most proper and perfect Idea, uniting the Ideas of all Perfections, of all Beauties, of all Sweetnesses, of all Lives, Loves, Joys, and Glories in itself, at their greatest height, with the most ravishing agreeableness and harmony; this shall be thy proper Habitation and Palace, set up for thee in thine own person, in every Creature, in every Created or uncreated form of things, to dwell unchangeably in both, here and above. Here shall all things present themselves to thee, clothed and sealed with this Idea, with this pure and perfect Love. With the measure with which thou hast measured unto others, shall it be measured unto thee. Thou hast loved all things with a Divine Love, looking upon them steadfastly, through all seasons and changes in a Divine Light, in the incorruptible form of a Divine loveliness. As thou hast looked upon them, so shall they all, in all seasons and states, appear to thee in a Divine Light, full and overflowing with a Divine Love, clothed all over with a Divine loveliness. Love all things, O Reader, after a divine manner, that thou mayest be the beloved Object of all divine things, and divinely beloved by all things, that thou mayest shine with a divine loveliness in all eyes, and be received with a divine loveliness into all hearts.  
These are the Requests which I make to thee for thine own sake.  
I have one Request only to present to thee, for myself, which is, That thou wouldst come with this Divine Love to the reading of this Discourse.  
C●…me with that love which thinketh no evil. We read in the Revelations of an Angel descending from Heaven, who enlightened the whole Earth. While thou readest, let this heavenly love be as a Seraphim flying down upon its flaming wings, from the Throne of Love into thy Bosom, to enlighten thy whole Soul with its beams, unto a Divine Candour, that there may be no dark corner left for any suspicious Jealousies, Prejudices, Animosities, or ill will, like poisonous Toads in the hollows of some old wall.  
Come with this love which believeth all things, all the good that every subject, either person or thing, is capable of As Bees extract the virtue out of the commonest Herbs, and convert it to Honey in themselves: So do thou believe every thing here to be intended in the best sense, of which it is capable: Draw forth this sense from it, and improve it in thyself with the utmost advantage, to the sweetest satisfaction, and the richest treasure in thy own mind.  
Believe this Piece to be the fruit of Love, springing from a Root of Divine Love. We read in the Revelations of an Angel standing in the Sun. Plato somewhere saith, something like this, that if we stood in the Sun, all things, even this dark mass of Elements, and elementary composition to us, beholding them from that centre of Light, would appear in a Sunlike Glory. Be thou this Angel, or in this an Angellike Spirit, stand in this Sun, the glorious circle of divine Love. From thence see the Fountain of Love opening itself to thee in this Discourse, all the parts, all the lines as so many streams flowing forth from it to water thy Spirit, and make it a Garden of Divine Sweetnesses and Beauties. If the rich man in Hell, next to the quenching of those flames, which burned upon himself, made this his Request to Heaven, That his brethren might be preserved from coming to that place of torment; How much more do the blessed Inhabitants of Heaven sweetly burn in pure and precious flames of most ardent desires, that other persons, dear unto them, may be brought into the same blessed place, to partake of the same incorruptible Joys and Glories? Let Love instruct and prompt thee, gentle Reader, to think that the worthless Author, according to the inexplicable sweetness, the unconfined freedom, and fullness of this eternal Law, the Divine Love, which gu●…deth without difference the Cottage and the Palace, the Dunghill and the Throne, may have been led by a Sacred beam of this Love, touching his heart from on high, so near unto the borders of the happy Regions and Kingdoms of Divine Truth, as to discover all to be Heaven there. Let the same sweet Instructor teach thee, to think that he, as he may have been by the same gracious beam led farther into the blissful Continent of this Love, may have met with Heavens, which open themselves into Sweetnesses and Glories, ever increasing, ever extending themselves to a more vast amplitude and compass, which heighten themselves in Joys and Glories, in Sweetness and Beauty, past all description, or belief, except to him alone who hath been by the same shining guide led into the same places. Then let the sweet waters of this Divine Love, from its own Fountain sprinkled upon thine heart, raise this candid belief in thee, that as a pair of silver-feathered Doves flying before Aeneas, guided him to the Tree laden with golden-boughs, in the midst of a thick and obscure Wood; So this Discourse, aiming at a resemblance of those beautiful and lovely Birds, sacred to love, in a whiteness of unspotted Candour, may be a birth of Love, though weak, and flying low, sent forth to allure and guide thee into those ever lasting Heavens of Divine Truth and Goodness, which as thou interest into the discoveries of the Divine Love, and passest on farther in them, thou wilt find in the obscurities and tumults of these earthly shades, of this life of dreams, opening themselves to thee, with inexplicable delights and satisfactions, with transcending glories, endlessly raising themselves to greater heights, and spreading themselves to a wider compass.  
But you will say, what connexion hath the Divine Love with freewill, the subject of this ensuing Discourse?  
Very fit and harmonious in two respects:  
1. The Will itself is love. Thomas Aquinas defines the Will to be the inclination of the Soul. The Object of the Will is good. The inclination of the Soul to good is love. St. Augustine calls Love, Pondus Animae, the weight of the Soul, by which it moves to its attracting Object, as to its Centre. The Object of Love is loveliness or beauty. Beauty in its Essence is good, in its effulgency, in its proper and essential Image. Thus the Will and Love are both one in their Object, and in their proper formality; both are the Souls vital spring or principle of motion to good. The Understanding receives its Object into itself, to be a living Light shining within it, and illustrating it. The Soul in the Will flieth forth upon the wings of Love, into the bosom of the beloved Object, to live there where it loves.  
He, who with a clear eye distinguisheth the curious and close workings of the will, may find all its motions or affections to be the same love in various postures, as it rests with sweetest complacency, in the embraces of the beloved Beauty, or faints under a despair of fruition, or an irresistible opposition in its prosecutions; as it sails on smooth Seas, with soft and prosperous gales to its haven in its eye; or wrestles with tempests of Waves and Winds, with cheerful courage raising itself to surmount them. As the colours of the Rainbow are the same light variously reflected from the Sun, and variously falling upon the watery Cloud; so are all the motions of the Will the same Love, raised from the same good, beautifully shining forth, and reflecting it●…lf variously upon the Soul in different postures of presence or absence, of doubt, difficulty, impossibility in the attainment, or facility and assurance of fruition.  
The freedom then of Love is the freedom of the Will. We frequently say, What so free as Love? yet what so inevitable, as the golden-headed darts of Love, like beams shot forth as from a golden Quiver, from the face or bosom of the amiable and shining good? What so inevitable, as the sweet wounds made by these darts? God is Love, the Soul is the Image of God. According to our distinctions, God is Love most peculiarly and properly in his Divine William. The will of man than is also a Divine Love, being the Image of the Divine William. If that be true, as it appeareth so to many of the greatest Philosophers or Divines, that the Soul in its essence and faculties, are really one. The Soul itself is essentially a Divine Love, being in its essence an Image of that God which is Love.  
Behold then the freedom of the humane will in the freedom of the Divine Love; where as, in the Godhead itself, the most perfect freedom and the most absolute necessity are joined together in a Marriage, to which the whole Heavens and Earth, with unutterable joy, sing eternal Marriage-Songs. Where liberty and necessity meet in one; while the Will is carried most freely and most necessarily to its Object, which is goodness: Goodness at once becometh the essence and election of the Will, for the highest necessity is that of our natures and essences. According to which ground Logicians make those Propositions most necessary, where there is the most essential connexion between the terms. In like manner, Love being the principal act of the Soul, and carried most freely, most necessarily to goodness in its proper and essential Image, which is the first, the most true, the highest beauty; Beauty, the beauty of Goodness, the beauty of Holiness▪ become at once the essence and election of Love. Thus the Divine ●…ill and the Divine Good, the Divine Love and Divine Beauty, are made one, by the golden knot of the same heavenly and eternal Marriage, diffusing themselves from this marriagebed in Divine embraces, and unconfined enjoyments, through all things of Time and Eternity, through finiteness and infiniteness itself.  
Let me add to these a third Marriage, making up the joys and triumphs of the other two; between the Divine Loves, the Father, the Brother, the Bridegroom; And the Daughter, the Sister, the Bride; the Divine and the Humane will; the Soul and her God; the Image and her Original. Is any freedom to be compared with this, which takes up the Image into the ample glories ofits Original; which determining and espousing the Humane will, the Divine Love below, to the Universal, the Divine Good, as its dear Object, and delightful Bridegroom; taketh it up also into one uncontrolled, unlimited Sweetness and Liberty, with the Divine Love, the Divine will above.  
Yea, now the will and love enjoy a twofold, full and glorious Liberty, while Goodness and Beauty are their Essence, as well as their Election.  
1. They freely and unconfinedly rove through all the fields of Goodness and Beauty in their greatest amplitude, in their richest and most unbounded Varieties, as freely, as through their own proper Essence and Being.  
2. Their Liberty, in this unconfined amplitude of all Goodness and Beauty, becomes most ample and triumphant, while it is free from all fear, danger, suspicion, possibility of change to any degree of confinement or constraint, by this essential Connexion between itself and the highest necessity. O good, O beautiful, O blessed Will, which sits upon the Throne of Eternity, which governest us and all things! While in being good, beautiful, blessed, with a perfect Liberty, thou art such also with the highest necessity. Thou art now as delightfully and complacentially; so unchangeably, absolutely, universally, supremely, sovereignly, essentially Good, beautiful and blessed in thine whole Nature, Person and Duration, in all ●…hy works and ways. O Good, Beautiful, Blessed, is that will also, in whom Liberty and Necessity are after the same manner united by its Union with the Divine will.  
2. Nothing seems to present the Divine Face of Truth, and the whole nature of things with such harmonious and charming Beauties to the eye of the mind, as the determination of the will by its essential and universal Causes, seen in one view with the Divine Love. A single light seen by Mariners resting upon their Ship, which, as I remember, was of old called by the name of Helena. threateneth a dreadful storm. But two Twin-Lights, known by the name of the two Brothers, Castor and Pollux, infuse a new life into the hearts of the Seamen, by the sweet hope of a sudden and gentle Calm. After the same manner, these two, the divine Love, and the determination of the will, shining together, as twin-lights, entertain us with a most beautiful composure, a golden Calm, and Sunshine, a Divine Amity spread through the work of God in all the parts of it. But either of these alone exposeth all to stormy gusts, slawes, and wracks.  
We read of the Spouse in the Canticles, That the Joints of her thighs are Jewels, the work of a curious workman. The indeterminate motions of the Will, render the work of God, a disjointed piece, exposing it in its most principal parts and motions to an ungoverned contingency, without joints or bands, which may knit them together one to another, and to the whole, as one piece. If the will with its motions, by a necessary connexion in the Order of Causes, be jointed into the whole, and compose with the rests of the parts one entire work, answering to one entire design, framed in the heart, and brought forth by the hand of that supreme and eternal Spirit, which is love itself; the pure, unmixed, entire Spirit of love; How sweet? how beautiful? how full of all Divine Charms and Perfections through all the parts of it? What a Princely Daughter and Spouse, worthy of the great and eternal King must we think this work to be; which is the complete and full contrivance of so rich and so high a Love form in its own Bosom. In the midst of all its most amiable and delightful treasures; which is the outward work of a most pure and Almighty Love, wrought entirely from end to end by its own hand, with fingers dropping its own pure incorruptible Myrrh upon every part of it, as it wrought it, forming it for a complete Image of itself, and a continual delight to itself? What Jewels now must we think all the Joints of the Thighs of this Divine Image and Birth? How harmonious the motions by these Joints, when the joints and motions are all the work of so skilful, so curious, so faithful a Workman, as Love itself, the supreme and eternal Love?  
I humbly acknowledge, that to my weak Understanding, a created Will, absolute and arbitrary, determined in its course by no light of Truth, no light or life of good, seemeth to lead my Spirit into a Wilderness, where there is no way or guide; or to thrust me forth without Ballast or Rudder, without a Polestar, or Needle touched with the loadstone upon the face of an unknown and stormy Sea. What a golden-thread of Harmony guides us through the nature of things? and leads us into all Truth? (Harmony being the very Essence of all Natures and all Truths) when we understand the whole nature of things, from the greatest to the least parts and motions of it to be determined, and that determination to be the work of the Divine Love, the firmest band of sweetest Union, the sweetest Life of all beautiful proportion, being only Wise, only Powerful, inasmuch as it is the highest Unity, containing all Variety Originally in itself, sending it forth from itself, and diffusing itself through all!  
We are taught in Metaphysics, That Being, Truth and Goodness, are really one. How sweet a rest now doth the Spirit, with its Understanding, and its Will, find to itself in every Being, in every Truth, in every State or Motion of Being, in every form of Truth, When it hath a sense of the highest Love, which is the same with the highest Goodness, designing, disposing, working all in all, even all Conceptions in all Understandings, all Motions, in every Will, Humane, Angelical, Divine? With what a joy and complacency unexpressible doth the Will, the Understanding, the whole Spirit now lie down to rest every where, as upon a bed of Love, as in the bosom of goodness itself?  
Let not any question the close and Divine Contexture of the whole Work in all the parts and conduct of it; by a firm connexion of Causes and Effects, like links in a Chain, from its first beginning to its last end; because he meeteth with an Hell, as well as an Heaven in this work of God. Divine Love (which transcendently excels in all Wisdom and Prudence, beyond all the highest wits of men, the richest Contrivances of Poets,) knoweth how to joint an Hell into its work, with such Divine Artifice, incomprehensible to Men or Angels, that this also shall be beautiful, with delights in its place, and shall give a sweetness, a lustre to the whole piece. St. Paul saith to the Saints, All things, this World, Life, Death, things present, things to come are yours, you are Christ's, and Christ is Gods, and God is Love. See a golden Chain, see the Order of the precious Links, see how in a beautiful circle the beginning is fastened to the end.  
All Philosophy agreeth in this, that the last end is the first mover. In God then, who is Love, the first and the last links of this Chain meet. All things, this wicked World, Death itself, even the second Death and Hell, deaths to come, as well as deaths present, are shining links in this golden Chain, fastened to that superior Link, the Saint, the spiritual man; He is linked by heavenly embraces to Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ to God, the Father of Lights, and the spring of Loves.  
Homer tells us of a Chain fastened to the Throne of Jupiter, which reacheth down to the Earth. He speaketh to Neptune, Minerva, and the rest of the Powers about him, which reign in the Skies, in the Seas, in the Earth, in Hell below. If ye should all hang with your whole weight upon the end of this Chain, I would at my pleasure draw you all up to myself. The Throne of the most High God, is a Throne of Grace, of Love. Like a Chain doth the whole Nature of things descend from this Throne, having its top fastened to it. whatever the weights may be of the lowermost links of this Chain, yet that Love which sits upon the Throne, with a Divine delight, as it lets down the Chain from itself, so draws it up again by the Order of the successive Links unto a Divine Ornament, an eternal Joy and Glory to itself. All things of Nature in its Beauties, all things of Nature in its Ruin, Life and Death in all forms, are a Saints, a Saint is Christ's, Christ is Gods.  
But, gentle Reader, this is enough to set forth the suitableness between the two Subjects of my Epistle and my Book; the Divine Love, and the Will of Man, the Daughter, and the Bride of this Love, by its immortal Birth and Espousals, essentially, inevitably determined to its heavenly Father and Bridegroom. To this Love the only Good, in all appearances of it, the Will turns itself, as the Needle touched with the Loadstone to the North-pole. Beautiful and blessed is this Will, when it's own Bridegroom shines upon it, and attracts it by beams, by sweet glimpses of itself, spread through all things, more clear, or more obscure, but true. Then do her beauty and blessedness both change into deformity and misery, when by hellish enchantments she is deluded, and drawn into the embraces of a wrinkled Witch, or a Spirit, from the darkness below, transformed into the likeness of her heavenly Love.  
There are now a few things only remaining, of which I would briefly give thee some account.  
1. Persons engaged on both sides in this question, which is the ground of my Treatise, are highly honoured by me, and truly dear to me in an high degree. A natural Understanding, Ingenuity, Integrity, Learning, Wisdom, Knowledge, an heavenly mind, set a great price and lustre upon them. The ends at which these persons on both parts profess to aim, are truly Spiritual and Divine. It is the design of one part to beighten the Grace of God by its freedom and peculiarity. Of the other, to enlarge the Glory of this Grace by its extent and amplitude. One admires and adores the absoluteness, the sovereignty of God, the other his goodness. On one side is an holy jealously, for the Unity and the Beauty of the Divine Nature, lest God should be imagined like the natural day in the Creation, made up of two Contraries, coordinate and equally predominate, as Day and Night, Love and Wrath, a ground of Holiness, and a ground of Sin. The others are equally jealous of the same Unity and Beauty of the Divine Nature, lest the eternal Power, and so the Godhead should be divided between the Creator and the Creature; lest in effect two Gods should be set up, like those of the Manichees, a Fountain of Good, and a Fountain of Evil; lest the Divine Glory should be darkened in its work, and the Harmony broken, in which the Divine Unity and Beauty most sweetly shine, by taking away in any part of the work the fixed subordination of Causes and Effects.  
O what Joy and Glory would crown the Earth, and the Church of God on Earth, if those Divine Persons who have fixed to themselves ends so Divine, instead of opposing each other in their way, perhaps sometimes mistaken to those ends, would unite their Divine Will and Forces mutually to advance the ends each of other▪ St. Paul saith, If the falling away of the Jews be the bringing in of the Gentiles; what shall the return be, but life from the dead? If the dividings, the disputes of these Parties have brought much light to the Church, what will the reconciling and uniting of their glorious ends, and their Spirits in the glory of those ends be, but as a Marriage-day shining from on high, which shall fill the Angels themselves with a new joy? The day will come, when men shall say, Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord, Who reconcilet●… the freedom and peculiarity of the Grace of God, unto a full amplitude and extent, so raising its sweetness to a perfect height; who shall bring into mutual embraces the sovereignty or absoluteness of God, and his goodness, that the sovereignty, the absoluteness, may be sovereignly and absolutely good; that the goodness alone may be absolute and sovereign; who through the whole compass of the Divine Nature, and the works of God, shall discover to the eyes of men in the evidence of a Divine Light, the Unity, the Beauty of the Godhead in their clearest Purity, their highest Perfection; springing and shining through all, making all, in the whole, one entire piece, pure and pleasant, perfect in the Beauties of Holiness.  
The Rules which I have desired to govern myself by in this Discourse, are these, Right Reason, the universally acknowledged Principles of all sober Philosophy and sound Divinity, the Analogy of Faith, the Letter of the Scriptures, the Spirit of Christ, in the Head of the Church Christ himself, in the Scriptures, in the Church, in the Spirits, and experiences of each Saint. As all these answer each other in a mutual Harmony, like the several strings upon a well-tuned Lute: So shall I ever (as I humbly believe) take it for granted, That whatever jars upon any of these strings, is also out of tune to all the rest. That whatever is not conformable to any one of these Rules, crosseth them all. If any thing of this kind shall have fallen from me, I do here humbly repent of it, and recant it. I humbly desire all those, who shall stoop to read what I have written, to believe that no Gift can be so acceptable to me, as the displacing of any Error or Falsehood in my Mind; with the gentle hand of Love, by bringing in the Truth which it hath counterfeited and vailed. If any Error have seemed sweet, beautiful, or desirable to me, in any kind. I humbly undertake to have a confident assurance of this, That the Truth itself shining forth, will bring along with it far more transcendent Sweetnesses, Beauties, Agreeablenesses and Satisfactions to all my Desires, excelling it in all the impressions of a Divine Pleasantness, Power and Profit, as the true Sun doth a Parelius, or a counterfeit Image of the Sun in a Cloud.  
If any shall undertake to answer this Discourse with reviling and reproachful Language, I shall endeavour to imitate the example of the Marquis de Rente, fixed with much dearness and esteem upon my heart. He came to a City, filled with Reproaches cast upon him. I (saith he) spoke not one word to clear myself, I received gladly the Humiliation.  
Now, gentle Reader, I will seal up my Epistle to thee with that golden Sentence of St. Paul, Let all your things be done to all in Charity, or in Divine Love.  
Let me add this one short Direction, as a gloss upon it, bear always clearly, and deeply engraven upon thy Soul, these and the like Precepts, Love all Men, Honour all men. Love your Enemies, Love another as thyself.  
Study to know God, as he is the Pattern, and the Perfection of the Divine Perfection included in these Precepts; Be you perfect, saith Jesus Christ, as your heavenly Father is perfect. So he setteth before his Disciples the rich ground, out of which these Precepts Spring, as Plants of Paradise.  
Study the Reason and the Equity of these Precepts. The Precepts of God are true, saith David, and righteous altogether. Every Divine Precept is founded in a Divine Truth. The only reason of Love, is loveliness. Thus shalt thou be every where led into a Paradise, and into Heaven, while thou shalt now understand that God is Love, a Godhead of Love; That while thou livest and movest, and hast thy Being in God; thou livest, and movest, and hast thy Being in Love itself; That while God works all in all, fills all in all, all within thee, all without thee, is a work of Love, is full of Love.  
Thus these Precepts, in the reason of them, which will shine out upon thee more and more, as thou growest in the practice of them, shall be an anointing upon thine eyes, by virtue of which thou shalt see in all things, every where, which way soever thou turnest thyself, a Divine Loveliness presenting itself to thee, continually entertaining, enflaming thine heart with a Divine Love, crowning thy thoughts with a Divine Peace and Joy.  
Gentle Reader, There were in the Temple Vessels made of Wood, but these were over-laid with pure and massy Gold. This Treatise is no Temple, thou wilt certainly meet with many things of wood, and perhaps of the lowest sort of wood, worthless, the subject of Frailty and Corruption. Let it be thy part and glory to over-lay it with the Gold of the Temple above, Divine Love, which covereth all Sin. So my humble Prayer is, That thou mayest be together with myself, yea, so shall we both be, if we abide in the Divine Love, Priests, consecrated by an heavenly Blood, and an heavenly Unction, to minister to the God of all Loving kindnesses, by day and by night, in the Temple of Love. Here now death is no more, here from our Deathbeds, as from the golden Altar, like the sweet and costly Incense, we shall ascend in a pure and glorious flame of heavenly Love, kindled from the Face and Heart of God above, unto the Throne of God, the Throne of Grace and Love, to be ever in the circuit of that Throne, where the eternal Spirit, like a Rainbow, shall encompass us round, as the seal and band of eternal Love shining with all, innumerable beauties and pleasantuesses, ever full, ever fresh and flourishing.  
Perhaps some one will say, Who is this that thus preacheth Love to the World? Is he himself a Dove washed in Milk? Far is he from pretending to the praise and perfections of that Spirit, the Bride of the heavenly Bridegroom, which sitteth in the Garden of Divine Purities, Sweetnesses and Light, making her Beloved, and his Companions to hear her Voice, while they return their esteem, affections, and admiration in Songs, saying to her, Thy Voice is pleasant, thy Face, thy Person is lovely. No, the only Character here is that of a Voice in the Wilderness, a Wilderness of many Deformities and Distractions within, as well as without, Crying, Prepare ye the way of Divine Love, make straight paths for it, by bringing down every Mountain of Vanity and Pride, by filling up the Valleys of low, dejected, lost, despairing Spirits. He who thus cries to you too frequently, too deeply, hath ●…erc'd the side of this Love; yet still from the wound●… heart, through the wounds, water and blood flow to wash off the stains of this blood upon him, and by this blood, as a Balsam, as a Cordial, as a Spring of Life, all at once to heal his Wounds, to infuse new vigour and joy into his Spirits, to renew life in his heart, even out of Death itself unto Immortality. This is the Innocency and Wisdom which maketh them blessed, who aspire to it; who, as often as they fail in their duty of loving every other person as themselves, are sensible of the guilt of breaking the whole Law, which is summed up in these two great Commandments, and maketh them inseparable as the substance, and the shadow in the Sunshine, or as the Fountain and the stream, the Sun and the similitude of the Sun, in the light surrounding it.  

To love God, with all ourselves, and  
To love our Neighbour, as ourselves.    

A DISCOURSE OF THE Freedom of the Will. The FIRST PART.  
CONTAINING The Definition of the freewill in question, and the Arguments opposed to it.  
Libertas est facultas ejus quod cuique facere libet (ut Romani definiunt) faith Grotius upon Genesis. This is liberty to do that which we like to do. Liking is from likeness. Nihil est, quod ad se rem ullam tam alliciat, tam attrahat, quam ad amicitiam similitudo (saith Cicero.) Nothing so allures, and so attracts, as similitude and likeness doth to liking and to love. Liking then is founded in the nature and harmony of each essence. Every thing moves, and rests freely, at liberty, when it moves and rests according to its own nature, according to the harmony of its own essence.  
Zeno defines liberty to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a power of self-acting. The Philosopher defines nature to be the principle of motion and rest there, where it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by itself, and not by accident. Our nature is our true-self. Then have we the power of self-acting, when we move and rest according to our own natures, being acted in them by our own natural and essential Principles.  
We meet with this Rule often in Aquinas, Vnumquodque operatur prout est; Every thing acts as it is. The being or nature of each thing is the Root, and the Rule of its operation.  
By these things which I have spoken, two marks present themselves to us, to guide us in our judgement of liberty.  
1. Liberty is a relation or harmony between the essence or nature of each thing, and its operations.  
2. According to the Orders and Degrees of Being, are the Orders and Degrees of Liberty.  
According to these two Marks, we shall find a twofold measure of Liberty:  

1. The Principle.  
2. The Sphere of Activity.   
I shall then upon this ground distinguish liberty into a fourfold Order:  

1. The freedom of the Elements and Celestial Bodies.  
2. The freedom of Plants.  
3. The freedom of brnit Creatures.  
4. The freedom of intellectual Agents.   
1. The freedom of the Elements and Celestial Bodies consisteth in that motion and rest, which is generally esteemed and styled simply natural. The principle of their motion and rest, is nature guiding their motions and rests, in the figure of Divine motions and rests (their invisible Patterns and Originals,) either by way of instinct, or by the assistance of intelligences, (as the Peripatetics Schools assert) or informed by Intellectual, Angelical, Divine Souls, (as the Academy teacheth.)  
The sphere of their motion and rest is their own proper place, Adequate to their Dimensions. They move and rest naturally within themselves. This is their liberty. Such also is their liberty in their parts and mixtures, which also being by violence carried out of their proper places, naturally tend to them by a simple motion in a straight line.  
This is the first Order in the liberty of things, a liberty from outward force or constraint, with a confinement to a single simple motion and rest, at least in their material and corporeal part.  
Thus the Peripatetics make the Spheres of the Elements the first and lowest order of Corporeal substances and complete being, confining them to Forms merely natural, and in a manner allowing them only single and simple local motion. After the same manner also they circumscribe the Celestial Spheres, giving them only this twofold pre-eminence,  
1. One of a fifth essence, compounded of a distinct matter and form.  
2. The other of assisting forms, or intelligences moving them.  
With these their grounds agreeth the Ptolemaiical System. But (as before I touched) the ancient Academy sets these spheres of the world in a higher rank, attributing to them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, making them rational Being's, Angels, Gods. Copernicus also sets them at liberty, altering the whole design of their local motions, and enlarging them to a greater variety.  
2. In the second place, is the liberty of Plants, which is a vital liberty. The principle of their motion and rest, is animate, a vegetative Soul, which hath in itself a variety of formal Acts or Virtues, according to which it formeth to itself an Organical body, composed of differing parts, framed to be proper Instruments for the diversity of these vital Acts. In like manner doth this soul of the plant put forth itself into diversity of motions in its proper body; yet are all these motions confined to the body of the plant itself, or to a very narrow sphere round about it.  
The plant also itself is fixed by its root in one place, and immovable there: The Ratio seminalis, the seminal harmony, which is the essential form, and the proper soul of the plant (as it is a vegetative soul) gives measure both to the principle of motion in the plant, and to the sphere or compass of its motion, being thus the ground and bound of this vital liberty.  
This seminal harmony is the contracted and fainter offspring of the imaginative form, as those are freer, clearer, livelier Births and Images of rational forms, which are the living pictures of the intellectual and essential Ideas;  
either 

In superior Souls, or  
In superior parts of the same Soul.    
These intellectual Ideas or essences, are also rich and ample streams of light and life, flowing from their Divine Unities and springs in the supreme eternal Unity, the first seat and head of all liberty.  
3. The liberty of bruit Creatures hath the third place; this is the liberty of sense. The principle of this liberty, is the sensitive soul, which hath its chief seat in the imagination. Here is the amplitude of its Kingdom, and the power of its Rule. This being immediately subordinate to the rational intellectual power, is that Sea whence all the springs and streams of the inferior and outward senses (as of the local motions) go forth, and into which they again flow with all their force and efficacy. Here they are united, here they have their various mixtures, here they have their greatest amplitude and heightening. The motions here are no more fixed in one place, nor confined to the compass of their own proper Subject, but enlarge themselves after their several manner, according to the amplitude of the object of sense, which is the whole Corporeal world.  
There are indeed divers ranks of sensitive Creatures, which have divers degrees of liberty.  

1. Some are confined to particular Elements.  
2. Others have the liberty of distinct Elements.   
All that are perfect in the order of sensitive being, agree in this; that they have the liberty of progressive motion, of motion from place to place, variously, according to the variety of their appetites, governed by the ample light of their imaginations.  
This chiefest freedom of sense is placed in the imagination, this being the first and highest faculty of the sensitive Soul, where it is in its perfection, is as ample as the universal object of sense, the whole Corporeal world. Some Philosophers teach us, That the imagination is the immediate former of this universal Image, which comprehends all corporeity, the visible Heavens and Earth, in itself. Others, that it hath a commanding power upon this universal Image, and all the parts of it, having the force of all magic in its self, to alter the motions of the heavenly bodies, and the Constitutions of the Elements. This is more universally understood, that it not only takes in and enjoys the sensitive forms of all the objects of sense, uniting and varying them according to its own pleasure, but also that it espouseth in itself the spiritual and corporeal world to each other, receiving the impressions, the similitudes, the illapses of the invisible Glories as the Originals into their sensitive Image, and heightening the sensitive Image to a greatness and glory above itself by this communion with its invisible patterns.  
The sensitive appetite hath an inseparable conjunction with and conformity to the imagination. They mutually influence, excite, and govern each other. They have both objects of equal extent. The good of the sensitive being (which is the object of its appetite) is not only the preservation of its own being, but its pleasure and proper happiness in the fruition of the sensitive forms of things, which fruition is completed in the imagination.  
4. The liberty of intellectual beings, is the utmost point of liberty, comprehending in the general nature of it, God as the Original, and Angels and Men as the immediate, immortal, clearest, compleatest Copies of that Original. This is properly the liberty of Spirits, of the Father of Spirits, and of the Sons of the eternal Spirit. The ground of this liberty is the Divine essence, and the Divine Image of that essence. The sphere or compass of this liberty is being itself in its greatest extent, in its first, highest, and most universal form with all its unbounded self-bounding varieties, and in its descent into all forms of things, figuring or shadowing itself upon them, filling them with itself.  
Thus the Schools teach us, That ens quà ens, est objectum intellectus. Being itself in all its fullness and forms under the formality of truth (that is, in its own most proper, formal, and essential Image, which is beauty itself) the beauty of truth; the truth of beauty in all its riches and varieties) is the proper object of the understanding, adaequately suited to it, its entertainment, its food and feast, its light and life which actuates it, its perfection which determines it and completes it in its proper form and essence. It is an acknowledged Maxim, That good is the object of the will. All things desire good. Good is the object of every appetite, natural; and sensitive also. But these are particular goods, proper to those particular Orders of Being; the mark to which the rational appetite directs itself (the Firmament, in the face of which this Dove with its wide-spread-wings flies) is the Heaven of the first and universal Good, as it comprehends within its embraces all inferior goods.  
Thus the Will hath the freedom of all good before it, a freedom for all good in its self, an essential suitableness, inclination, and capacity to good, absolutely as good. The soul of man hath a threefold liberty, the liberty of its Essence, Understanding, and Will.  
1. The liberty of its Essence, is the fullness of Being, All Being in the highest, amplest, and most substantial Image, next to the Original itself, the Divine Essence. For it is the immediate birth of the Supreme Original, its darling and best beloved Child, although it be the younger Brother to those Sons of God, the Angels; yet is it as Isaac to Ishmael, and Jacob to Esau, their Lord, the Heir of all; the Nursling of the Angels, while it is in its minority, for whom they are made to be ministering Spirits to it. So hath the soul of man (as an intellectual Spirit) all things in its own essence, within itself, the supreme and eternal Being in its fairest and fullest Image beneath itself, all inferior Being's, fairer and fuller than they are in themselves; as the Face in the Glass excels a Picture, or as a Statue exactly framed in Gold or Marble excels the shadow cast from that Statue.  
2. The Soul, or intellectual Spirit, hath a liberty of understanding. Here it is a clear and spacious light, the immediate lustre and outshining of the Supreme Light unconfined; like to that, as the clearest and compleatest Copy of it, next to itself. In this Light it freely contemplateth all forms of things above it, beneath it, of the same order with it; all are present before it, it comprehends them all within its own circle. In the same Image of itself, in which it contemplateth itself, it freely and unconfinedly rangeth in the midst of them; taking in their various beauties distinctly, and all their beauties (with their most delightful proportions and harmonies) united in one: at its pleasure, freely doth it put on all these beautiful forms, the truths and essences of all things, being made all things in their truest and conpleatest beauties, both distinctly and unitedly. So it appears to itself in the sweetness, beauty, reality, truth of each form, each figure of the Divine truth and beauty apart. So it appears to itself in the unconfined sweetness, beauty, majesty of the forms, the truths of all things united in one. This, with unexpressible delights it looketh upon as its own proper and complete Image 5 in this it beholdeth all scenes of things at once within itself, it seeth itself in all persons, and shapes with the beautiful dresses of Divine truths, acting all parts in the most beautiful harmony with the Divine truth itself in its eternal Original. In all it enjoyeth within itself the truth of reality, of distinction, of unity, as in the highest Copy; and the life-picture of the supreme life itself, far above all other Copies.  
This Aristotle expresseth to us, when he teacheth us this Lesson, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The understanding is made all things. This also we learn from him, and his Followers, That the understanding alone doth touch, take in, embrace the essences of things, while all that presents itself below the understanding to the senses, is only a various combination of accidents and shadows. So also we learn from Plato's School, That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Understanding, is the Son of God, the Word of God, the first and most substantial expression of the Divine Unity, with all its incomprehensible fullness, next to the Divine Unity itself. This is in that School the only Seat of the Essences, and the essential truths of all things. Beneath it, in the discourses of reason, are the forms of these Essences, as lively Pictures without; in the senses the shadows only. Agreeable to this also doth the sense of the sacred Scriptures seem to be, which maketh man that similitude and Image, in which God with all his holy Angels, in all created forms of things, unite, centre, and terminate, as the end and perfection of all. Upon this ground is the second Person of the Trinity, the Godhead in its essential Image, as the most adequate Image of itself, most answering, and most suited to itself, and so fittest for the most perfect Union with itself, as of the proper and most immediate Image with its own proper Idea.  
3. The liberty of the Will is equal to, and ariseth from this liberty of the Understanding. The Understanding, as the eye of the Soul, first feasteth upon the beauties presented to it in the truths of things, and so inviteth the will as the mouth of the Spirit, to taste the sweetness and goodness of them. The good of all these forms and essential truths, is that which St. Peter calls the sincere milk of the living Word. It is peculiarly the Divinity, that of the Original and Supreme Unity, which is in them. The nature of good is defined by a sutableness or agreeableness. This hath its root in an unity. All things that agree, agree in aliquo tertio. The agreement of things, is their meeting in an unity. The Soul in its essence is the most complete and immediate Image of the Divine Unity, in which all varieties of things lie virtually and eminently, as in their first spring. The understanding, and all forms or truths of things in the understanding, are the effulgency of this Divine Unity, with all its varieties contained in it, as they shine forth in the essence of the Soul, and so become the reflections of itself upon itself, and as the highest figure of the eternal Son of God, the brightness of its own glory to itself. Thus the essence of the Soul, and the essential Images of all truths of things, according to their Divine beauties in the Soul, have an essential sutableness and agreeableness to each other; from that twofold unity, their unity in their Original, their unity in their own proper form, as it is the Image of that Original. The essential inclination of the Soul to these forms of Being, and Images of the Divinity (and to the Divinity itself in these Images) presented to the Soul by their essential truths in their understanding, is that power which we call the Will. The sutableness and agreeableness of these forms of things to the Will: The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (and so more principally the Divine Unity in them, the root and life of this agreeableness) is the good, which is the Object of this inclination, the Will of the intellectual Spirit.  
Love is defined the union of the Lover, and the Beloved. The will, as it is an essential inclination to its Object; the good (shining forth in its proper Image, and beautiful forms of truth in the understanding) is love itself, the essential love of the Soul. The Soul in this essential power, which we call the Will, is the Lover. This is that which Plotinus seemeth to mean, when discoursing of the Soul, he 
The same in the Arg. of Kleg.  saith, That every Soul comes forth with a Cupid, or love proper to it, and inseparable from it. It is commonly known, that the Soul is represented by Venus (the Queen of Beauty, and the Mother of Love) the Daughter of Jupiter, of Jehovah. As the intellectual Soul is the ●…enus, so is this essential inclination of the Soul to good (which is its will) the Cupid or Love born of it, and born with it, inseparable from it.  
As is the intellectual Spirit, so is its Will or Love; the highest and loveliest Image of the first Spirit, and the first Love: so hath it in it, next to the Divine Love, the highest, the most potent, the most universal force of inclination, and love to the highest and most universal good. The Beloved, or the Object of this Love and this Lover, the intellectual Soul and the Intellectual Will, is the highest and most universal good, as it presenteth itself in its highest lustre, in its richest, amplest, most unlimited variety of beauties in the Understanding. This good being an agreeableness to the Will, and so meeting with a mutual and answerable agreeableness in the Will to itself, presenteth itself thus by the Understanding in these forms of truth, (which is the Divinest beauty,) as a lover and a beloved both to the Will, that they may be equally and mutually happy, by equal, by mutual embraces and fruition.  
This is the liberty of the Will consisting in two parts, mutually answering each other. The first is the vigour and amplitude of the principle, the inclination or love carrying the Soul to, rendering it capable of, good in its absolute and universal form. The second is the vigour and amplitude of its Object, which is the highest good, the Divinity of good itself, presenting itself in its absolute, universal, or entire truth, beauty, and essential form, presenting itself in all varieties of distinct truths, beauties, and forms, as they are represented in their highest, completest Image, next to the Original itself in the Understanding. Here is the Will, like a Bee in a Garden, or flourishing Field, or rather in an heavenly Paradise, flying at liberty over all forms of truth and beauty, as the Flowers and Plants in this Paradise, resting at pleasure upon every one of them, sucking 〈◊〉 sweetness, the virtue, the good, the unexpressibleness of the Divinity, and the Divine Unity from them, as the Honey which is its Divine Feast, Nourishment, Life, and Treasure.  
This is the liberty of the Soul, of the Understanding, of the Will, in its proper Nature, and primitive State. This is the liberty which it still enjoys inseparable from its essence, under the fall itself, so far as by the promised Seed putting forth itself in the moment of the Fall, the essence of the intellectual Spirit is renewed and maintained universally by common Grace, in the midst of the ruins of the Fall. I have this one thing only to add, under this fourth Head, (the Liberty of intellectual Spirits,) that, as God is the Original Spirit, as Angels and intellectual Souls are Image-Spirits; so is the liberty of the Divine Essence, the Original liberty, and the liberty of all other intellectual Spirits, Humane or Angelical, is the Birth, and so the Image of that liberty.  
Having thus passed through the several degrees of liberty, in the several Orders of Being, we come now more particularly and distinctly to state the question concerning the Liberty of the Will, which is the subject of our present Discourse.  
There is a twofold liberty of the Will.  
1. One by all acknowledged inseparable from the Will, in all States and acts.  
2. The other hath been through all Ages, Religions, and Philosophyes, the ground of many learned, eloquent, deep Discourses and Disputes between persons eminent in all kind.  
1. The first uncontroverted liberty of the Will, is that which is built upon the grounds already laid. It consisteth in two glorious preeminencies:  
1. The liberty of acting from an internal, essential, universal Principle of inclination or love, which is confined or restrained in its nature and power by no particular differences; which is by nothing determined in its actings, except only as it determines itself by the Laws of its own universal nature, in which it bears the immediate and most express figure of the Divine Nature, and so of the Divine freedom or liberty.  
2. This Principle hath for the sphere and compass of its activity, the absolute and universal good in the entire freedom of his unconfined form or Essence, in all the varieties of its descents and ascents, its divisions and compositions. The Will of the Intellectual Spirit is free here in the chase and pursuit of all good, unconfined to any particular form of good, determined by itself alone, and its own internal essential motions, to the choice and embraces of every good.  
2. The second liberty of the Will, which hath so different aspects to the differing understanding of excellent persons (for the most part, in all places and times) is generally known by these terms of Libertas contradictionis, & libertas contrarietatis; Liberty of contradiction and of contraricty. Suppose an intellectual Spirit, in the moment immediately preceding its Action, positis omnibus requisitis ad agendum, now ready for action, in the constitution and concurrence of all circumstances essential, accidental, from above, from below, from the first universal cause, from all second and particular causes, from within, from without, in respect to any Essence, Power, and Operation, in respect to any thing in any potentiality or act: The Will of this intellectual Spirit without any change in any circumstance, in any degree, may act, or not act, which is the liberty of contradiction; may act either in this way, or in the way directly contrary to it, which is the liberty of contrariety.  
This is also expressed by a liberty or power in the Will to determine itself in the moment of acting by its act, without any predetermination in the Will itself, in the power of acting, in its proper Essence, and the laws of its own Nature, in the connexion of causes, or in the first, and universal Cause.  
The method of my treating upon this Question, shall be,  
1. An humble proposal of those Arguments, which seem to fight against this liberty.  
2. To state and examine the Arguments brought to establish this liberty, with all the clearness and candour that I am capable of.  
To these also I shall annex those answers, which may appear proper to give any satisfaction to those Arguments.  
These two sorts of Arguments I shall digest into so many Books.  
1. The first Book shall contain the first sort of Arguments opposed to this liberty in question, divided according to these five Heads, from which they are drawn,  

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

1. Head of Arguments.  
The first Head of Arguments is the Divine Nature.  
From this Head we shall draw seven Arguments.  

1. Argument.  
The first Argument, from the Divine Nature, is the Being of God. God is Being itself in its simplicity and absoluteness, the first, the supreme, the universal Being. This is his Name by which he makes Himself known to Moses, I A M; Being itself in its absoluteness, undivided, unrestrained, unconfined, unallayed by any differences of mixtures; Being itself at the utmost height of all Eminencies and Transcendencies; Being itself in its fullness, in its greatest Amplitude and Majesty; Being itself in its Truth, in its substance; the only true Being, the universal Being, comprehending the excellencies of all Being's, heighthned to a transcendency above all Being and all Excellency, all Being in one, all Being complete in one complete Person, which is a perfect number of Persons, Three Persons in One; that it may entertain and enjoy itself in a perfect immortal Circle of all Being and blessedness. This is God, this is his Name, I A M.  
His Name Jah imports the same sense, Being itself: His Name Jehovah expresseth the same thing, the universal Being; All Being's past, present, and to come, with all their distinctions and differences, in one.  
Every thing that I S beareth written upon it this Name of God, I A M. All things that be declare a Being: While all things agree in this, That they be, they demonstrate an universal Being. Being, as it is divided and restrained by particular Differences (in all things particular and different one from another) by being lessened, contracted, and obscured, is imperfect. Nothing that is imperfect can subsist, exist of itself, or by itself; for so far as it is imperfect it is not. Imperfection is so far a privation or negation of Being. Before than that which is imperfect, is that which is perfect, from which and by which that which is imperfect existeth. Thus Socrates in Plato, from the beauties of sense scattered and divided among divers beautiful Subjects or Persons, leads us to all the beauties of sense united in one Person completely beautiful. From this perfection of beauty, where it is an accident seated in a subject of dark matter, ever changing, he raiseth us to the innumerable forms of beauty, the unchangeable essences and immortal substances of beauty, where beauty is the whole substance, pure, and immaterial. These manifold forms of immaterial and essential beauties, awakened into the intellectual Spirit, he maketh as golden wings, by which we fly upward into the bosom of that first Beauty, where all beauties meet in an entire and transcendent Unity.  
Thus all particular and imperfect Being's carry us up to the perfect and universal Being, abstracted from them all, set on his Throne high and listed up above them all, from which, as their proper Head, they flow, by and in which, as in their proper Root, they subsist, being the beams of this glorious Sun, and Rivers from this full Sea. This is God in his high and holy place of Eternity. This universal Being, where all Being's meet in one, is Eternity. This is the holy place of Eternity. Being itself in its most exalted Purity abstracted and separated from all differences, mixtures, alleys, from every thing foreign. This is the high place of Eternity. Being itself in its first and supreme Unity, comprehending all Being's, all perfections of Being, heighthned to a perfection so far above themselves, that no Being, the most perfect, is able to look up to it.  
Can now any thing, any where, any Essence, Power, Act, any Will, or motion of the Will, be, and not be originally contained in this first Being, and not be subject, subordinate to this supreme Being, and not lie within the compass, be full of, be universally filled with this universal Being?  
In Metaphysics we are taught, That God, as He is Being itself in its simplicity, is the proper, immediate, and formal Cause of all Being, every where; and that the modifications only of each Being proceed from it by the mediation of second Causes. Is it not clear then, that these modifications themselves, so far as they be, or have any Being in them, are the immediate and formal effects of the first and universal Being?  
If now the motion, the modification, the determination of the Will in its Acts be not, it is no more the subject of any dispute, discourse, or thought, it hath no more any place or effect in the nature of things, to bring forth any Consequences, or to make any Differences. If it be, if it have any Being at all, Can it have any place without the comprehension and embraces of the universal Being? Shall it not yield the Power, the Pre-eminence, the Sovereignty to Him, whose Name alone is I AM, and I AM that which I AM? Shall it not confess to him, and say, Thou only art the only true Being, the universal Being; I am a shadow, and empty figure. Thou art the truth, the substance of my Being. Thou fillest all in all of me. Thou art that which thou art. I am a shadow of myself only; I am only That, which I am in Thee, That which Thou art in me: I am my true self only, so far as I am in Thee, the Original truth of all Being; only so far as thou art in me, the Substantial truth of all Being.  
Object. Do we make the Creature nothing? Do we make God All? Do we confound God and the Creature?  
Answ. Far be it. We speak the Language of the general stream of Divines, Philosophers, Poets, Heathen and Sacred, through all Ages. We speak their Language with their sense, and upon their grounds: But we chiefly build upon the foundation of the holy Scriptures, in which we read such characters of men, of the world, of all things in it, that they are a scheam or figure, that they are not, lighter than vanity, less than nothing, a vapour, a vain show, a tale that is told, a dream in sleep. All that we converse with, is styled by Plato, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that which is not, and distinguished from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that which truly is. Aristotle styles God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Being of Being's. We learn of him that, that is True which terminates and gives rest to the Understanding, and that to understand things, is to know them by their causes; which plainly infers, that God alone is the Truth of every Creature and in every Creature, that He alone terminates and gives rest to our Understandings, in as much as He is the first Cause.  
Our design and desire is to establish most firmly and clearly the immutable and everlasting bounds between God and the Creature. The Creature truly really is in the proper rank and order of its own Being; but all that it is, in the presence of the Divine Being, in comparison with it, is like a dream, when one awakes, less than nothing. Every Creature at its best estate is vanity, an obscure, empty shadow of its Divine Original in God. The Creature is nothing of itself, or by itself, but a momentany emanation from God, sent forth from him, sustained by Him, comprehended by him, and filled with him. God is not the Creature, yet is he in the Creature, not Circumscriptiuè, nor Definitiuè, confined to the Creature, or defined by the Creature; but Repletiuè, filling all in all, in every Creature.  
St. Paul saith of him, That he is above all, in all, and through all: Above all, as incomprehensibly transcending all, as the eternal universal Head of all: In all, as the truth, the fullness of all, by each Idea in each Creature (like the Seal in the Impression): Through all, as the perfection and end of all:   

2. Argument.  
The second Argument is the Trinity in God. God is the first, and so the most perfect Unity, every way undivided, every way unconfined, in all-comprehending, all-transcending, incomprehensible Unity, eminently transcendently, one in all, one with all, uniting all, most full, most fruitful, the Spring of all things. This is God the Father, the Godhead in its fountain, as it is its own fountain. This is the first Person, the universal Being, in its most complete existence and subsistence, in an entire Unity.  
All our senses, our intellectual powers, every where present to us an unity, and a variety, equally inseparable: the inclinations of all our faculties carry us equally to both these: these two jointly constitute and compose all essences and forms of things, all our objects, entertainments and delights. Unity without distinction or variety, is a barrenness, a melancholy, a solitude, a blackness of Darkness, a death beyond any thing existent, or imaginable in the nature of things. A distinction or variety without unity, is a confusion, a wilderness beyond the wildest fancy, a distraction beyond all madness.  
Variety is every way equal to an Unity; as positive, as real, as ample, as high; As the first and most perfect Unity, comprehends all Variety in itself (as one with itself, and so is as properly, as formally, variety as unity;) so doth the first, and most perfect Variety comprehend the Unity in itself, in its own proper essence and formality; for if the Variety were not all things, and so the highest Unity, it were not a full Variety. Thus are both these every way equal, equally all, most perfectly one, most perfectly distinct; by being both the proper character of each, the first and highest Unity, the first and fullest Distinction or Variety.  
The Godhead in the second Person is the first Distinction or Variety, and so the most perfect Variety, equal with the Father, equally a Divine Person, All variety of Being in a most complete, most distinct existence, or subsistence, in an entire Unity. All fullness, All the fullness of the Godhead is said to dwell in him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, bodily or personally; that is, essentially, substantially, entirely, distinctly, in the highest and most perfect Unity, with the clearest and compleatest Variety.  
Thus is this Person at once, most perfectly one with the Father, having the Father in himself, and being himself in the Father: Thus is He also distinct from the Father, with the highest and most perfect Distinction, being Himself the first, the fullest Distinction and Variety, in its most abstracted form, and so in its greatest amplitude.  
Jesus Christ, as He is this Second Person, is known peculiarly by this Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as it comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which signifieth to gather together: the proper Name of Christ, as He is the first and most universal Variety. Upon this ground also he is styled, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the manifoldly various Wisdom of God. This is the brightness of the Glory of God, that is, the effulgency of the Divine Glory or Godhead, shining out clearly and distinctly into all beautiful and blessed Varieties, so richly (beyond all number and limit) contained in it. This is the effulgency of the Godhead, shining out into an essential Image, a clear distinct Image of itself, in the fullness of its Divine Essence, and into all Images, all forms of things, eternally springing up fresh and new, in the brightness and glory of this essential Image, which is itself ever entire, ever new, and distinct with the highest Distinction in every one of these. This is the first and fullest Distinction; this of the Image from its Original in the Divine Nature. This is Variety itself in its abstracted and essential form, where it is most absolute, most free, and unconfined, being itself entire; the first, the freshest, the fullest Variety, an ever springing fountain of all Varieties, in every part of the Variety. This is the proper form, the unvailed face, the uncircumscribed Amplitude and Majesty of God, Variety itself, with its most unlimited fullness, with its clearest light and lustre, in a most absolute, most entire, undivided Unity. This is the Second of the Three in the adored Trinity.  
God, the third Person, the Holy Spirit, is the Union of these two. He proceedeth from these two, as the spiration or conspiration of these two, meeting in one. As the Father and the Son are one by the first and highest Unity, as they are distinct by the first and fullest Distinction; so are they at once equally one, and equally distinct. This is the proper form of Union, a concurrence of Distinction and Unity, where two as two are one, retaining their distinction in their Unity. Thus meeting in a third, this third is equal to the other two, containing them both in itself. It is one with the other two, and in the other two, by having the Unity in itself: It is distinct from the other two, by having the first and highest Distinction in itself.  
The Union of variety and Unity is the essence of Harmòny; Unity of a variety, variety in an Unity, is the essential form of Harmony. God then being in Himself the first Unity, the first Variety; in their first Union is the first harmony, the most perfect, the most exalted, the universal Harmony, the fountain of all Harmonies. All things lie here in a perfect Harmony. This Harmony comprehendeth all things in itself, diffuseth itself through all. Every thing, every where, lieth within the bounds and measures of this Divine Harmony, is measured and governed by it, springeth forth from it, beareth the figure of it, beareth a part in it, is Harmony in this Harmony. Every nature and form of each thing, in each kind and degree, to the lowest divisions and least distinctions of things, is expressed universally by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek, by Ratio in Latin, which both properly express Harmony; A variety bound up in an Unity, an Unity diffusing itself through a variety.  
This is God, the third Person in the Trinity, Harmony itself. The first Harmony, most perfect, most absolute, diffusing itself through all things, endlessly and unboundedly unfolding itself into all forms of things, by its Divine force, as the force, as the fullness and streams of this Harmony, in its own soft and spacious Bosom, enfolding all forms of things in the same Bosom, as Harmonies of this Harmony, Harmonies in this Harmony, in each of which the universal Harmony is new and complete.  
Can there be now any one thing in the nature of things, any one thing in the will of any Spirit, any one essence, form, power, act, accident, or circumstance which lies not in, which flows not from this first and universal spring, the Divine Unity? Or shall we deny this Divine Unity, to be the first Unity, to be an entire Unity, the fountain of the Godhead, the only fountain of all?  
Is there any where, in any Will, any distinction of power, or of act, of an indeterminate power, and determinate? Is there any varying of the Will from power to act, from an undetermined, to a determined State? Is there any distinction in the Will, any distinct qualification, modification of any kind or degree, which lies not most distinctly, most clearly, most completely, with all its variations, in this Divine, this first, this universal and unconfined Variety, which flows not from it?  
Hath any Spirit, any Being, a Will? Hath any Will any liberty, any motion? Hath any Spirit, any will, any liberty, any motion? Have all these, either jointly in relation to each other, or each a part in itself, rationem aliquam, any form, any agrecableness, which is not enfolded, and wrapped up in the Divine, the sirst, the universal, unconfined Harmony, which doth not arise from, which doth not feel the force, and flow in the course of this Harmony? Then must the Divine Harmony itself be out of tune, being in a discord to this, that lies without it, being stopped and checked by it. Then must this itself, what ever it be, have no Harmony, no agreeableness with any thing, no not so much as with itself; then must it be a discord to all Being; then must it be divided from all Being, and so not be at all.   

3. Argument.  
The Wisdom of God comes in the third place, to oppose this Liberty of the Will in question.  
The Divine Wisdom thus expresseth itself by the mouth of Solomon in his Proverbs, I Wisdom dwell with Prudence, and find out witty inventions. The Philosopher seemeth to furnish us with a fair Comment upon this Text, when he divideth the intellectual habits or perfections of the mind into these five, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The first is the eternal truth of things in their immediate Principles and Springs, as they lie in the eternal mind, and thence shine forth in the Understandings (the superior parts of the inferior and created Spirits.) The second comprehends all forms of Knowledge, as streams flowing from these springs running along together in the mind, representing in one view, in one entire Image, the whole nature of things, as a Copy of the Divine Nature, and of the Original Image in the Divine mind. The third Perfection, in the account of the Philosopher, is Wisdom, which he describeth to be the union of both these foregoing Perfections in the same mind or spirit. Prudence in the fourth place, is the lustre or brightness of this Wisdom shining forth in our Manners, in our moral Actions and Conversations. This is the light of Wisdom flowing forth upon all the motions of our Will, of our sensitive Appetite and Passions, with their proper effects, forming and figuring them according to (in an harmony with) the Divine Image, in the universal nature of things, and in its Original, the Divine Nature itself, as this Image shines forth in the mind. Lastly, That Art which compriseth all witty Inventions, is composed of the emanations of this Wisdom, as beams from the Sun, by which Inferior Spirits bring forth external effects, works without themselves, in the similitude and imitation of the Divine Work in the Divine Nature, for the use of life in its necessities, conveniencies and delights.  
Thus Wisdom above and below dwells with Prudence, and finds out knowledge of witty Inventions. Agreeable to this is that Doctrine of another sort of Philosophers that, as Wisdom is the perfection of the Understanding, so the Understanding in its perfect state is the first seat and spring of Order. Therefore they say, wherever there is Order, wherever there is Harmony or Beauty which consists in Order, there is an Understanding. The Understanding, say they, in its proper and native state, is the immediate Son and Image of God beneath God himself, the first and fullest effulgency of the Godhead in its essential Image, so it becomes Omniform, being all forms in one, with a richly heighthned Light, and a Divine Order. Here Order hath all its Springs and Measures, here Judgement hath its Throne and Sceptre, comparing and measuring all forms of things according to the Order in which they lie here, accordingly determining order and disorder in things below.  
Moses in that sweet and dying Song of his, where he representeth the Order and Beauty of the whole Work of God in the Nation of the Jews (as a principal part of that Work, and as a mysterious figure of the whole Work) expresseth the whole force and form of the Divine Wisdom, as the ground of his Song, in the beginning of it: He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgement, Deut. 32. 4. Behold here the three parts of Wisdom; the Rock, the Judgement, the perfection of the Work.  
1. The eternal truths of things in the Divine Mind (the first principle and spring) where they shine immediately immutably; These are the Rock.  
2. The universal Image of things in all variety of Forms, with a beautiful Order drawn forth from these springs, joined immediately to them, exactly and most agreeably suited to them, most harmoniously answering them, in all mutual Comparisons and Relations within the Divine mind: This is the Judgement.  
3. The production of the whole work in an apt correspondency with this inward Image, that the whole answer the whole, part answer part, universally through the whole. This is the perfection of the Work, the perfection of Wisdom and Judgement in the work. Thus the ways of the Workman in his work are Judgement.  
If now any part of the work of God, if a principal part of his work, the will of intellectual Spirits, in those motions, in those moments, which are as the hinge upon which the whole Work of God chiefly turneth about, in respect to its Beauty and Deformity, its Misery and Felicity, its Eternity, have no Connexion with or Dependence upon the other parts of the work, the Image or Original Model in the Divine mind; Can there be an Order here in the whole, Can all the parts in the whole have an harmonious proportion to each other? Can the Work outward agree with the inward Model, the whole agreeing with the whole, and each part answering each part? Can this work be perfect? Can it be wrought in Judgement? Is the whole way of this work the way of Judgement? Is there in each step of it, the foot-step of a Divine Understanding, the impression of a Divine Wisdom, which is an entire uninterrupted Order? Do all the parts in this Work, according to the Model or Image in the mind of the Workman, lie together in one whole piece, in one beautiful body, knit together by fit joints and bands, ministering to each other by these joints and bands mutual strength, beauties, and perfections, from the same Head, whose Unity runneth through, shineth in the whole, and all its several parts, thus uniting them as one body to each other, and to its self?  
Doth not this supposition of such an independent Liberty in the Will to Contrarieties and Contradictions, naturally lead us to an imagination of two Gods, one Good, the other Evil, striving together in the composure of the same work, bringing in consusion upon it by crossing and interrupting each other, according to the sense of the Manichees? Or doth it not favour that Opinion of some Platonists, of a matter, the subject of the Divine Work, coeternal with the Divine Spirit, the Workman, which being in some parts of it altogether intractable, resisting the skill and power of the Archytect or working Spirit, receiveth not the Divine form which that would introduce, could not be made beautiful, and so brought Confusion, War, all Evil into the Work? Or (if that seem more probable) would it not incline us to the belief of fortuitous motions, of numberless Particles confusedly concurring, which have neither beginning, rule, nor end of themselves, their shapes or motions?  
What skilful Poet makes his Poem so, that the great Chain, and final Catastrophe, in the conduct and government of which the chief beauty of the whole Work is placed (from which arise the greatest Consequences, together with the perfection and praise of the whole piece) should be derived from a mere Contingency, which hath no coherence with any antecedent part, which receiveth no force from any thing of any reason, proportion, or order in the whole, which hath no place nor form in the design of the Poet?  
Would any wise Workman, who had an absolute power over his work, who brought forth from himself entirely both the matter and form of it according to his will, frame a work, in which the great end of the principal parts and of the whole, should be undetermined, by being dependant upon the great and chief motion of the work, which can have no complete Idea in the mind of the Worker from which it may receive its form, which is uncapable of having any certain conformity to the will of the Workman, to derive from thence an agreeable sweetness and goodness through the veins of the whole and of all the parts, that the spirit which hath wrought it may have rest and complacency in the work itself, in the harmony of the work within itself, and in the harmony of it with the Model in its own Understanding? Would he frame a work which in this its principal motion should be altogether out of its own power, should have no natural, no moral necessity or certainty from any antecedent causality and reason, which should be altogether fortuitous, which should be thus rendered altogether uncapable of being one entire piece, where all the parts first contained in the Potentiality and Unity of the whole, flowing forth from it by virtue of that Unity, are united among themselves by their mutual Relations and Proportions, making up a beautiful harmony in the whole?  
This in all learning and observation hath been esteemed the first and chief part of wisdom, to fix determinately, with full strength of inclination, thought and contrivance, the end of every work. This the second part next to it, particularly styled Prudence, to dispose and direct all the means efficaciously and infallibly to those ends.  
Object. 1. Perhaps some one will say, That the parts of the Divine Work have their coherence, connexion, and proportion, while this grand motion of which wespeak, the determination of the Will, flows from the power of the Will, which flows from God, the Fountain of causality, in the centinued stream of second causes.  
Answ. This indeed is often spoken of, Let us see if it be well understood, if there be no fallacy or ambiguity latent or manifest in this Assertion: If the power of the Will be the cause of its determination, if God in the order of second causes be the Author of this Power, than also is the determination of the Will from Him; after the same manner, by the force of that Rule, Quicquid est causa causae, est causa causati: The cause of any cause, is also the cause of the effect produced by that cause. Now is the Will no more free, with an undetermined freedom or liberty, being thus predetermined in its superior causes, from which it receives both the power of determining, and the determination of its power. Now is the power of its Will in its state of acting, not undetermined, or indifferent to contradictory and contrary terms or bounds of its motion.  
If it be replied, that the power of the Will, in determining itself, is from God in the natural course of things; but the act of that power in the determination of itself, from the power of the Will alone, with an absolute and universal independency upon all things antecedent to it, either natural or moral: Although this be very difficult to be understood, yet I shall not at present make any other opposition to it than this, that it leaves my present Argument untouched in its full strength and vigour.  
Object. 2. There is something of greater moment, which perhaps may seem to shake the structure and strength of this Reason. The great and Ultimate ends of God in his Work, are the glories of his Goodness and his Justice. In this the Divine Wisdom shines out with a lustre, dazzling the eyes of our Reason (of every created Understanding) in finding out this the most proper and effectual way to these ends, viz. The setting up of intellectual Spirits, free in the determination of themselves to good or evil, and compensating this good and this evil with suitable torments, suitable triumphs.  
Answ. Three Answers offer themselves to this Objection.  
1. Answ. This also yieldeth that on which the whole weight of the Argument against freewill lieth, the righteousness and wickedness of intellectual Spirits; that is, the highest Beauty, the foulest Deformity upon the principal parts of the Divine Work, to which all the other parts serve. The great and Ultimate ends of these intellectual Spirits, unexpressible eternal joys or miseries, hang all upon a mere contingency, upon the motion of the Will, which hath no place, no part in the Divine Design, which receives no form, no measure from any model in the Workman, or any part of the work. Thus are the great consequences, the great ends of the work, in the great, the principal parts and passages of it, altogether undetermined and uncertain, in the nature of the work, and in the continuance of the Worker.  
2. Answ. Doth not this seem much rather a reflection upon, than an exaltation of the Divine Goodness, Justice, and Wisdom; that the righteousness and wickedness of intell●…ctual Creatures, the highest good and evil in the whole work, the eternal blessedness and misery of its own so great, so glorious Births and Images, should be of so little moment to the Divine Nature, to the Divine Goodness, Justice, and Wisdom, that they should be left entirely out of the Divine contrivance and conduct, without the compass of all reason and proportion, to an uncertainty, an indeterminateness of which no account can be given, as effects of the blindest chance which was ever entertained into the most blind and confused imagination of the most vulgar Spirits? But this subject of the Divine Goodness and Justice, and the Argument taken from them to justify this freedom of the Will, belongs properly to the second Book, where the Reader may meet with a large discourse upon it. I shall therefore thus lightly pass over it here.  
3. Answ. The inconsistency of the setting up intellectual Spirits, in this freedom, by the Divine Power and Wisdom, with the very essences of all Power and wisdom, with the whole nature of things created or uncreated, will also find its proper place in other following Arguments, which is therefore only touched here.   

4. Argument.  
Next to the Wisdom of God, the Power of God, seemeth to furnish a fourth Argument against this Liberty of the Will.  
We have it proclaimed from Heaven by the mouth of God Himself, That Power belongeth to God. God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, That Power belongeth unto God, Psal. 62. 11. Joseph saith to Pharaoh, That his dream was repeated, to declare the certainty of it. A Repetition also is designed to express the weight and consequence of that Truth, which is twice over affirmed. No Truth hath a clearer certainty, or beareth a greater weight upon it in the whole nature of things, than this, That Power belongeth to God. Jesus Christ, who is the only true God, is said by the word of his Power to uphold all things, to bring forth, and to bear up all things, as the Greek word manifestly and commonly signifies. This alone bringeth forth all things, all spirits. This alone beareth upon its bosom all its own Births, as a root the plant with all its fruit. Here only in the sense of this truth, with an immediate repose upon it, do all things, all hearts find rest.  
Power is here by the Psalmist expressed absolutely, unlimited, in the abstract; all Power is Gods, and of Him: So the Hebrew phrase imports.  
God is the first Seat and Spring of all Power, in every kind. All Power supernatural, natural, civil, moral; All Power in every State undetermined, determined; All Power in every degree, the Power of acting; the Power in act hath its first seat in God, and cometh down from Him.  
There is a threefold Power, 

1. An Active Power.  
2. A Passive Power.  
3. A Power in Act.    
1. The Power of Acting, which as it belongeth to the forms of things, which are either Spirits or spiritual, so itself is a Spirit or a spiritual form. This is defined to be a principle of Acting. This is itself an eminent and universal Act, or active form like a Spring; containing and sending forth from itself variety of Acts or forms, as a Spring doth streams. This Power is more excellent than the Act which is produced by it.  
2. The Passive Power, is that of matter, which as an obscute shade, comprehending or hiding variety of Acts or forms in it, like Plants; obscured and contracted there, like Plants in their seeds in the Earth, or the Intellectual and sensitive Soul, with all its treasure of Intellectual, of sensitive forms, in a sleeping Body. This Power is inferior to the Act, which, when it is brought forth, is the exaltation of this Passive Power to an higher degree of Being; it is indeed, as a spiritual Act or form, encompassed with, obscured within its own shade. As the Sun calleth up the Plants out of their seeds and beds in the dust, so the Spirit itself, the Spiritual Act or form shining forth from the Active Power upon this shade of matter and of the Passive Power, awakeneth it into a beautiful form.  
3. Power in Act. All Power purely Active is ever in Act. Such Power is always abstracted from matter and a spiritual essence or form, eminent above all things in matter, an universal comprehending variety of Acts or spiritual forms in itself.  
Every Active Power, in matter is compounded, being partly Active, and partly Passive. This Power is never brought into Act, but as it is excited and awakened, from without, by its Object, from above, by power abstractive and purely active, shedding its beams upon it. Thus in the Schools they distinguish between the Active Understanding in man, separated from matter in its operations, and the Passive, which ever worketh in Conjunction with the material and imaginative faculty; like the Moon, having some obscure light in itself, but depending upon the illuminations of the Active Understanding, as its Sun.  
Power and Act are distinguished, not as two several Being's, but as the same Being in several states, modifications, or degrees of Being. When Power, as it is a spiritual and universal Act, comprehending all its own Acts formally and eminently in itself, being all at once in Act within itself, brings forth itself into any particular or single Act in matter, This is the same Power contracted, and so in a less degree of perfection. When a Passive Power in matter springs up into Act, This Act is the perfection of the Power. The Power and the Act here are the same form, sleeping and awakened, in the seed and in the flower.  
All Power is Gods. As he is the most pure, perfect, and universal Spirit: so is Power in Him, the most pure, perfect, and most universal Act. God gives this Testimony of Himself, I am Alpha and Omega, The beginning and the ending, (saith the Lord) Which is, and which was, and which is to come, The Almighty, Rev. 1. 8. As the Power of God comprehendeth all Powers, most eminently and most actually, in ●…imself; so all Powers in Him are ever most perfectly in Act, being themselves pure Acts: God is said to work all things after the counsel of his own will, Eph. 1. 11.  
Power is the principle of Activity. The Will is the inclination or spring of internal motion in a Spirit, whence all external motions flow, as commanded by those internal, and immediate, or elicite motions. So is the Will also the principle of Activity, and the same with power in every Spirit.  
Power is a principle of Activity, a spring of Action or Motion; Motion, Action, are the form in communication, diffusing and propagating itself. The Will of God is goodness itself, the Object being the Actuation, the perfection of the Will: The object and the perfection of the will being most perfectly one with the will, in the Divine Nature. Goodness is properly and formally the principle of communication: The more there is of the nature of good in any thing, so much the more communicative and diffusive it is. Thus is, upon this ground also, the Will and the Power of God the same; both being that Divine Goodness, which being the supreme and universal form, comprehendeth all forms of things most perfectly in itself, and diffuseth itself endlessly into all forms.  
Neither let this trouble any person, that there are evil Powers as well as good, that there are Powers of doing evil as well as of doing good, that there are communications and diffusions of evil as well as good, which is manifest in Original Sin. For all Power in every state and degree in its own nature, is a participation of the Divine Power, and truly good. As all good in every rank is truly good, and a stream from the Fountain of good, yet may every subordinate good be turned by accident into evil, if it be broken off from its subordination to the supreme good, and be terminated in any other principle or end: so also is every communication, or propagation of things, in its own nature good; each form, which is propagated in every communication, being good, and a branch of the first good. As Evil and Sin are themselves privations, and deficiencies of Being; so is the propagation of these by Accident, or rather no propagation in truth, but a deficiency in the propagation and communication, from the deficiency in its principle.  
But as the Will and Power, so also the Will and Wisdom in the Divine Nature are properly and formally the same in their most proper, most formal conceptions and definitions. The Divine Will is goodness itself. Goodness is the suitableness, the agreeableness, the harmony of things, by which they are desirable to each other, by which they become the perfection of each other, being as one self, diffusing itself into many forms within itself, in each of which as a distinct-self, it entirely answers itself. This Harmony is the proper and essential form of Wisdom, which thus falls in with goodness, and so with the Will, by giving to all things their proper forms, measures, weights, bounds, and all manner of proportions in which the Agreeableness and Harmony consisteth.  
Saint Paul seemeth plainly to instruct us in this, That the Will of God being goodness itself, The first, the supreme goodness, being the Spring of all the Divine inclinations, motions, and communications, giving to each thing its Being, Form, and proportions, is properly both the Power and the Wisdom of God, when he saith, That he worketh all things according to the Counsel of his Will. The power of working, and the Counsel in working (which is Wisdom) are both here attributed to the Divine Will.  
At the same time, the holy Apostle signifieth also, That this Divine power comprehendeth all powers in itself, and is one pure, perpetual, universal Act, comprehending all things, in their highest and most eminent acts, within itself, diffusing itself into power, all acts of power, when he expresseth this in the present Tense, which, according to the Rule of Grammarians, doth also imply a continued act, That God worketh all things, according to the Counsel of his Will. As the Divine Power is one pure, eternal, universal Act within itself, (which is the Divine Goodness, the Divine Will, the Divine Wisdom in the highest and amplest activity;) so from their eternal Originals in this universal Power, in this universal Act, spring by a Divine emanation all Powe●…s, all Acts in all seasons, in their proper forms, measures, and proportions, through the whole Creation.  
Having thus laid the ground, let us build up our Argument upon this ground. There is employed and supposed in Discourses upon this Question, a threefold Power in the William.  
1. The Will itself, is the power of the Soul, by which it willeth.  
2. The Will hath a power of Acting freely.  
3. There is the power of the Will in Act, as often as it acteth: and now in this joint sense of having its power in Act, it is no more free. We will not now dispute the distinction of these powers: Only as we have before asserted the Power of acting, and the Power in act are both the same Being, the same form in different states or degrees of Being, Accordingly, both are eminently originally seated in God, and formally derived from God, who is the seat and spring of all Power.  
As I have before touched a great part, if not the whole weight of this question of the power in the Will, to determine itself, and to act, (which is confessed to be an effect of the Divine Power) and of the determination (the acting of this power in the determination of it) which is ascribed to the power itself, without any dependence upon the supreme Power, How doth this ground of the freedom of the Will, laid in this distinction, vanish in the light of this Truth (like a shady Ghost, before a Divine appearance) That the supreme Power is a most pure and perfect Act, and so comprehendeth all Powers in its self, not only in their potentiality, but in their several acts? If the Divine Power be omnipotence itself, that is, all Power, it is Power in every state, Power indeterminate or determinate, Power in Act as well as the Power of Acting.  
I shall seal up this Argument with the signature and impression of the Divine Will, as it is goodness itself, power itself, under one Formal conception. Goodness hath this essential to it, to be diffusive. Every good, the more it communicates itself, hath the more of good in it. Goodness then most simple, most absolute and perfect; diffuseth itself most simply, absolutely and universally. This is that Sun which encompasseth the Heavens from one end to the other, which penetrates to the neithermost parts, to the centre of the Earth, from whose heat and force nothing can hide itself. This toucheth most intimately, most powerfully, disposeth most sweetly and beautifully all things, every state, every distinction of things, the Will of each Spirit, each determination and motion of the William The goodness of God is upon, above, and over all his Works, saith the Psalmist. It not only extends itself adaequately through all, but transcendeth all. It not only fills, but overflows all.  
Although the simplicity of the Divine Nature suffereth it not to be the subject of any relation to the Creature, yet doth it terminate relations from the Creature to itself. Thus doth the Divine goodness, in the Divine Will, terminate the relation of every created Will to itself, in the agreeableness or disagreeableness of every Act. This supreme goodness than hath in itself the measure of this agreeableness and disagreeableness which it receiveth not from without, but hath originally in itself. So all the acts of the Will, according to their conformity with, or deformity from the first goodness, derive themselves from their proper Original in that goodness.  
Accordingly the Goodness and the Will of God, hath a complacency in every Act of the Will if it be agreeable to it, or an aversion from it if it be disagreeable. Thus is the created Will, in all its motions, with their several most exact distinctions, the Object of the eternal Will in its love or hatred. Every faculty or power hath an essential relation to its proper object, and dependence upon it. It is drawn forth by it into the most proper Acts of its essence, and receiveth from it the perfection of its essence, which consisteth in its Activity. The supreme Will, the supreme Goodness, being perfectly, eternally in Act, hath all its Acts, all its Objects, by which it is actuated perfectly, eternally, from and in itself.  
Object. You will say, How can this be? Can the Divine Will, which is infinitely pure in the beauties of Holiness, in the joys of all blessedness, comprehend in itself Good and Evil, agreeableness and disagreeableness to itself, which are the proper measures, and essential forms of all good and evil? Can it comprehend in itself Objects of Love and Hatred? Can this Fountain send forth from itself sweet and bitter waters? How is it holy, if there be these mixtures? How is it happy, if it be thus divided within itself?  
Answ. The Flats and Sharpes, the Bases and Trebles, the Concord's and Discords of Music, are all comprehended by the spirit of the Musician in one Act of Harmony, in one simple and undivided Act of Harmony. This single Act of Harmony, by its proper force, first invented and form all Musical Instruments, prepared them for itself through all the diversity of touches and motions, actuated them, that it might completely figure and display upon them and upon all things round about them, itself, in its own full sweetness, according to all those rich varieties, virtually and eminently comprehended within itself, in one simple Act. So in one indivisible Act, or Idea of beauty in the Spirit of the Painter, lie together all the differing lines, lights, shades, and colours, by which that Idea reflecteth itself in Picture upon the eyes and spirits of the Beholder. In like manner, the far greater perfection, the Will of God, being a simple 〈◊〉 of Goodness, supremely indivisible and eternal, containeth originally eminently within itself complacency and aversion, love and hatred, with their several objects, in their several forms and degrees, in their several risings and fall, most properly and harmoniously suited to each other. From itself doth this supreme Goodness bring forth its own Objects, like tuned Instruments wound up or let down, every way prepared for the diffusion and discovery of itself upon them, in those Varieties of love and hatred, complacency and aversion, with their several steps or modifications, which, as so many distinct forms or virtues of the Divine Goodness, dwell together there in the highest and most absolute Variety, as in the fullest and most unconfined Unity.  
The Will of God is commonly and rightly distinguished into positive and permissive. Evil is by the permissive, Good from the positive Will of God. All the determinations and motions of the Will in every Spirit, are, at least, from the permission of the Divine Will. I will not now inquire, how the most perfect Goodness can be permissive in that, in which it is positive: This only I take, which is universally granted, That there is no permissive Will in God, without a positive Act. He permitteth nothing, without a positive Act of his Will for that permission. If the permission of any Act in the will of man antecede that Act, then is that act or motion of the humane will the Object of a positive Act of the Divine Will for the permission of it, before it be brought forth here below. This objective existence in the Divine Will, is either the Copy or the Original to that motion in the will of the Creature. If it be universally received by all Understandings from the universal Harmony and principles of Truth, that the Divine Nature can take no Copy, receive no Impression of any thing, from any thing without itself: it necessarily followeth, that all motions in the will of man flow from that antecedent existence, which they have in the Divine Will, as the Objects of that.  
Thus, that I may not be too long upon this Head of Arguments, drawn from the Divine Nature, I have contracted three sorts of Arguments into one. Those from the Will, the Goodness, the Power of God being drawn together under that of the Divine Power. I have in it built upon this sure ground, The Will of God is the first, the supreme, the essential Goodness: The Goodness of God is his Power. As every thing depends upon the Will of God, in its permission or positive Act, As all things in their measures of Good or Evil, lie together in the Divine Goodness, the Original, the eternal measure of all Good and Evil; so have all Powers, all Acts and Motions of Power, their first spring, their exact form and rule in the Power of God.   

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

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

1. The Comprehensiveness.  
2. The distinctness of the Knowledge.   
We then know perfectly, when we know all things capable of being known, when we know each thing in its proper distinction, in all its distinct forms, properties, and relations.  
Shall not He who made the eye see? Shall not the Fountain of Knowledge contain all Knowledges, after the most exact and eminent manner? Shall not He know all things most accurately, by whom all things know, and are known? St. Peter saith to Jesus Christ, as to God, Lord, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. See two things remarkable here:  
1. The universality of Christ's Knowledge, extending its self to all things.  
2. A confirmation of this, by a particular instance; Thou knowest that I love thee. The instance is most pertinent to our present purpose: It is that peculiar Object of Knowledge, which is the ground and subject of this Discourse, the Will of Man, the motions of the will, the freest of these motions, acts of Love; Thou knowest that I love thee.  
Object. Here it may be said, and is said by some, The knowledge of all things doth not contribute to the perfection of Knowledge. There are many things in knowing of which, there is neither beauty, nor any beautiful delight. The Orator makes it the property of a wise man, to seek the knowledge only of things excellent and worthy to be known.  
1. Individual and particular things are below the Knowledge of God. Philosophers teach us, That there are no Ideas, no Forms, no Images in the Divine Mind of individual and particular things. All the Ideal Forms and Images seated there, are universal, eternal Substances, Essences, and Truths, fised in most beautiful, harmonious, unchangeable proportions. Individual and particular things are uncertain, undetermined, composed of changeable, tumultuous, confused accidents, slight, and ever fleeting like shadows. Upon this ground the Philosopher concludeth, That individual, or singular things, can be no Objects of Science, or true Knowledge. This Master also teacheth us, That they are the Objects of Opinion only, which is like these things ever fluctuating, unsubstantial, ungrounded, obscure, unsatisfactory, unworthy, not only of God, but of all separated and Divine Spirits.  
2. Many things are too mean, and too vile for the knowledge of an excellent Spirit. The Understanding is transformed into the Image of that which is known. Mean and vile Objects embase the Mind and Spirit, into which they are received. The similitudes and forms of froth and filth in a Divine Spirit, are like Rats and Crocodiles in the Egyptian Temples, or dead Carcases in the stately Pyramids.  
Answ. That God knoweth all things, to the lowest, the last division and distinction, that He knoweth the least, the obscurest, the vilest of all things, the Scriptures testify by their whole design, by plain affirmations and instances every where. From these, which are innumerable, I will cite only two:  
1. The first is that Heb. 4. 12. where we read of the living Word of God, That it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The words in Greek properly import this sense; A critical Distinguisher and Judge of the motions or agitations in the Will, and sensitive Appetite, of the notions or images in the understanding or fancy. The Word of God in the verse following is clearly declared to be a Person, God Himself in Person; For these are the words, And there is no Creature which is not manifest in his sight: But all things are naked and bare in his eyes, with whom we have to do.  
There is nothing more universal, great, or glorious, than thought; which raiseth itself to the height, and extendeth itself to the amplitude of the visible Heavens, and the most universal Glories. There is nothing more particular, more low, more vile, than thought, which levels itself with every single atom and dust, which sinks down to the depth of all divisions, darknesses, deformities, and confusions, as low as the neithermost Hell. Yet is God a Critical Distinguisher of the thoughts, singling every thought, setting it naked in its own proper form, clear with all its circumstances, in his light and sight. There is one thing in this Scripture, which hath an eminent sense in itself, and suitableness to our purpose. The 12. verse begins this Argument with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The Word of God; the 13. verse concludes this Argument with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The Word. In this last place, we translate it thus, With whom we have to do. The Greek phrase literally sounds thus, To whom the Word is to us. The Greek term first signifieth Reason, which is the internal Word, or the Understanding; their Speech, the external Word, the Image of the internal, of Reason, of the Understanding. The Holy Ghost seemeth by this expression in the end, answering and echoing to that in the beginning, to design this sweet and rich sense; that our Reason, our Understanding, in its internal form, in its outward Image, which is our speech, so far as it is right and true, answering to Jesus Christ, turneth itself to him, formeth itself according to him, fixeth itself upon him, flows back into him, who is the first Reason and Understanding in the Godhead within, and its Image without in the Creature. The inward or outward word of Angels or Men, is to this word, as the Echo to the Voice, the Face in the Glass to the living Face, the reflection of the Beam to the direct Beam, the Stream to the Fountain. The same term signifieth also, the proportion of things.  
All things then, which fall within the compass of any created Understanding, of any expression in discourse, lie first, most clearly, most completely in Jesus Christ, the Divine Understanding, the Divine Word, as the Original spring and measure of all understandings and expressions. What ever, in the nature of things, beareth any proportion of great or little, universal or particular, beautiful or deformed, lieth according to that proportion most distinctly in this Divine Word, the Divine Understanding, which is the first, the most universal proportion and harmony, the Original spring and measure of all proportions.  
2. I will add another Scripture, which, as in a Picture wrought by a most skilful hand, sets with lively force before our eyes the least, the lowest things, shining with highest beauty in the Divine Mind, embraced with the dearest sweetnesses by the Divine Love. You shall see there the Divine Understanding and Affection encompassing all things after the most universal manner, and insinuating themselves into each thing, with the most exact distinction of singulars and individuals.  
Jesus Christ, endeavouring to bring us into a Divine Liberty, by being free from solicitous cares and fears, endeavouring to fix our Spirits upon the Divine Goodness, by a full Trust, and sweet Rest, an absolute and delightful Resignation, affirmeth, That even the hairs of our head are numbered. Therefore saith he, Fear not, Luke 12. 7.  
Number is defined to be quantity discrete, because it doth most accurately discern and distinguish all the differences of things, as they lie in the whole and apart, both at once. What so sleight, of so little weight, as a single hair of the head? yet God taketh an account of every single hair, while he numbereth all our hairs.  
The numbering of things, marketh each single Unity, for a treasure, for the object of esteem and of care in its preservation. This appeareth by the Latin Poet, who bringeth in the Shepherd Swain speaking thus to his Companions upon the Downs, when they were to strive for the mastery, in their Rural Music.  

I from my flock, dare nothing lay with thee.  
A Father, a Stepmother hard agree  
To number both each day, the bleating sheep;  
One of the wanton Kids, the tale doth keep.   
Each single hair than is a Divine Treasure, attracting the Eye of eternity, which diligently and delightfully watcheth for its eternal preservation; for all our hairs are numbered in eternity. As it is said of the Stars in Heaven, God there calleth them all by their names, none of them is wanting, every one shineth as a fixed Star in that supreme Orb of Glory.  
God hath made all things, in number, weight, and measure. Number is here interpreted to be the Character of the species, or kinds of things, according to their distinct essences. The first and supreme link in this Chain of essential forms, is the Idea, or the eternal Pattern or Spring of each Essence, in the Mind of God. The Pythagorean Philosophy foundeth its highest mysteries of Divinity upon the nature of numbers, as the most agreeable figures of it. The Ideas or eternal Images of things in God so seem to shine forth most clearly, with the sweetest and fullest beauties, in abstracted numbers.  
Our Lord saith, That little Children have their Angels, which always behold the face of their Father in Heaven. Behold here each single hair of our heads, which is an excrement only; how much more each part of our Bodies, each motion of our Spirits, each moment of our Lives, or circumstance in our affairs hath its Idea, its first Image and Truth, its Original first true Being and Beauty eternal; in the heart of God. These at once are the Eyes of God, which by day and by night circle round, watch over, and guide them, the invisible Chambers and Treasures of God, where they are laid up, and kept safe, as his Jewels.  
Number hath been reputed the first seat and measure of proportion, Harmony, Music, and Beauty in every kind. Number, and Beauty or Harmony, are both by Philosophers and Divines appropriated to Intellectual Spirits, who alone are capable of them as their proper operations and objects. Both agree in this definition, which seemeth to comprehend not only the proper objects and operations, but the Essence also of immortal Minds; an Unity diffusing itself into Variety, keeping itself undivided and entire through the whole Variety, bounding the Variety with its self, and binding it up within itself. A great and learned Divine teacheth us, That there is a vast difference as between the natures, so between the numbers of the Humane, the Angelical, the Divine Understanding. The numbers which men apply to corporeal and material Subjects, divide, break, and lessen the subject. In these numbers that holdeth true, that the whole is greater than any single part. The numbers with which the Angel's number things, retain through all, the indivisibility of the Unity, with diversity of forms. Here each form or essence comprehendeth under its own undivided Unity all forms of things, according to their proper and complete amplitude, agreeable to the Angelical State, but under the Character of its own peculiar and distinct property. But the Divine number, transcending all divisibility and diversity joineth in one, the simplest Unity, with the amplest and most distinct Variety.  
Thus after a Divine manner, by this Divine Art of Numeration, are all the hai●… of our head numbered in the mind of God. Thus every single hair there, maketh up a Divine Harmony, composed of a rich Variety of Divine Proportions, according to the number of all the other hairs, as in the whole, so in the several parts, and single unities. Every single hair is a centre, and a seat to the various proportions between itself and all the rest in particular, as well as also to the Harmony of the whole.  
I shall now give a brief answer to the Objections alleged against the Universality of the Divine Knowledge:  
1. No Object, however low, however base, embaseth the Divine Understanding. The figures of Mice and Emeralds form in Gold; lessened not the lustre, or preciousness of the Gold, neither did they detract any thing from the sacred Worth, Majesty, or Divinity of the Ark, by being put into it. This Ark was t●…e Figure of our Jesus, the essential Image, the Divine Mind, Understanding, and Wisdom of the Father. Lazarus with his Rags, his running Sores, and the Dogs licking them, represented to the life in an excellent Picture, done by the hand of Vandike, of Titian, or some great Master, is a worthy and most agreeable entertainment for the eye and fancy of any Princess, a rich Ornament and rare Jewel for the Chamber or Cabinet of a Prince. The Plague with all its loathsome and horrid attendance, conceived in the mind, form to a most exact Image in Virgil's fancy, from thence transferred into his inimitable Poems, becomes worthy of the Ear, the Fancy, the Mind of that great and most polite Prince, Augustus Caesar; yea, clothed thus with this Image, the mind and fancy of the Poet transfuse, and present themselves to the spirit of that Prince, as of all learned and judicious Readers, with a heightened Beauty, and kind of Divinity.  
That is a certain Rule, That every thing received, is received according to the nature and manner of the Recipient. The Divine Understanding clothing itself with the Images and Forms of all Objects, desormeth not itself, but maketh them Divine: To the Pure all things are pure, but to the Unclean nothing is pure, but even their minds (the Angelical part,) their Consciences (the Divine part of their Souls,) is defiled.  
2. Individuals and particulars, together with Universals, appear distinctly to the Eye of God, at once, in one view. The Philosopher of old, affirmed all things to be in all. The shady blueness in the clear Heavens above us, which seemeth to terminate our sight, is said to be the deficiency of our sight, which is uncapable either of extending itself to so remote an Object, or of having any Commerce with a Body so pure, so glorious, and so near to the nature of a Spirit. Thus the contraction, the obscurity, the materiality, which seemeth to be the bound of our eye and sense when we look to individual things here below, are in truth the weaknesses of our senses, falling short of the glory shining in the nature of things.  
The light of God, which is alone the true Light, having no darkness in it, and so the measure of all Truth, is styled by St. Peter, A marvelous Light. This is one of the wonders in the Divine Light. All things here are transparent; each particular, each part is seen distinctly in the whole, and the whole completely in ●…h part.  
The Psalmist singeth of this holy and high mystery, That with God the Darkness and the Light are both alike, Materiality and corporeity, as they appear before him, are spiritual and Divine forms. In the face of each material, individual object, shineth the whole nature of things. This is manifest upon a threefold ground:  
1. All things in Heaven above, and Earth beneath, meet in the constitution of each individual. In Jacob's Vision Angels were seen descending and ascending upon each step of the Ladder, from the Throne of God Himself above, down to the Earth below. Thus by the Scale of Predicaments in Logic, and in Metaphysics, we are taught, That universal and superior Being's, even Being itself in its absolute and unlimited fullness, descend into the essential constitution of each inferior Being. In them also the inferior Being is seen ascending again, according to their several steps, inasmuch as it is eminently comprehended in them.  
Thus the Descent and Ascent of things is presented unto us in the first Philosophy, by division, composition, and resolution. Being itself in its absolute fullness, divides itself into potential parts, which are therefore called potential, because itself remaineth potentially, and undividedly in each of these parts. As in abstracted numbers, the Unity divideth itself into many Unities; then this Unity, or first Being, by its own unconfined power and virtue, joineth or compoundeth these several Unities or Parts, into the common Unity of one particular form, as a particular number. Again, the first Unity, or Being, according to the Laws and Measures of all Harmony in itself, dissolveth the common Unity of this inferior form, into its several parts or unities. These are gathered up into their superior Unities, and so return to their first Original, as they return, retaining their distinction still, but becoming more and more absolute and universal, according to the nature of those ●…perior Unities, by which they ascend.  
2. Each Being in its lowest division, and narrowest contraction, beareth imprinted upon it, and inseparable from it, the figure of the first and supreme Being. For this is the first, efficient, and exemplar, the last final cause of all things. Having the figure of the first Being, it hath in that, the figures of all Being's, in all their various Unities and Distinctions. As every shadow is inseparable from its proper Body: so, where the figures of things are, there are the truths themselves, as the Original, exemplar, formal causes of those figures, which flow by perpetual emanations from them, as Beams from the Sun.  
3. The Omnipresence of God, filling all in all, even in the fullest sense, as the Essence of all Essences, as the Form of all Forms, as the Being of all Being's, in every the most contracted, most obscure degree of Being, as in a clear Crystal Glass, presenteth Himself with open naked face to Himself, and so all things in Himself.  
After this manner God, whose Knowledge as Himself, is one pure, perfect, eternal Act, at once beholdeth all Particulars in their Universals, all Universals in their Particulars, according to all their several Modes and Distinctions. He, to whom all things are naked and bare, seeth all things in every one, and every one in all forms at once. The night of materiality and corporeity, before him shineth with a determinate Beauty, with a bright Transparency, as the day of spiritual substances. The contracted shades and darknesses of Individuals and Particulars, are as the ample and full sight of Universals. From this, which I have said here, will easily slow my third Answer.  
3. Nothing is mean and vile, seen in a right and universal Light. Every degree of Being to the least, the narrowest, and obscurest Point, hath Being itself in its amplitude and majesty in it, without which it could not be. Every thing that is in any kind or degree, hath the Throne of Being set up in it, with God the supreme King, and Fountain of Being's, sitting upon it and filling it with the train of his Glories. Thus look upon each Being, and you will see it as a spacious Palace, a sacred Temple, or a new and distinct Heaven.  
Being itself, in its universal Nature, from its purest height, by beautiful, harmonious, just degrees and steps, descendeth into every Being, even to the lowest shades. All ranks and degrees of Being, so become like the mystical steps in that scale of Divine Harmony and Proportions, jacob's Ladder. Every form of Being to the lowest step, seen and understood according to its order and proportions in its descent upon this Ladder, seemeth as an Angel, or as a Troop of Angels in one, full of all Angelic Music and Beauty.  
Every thing as it lieth in the whole piece, beareth its part in the Universal Consort. The Divine Music of the whole would be changed into Confusion and Discords, All the sweet proportions of all the parts would be discorded, and become disagreeable, if any one, the least, and least cons●…red part, were taken out of the whole. Every part is tied to the whole, and to all the other parts, by mutual and essential Relations. By virtue of these Relations, All the distinct proportions, of all the parts, and of the whole, meet in one, on each part, filling it with, and wrapping it up in the rich Garment of the Universal Harmony, curiously wrought, with all the distinct and particular Harmonies.  
Every Distinction, and so every distinct degree of Being, hath its proper Original, its exemplar Cause, its distinct Idea in the first Distinction, the Son of God in the Trinity, the Divine Wisdom or Mind, the essential Idea or Image of the Godhead. The distinct Idea or original Image of each distinct Being, is here in the form of God, comprehending clearly and completely all distinct Ideas, all the Original and eternal Truths, or Images of things, with their highest Distinctions, in a perfect Unity, in itself. Every thing in its proper form, is the figure and impression of this Idea. The Idea, and its impressed form, mutually enfold and wrap up each other. The lowest and obscurest form of Being, reigneth, shineth virtually, eminently in its highest Truth, with the full and distinct Glories of all the Divine Ideas, united in its own proper Idea, as a Throne in eternity, or as in the bosom of its Father and Bridegroom, both in one. In like manner the Idea, with all the Divine forms of things, lieth seminally, in each particular Being derived from it, like a Divine Sun, in the centre of it, forming it and all its motions every moment, drawing its own Picture, and figuring its own Glories upon them all.  
Every degree of Being, as it is a part of the whole, is a Divine Variety, springing forth from, and comprehended in the Unity of the whole. The Unity of the whole comprehendeth all parts indivisibly in itself. If it were not so, how or where should all the parts be compared each with other? How should a judgement be made of their suitableness and proportions to each other? The Unity of the whole, with the full variety of all the parts, resteth entirely in each part. In what way, or by what force otherwise shall each part be figured, bounded, acted to an agreeableness and correspondency with all the other parts, that the universal Music may be full and entire?  
Reader, I only offer it now to thy thoughts, to be determined by thy judgement, whether all that which we call materiality and corporeity, do not by the charms of this Music awaken into a Divine Company of beautiful Spirits. If this be the proper Character of a Spirit, an Unity indivisibly comprehending a Variety, all Variety, according to its rank and degree in itself, diffusing itself through the whole Variety, and yet resting entire in the bosom of each Variety.  
Doctor More, whose Books full of excellent Wit, Learning, and Piety I always read with much pleasure and profit, although I be not always so happy, as to find my Understanding tuned to a consort and harmony with his, seemeth to me like a Prophet as well as a Poet, to sing this mystery, drawn forth from the sacred retreats of the divinest Philosophy in his Poems. There he painteth out with liveliest colours the whole Universe, as a great Soul and Spirit, as a Contexture, as a Choir, or as a Dance of many Souls or Spirits, where materiality and corporeity are seen, not as distinct substances from the Soul, but as figures wrought by the Soul herself, in the lowest part of that Vestment, with which spun forth from herself, she is clothed, and comes forth upon this lower Stage; As the lowest point of that beam, whose head is in the bosom of the Sun. So with him matter and body seem to be the lowest shade, into which the Soul descends within herself, and the various forms which she puts on in this shade.  
That seemeth to be most pleasantly harmonious to this, which the same Author hath in that pleasant piece of his Cabbala, upon the beginning of Genesis. There he figures out to us the Soul and the Body, which he calls her Vehicle or Chariot, that is, the Image into which she descends and rides forth here below, by the Male and Female, or the Bridegroom and the Bride, which are also Father and Daughter. The Body thus appears as a beautiful Image of the Soul, springing forth from the Soul, abiding by a mystical marriage in the eye and bosom of the Soul. In it, as in a clear and crystalline Glass, the Soul, with ravishing delights, seeth herself in all her own beauties and sweetnesses. Of it she saith, This is life of my life, beauty of my beauty, myself springing forth from myself in a beautiful Image, and so represented to myself. Thus is the Soul tied by irresistible Charms to its Body. This way the Soul falls from her purity, and the joys of her immortality, while she sinks into, and looseth herself in this shadowy Image, as if this were her only true, her only beautiful form. She hath now drowned in a deep oblivion her Angelical, her Divine Beauty and Being, unto which she should have risen, as to the Original Glory, by those inferior and fading figures of herself in this shade. On these Original Glories, as her golden full-spread wings, she should have descended into this shadowy Image, and upon the same wings have carried up in her embraces this shadow into the eternal Light. This divinely pleasant figure of Dr. More, brings to my mind some thing of Plot●…nus, in his Discourses upon the Soul, not unsuitable to him, and to our present purpose. He teacheth us, as from a sacred Oracle, That every Soul cometh down into this World as a Celestial Venus, or an heavenly Beauty, the beautiful Daughter and Image of the supreme God, attended with a Celestial Cupid, or an heavenly Love, her own Birth, ever with her, ever before her, her dear delight and glory. By this Love, the seed of the Divine and eternal Beauty in the Soul, sprung up into a Child, into a pleasant youthful growing Image, upon his wings she springeth up, and takes her flight abroad into all forms of things, as so many scattered figures and births of the first Beauty, until, with her Love, she return into the bosom of that.  
Dr. Cudworth, who by giving us a short relish of that rich treasure of Knowledge and Learning, remote from the Vulgar, causeth also a regret in us, that he entertaineth us with no fuller a Feast, when that Feast might be a Divine Feast, Sacrifice, and Marriage all in one, informeth us from the Jewish Doctors, That all Souls come down from above in a married, or Conjugal state. This seemeth to make one entire piece with Plotinus and Dr. More. The ever blessed Trinity is the first Marriage, and glorious Prototype of all Marriages. Here the Father is the Lover and Bridegroom, the eternal Word or Wisdom is the Daughter and Bride, his essential Image, in which his own glories and sweetnesses offer themselves to his Divine View and embraces. The Holy Spirit is the Love, which springeth forth from these two, which is the Fountain of the Divine Birth and Generation between these two, which uniteth them in eternal embraces, in a Divine fruitfulness, by which they Spring up within this Marriagebed, into innumerable Births and Images of themselves, in this their Love-Union.  
Souls, as they are the Birth, so do they bear the Image of this Trinity and Marriage. The Soul bringeth forth within herself this sensitive Image, which is her Daughter and her Bride. The love which unites these two in a Conjugal state, which springs mutually from both, as they are living Images each of other, as they are one self or substance in two distinct forms, which is the same in both, is the Spirit of life and motion. This makes the sweetness of life, and of all vital motions, That Love is their Spring and their Spirit. From this Love, as from the Marriagebed, doth the Soul by her own proper Bride, which is its Body, bring forth itself into all sensitive and corporeal forms, which furnish and fill this visible World. Thus Souls come down in a Conjugal state, while each Soul brings down its Bride and Body in its bosom, out of which it springs, as Eve sprung forth out of the side of Adam, his fair and flourishing Image, while he flourished in his pure and Primitive Beauties. I confine not that sentence of the Jewish Rabbis to this sense, which yet seemeth to me (although perhaps not the only sense) as proper in itself, as it is pertinent to our Discourse. If these grounds be good and firm, clear will it be, That there is nothing vile or mean in the nature of things, rightly seen, when as all things are Spirits, or Souls in their married state; that is, heavenly Beauties, and heavenly Loves in various forms and postures, where all their motions are the loves of these Souls in their lovely flights. Some one may think this to be understood and confirmed by that of the Psalmist, cited in the Epistle to the Hebrews, He hath made his Ministers Spirits, or Winds, his Angels a flame of fire. The Fire, the Air, all the Elements in their various composition, the Celestial Bodies, are Spirits, in their proper Vestments, Vehicles, or Chariots, with their proper Brides.  
These heavenly Beauties and Loves may be cast into a deep sleep here, yet are they still sleeping Beauties and sleeping Loves, beautiful and lovely in their sleep. Although, like Abraham, they may have disorderly, deformed, distracting Dreams in their sleep. In these Dreams an horrible darkness may fall upon them, strange Visions may be presented to them. They may see dreadful fires in the midst of this darkness, themselves, their dear Bride the sensitive Image, like Doves, lying dead, and divided one from another, like innocent Beasts of Sacrifice slain, and cut into several pieces, with the brands of fire, or burning Lamps passing between them. In the horror of these Dreams, and in this sleep, they may lie, till ●…hey be awakened, by that joyful sound of a Trumpet from Heaven, or of an Archangel, Arise and shine, for thy light is come, the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee; Which St. Paul expresseth thus, Awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead, for Christ shall give thee light. Then shall these Bridegroom-Souls, with their beloved Brides, their Bodies, appear after this dark and tempestuous night of their sleep and dreams, in the fresh and pleasant morning of a new day, as new Heavens and a new Earth, with their Beauties, all new married anew to each other.  
Some have imagined, that these Souls, together with their Bodies lying yet in their bosoms above, before their descent and fall, had a prospect of this terrible dream in that Image of the Divine Wisdom, which did then shine clearly in their Natures and Essences. It seemed to them an horrible Pit without any bottom, a vast and howling Wilderness full of deformed and dreadful Monsters, to which their sweet Beauties and Chastities, dearer than their Lives, would be exposed to be deflowered and defiled by them, full of Dearths and Droughts, full of fiery Serpents, which with stings fixed in them, with their infused Poison would fill them all over with pains and horrors, would subject them to that most deformed and most dreadful Monster, the King of Terrors, death itself. Thus were they for their own sakes most averse to this descent and exile from their native home, from themselves, from their own true, sweetest Purities, Beauties and Being's.  
But in that Divine Glass, in which they saw this Prospect, they saw also that this terrible Dream had a Divine mystery of wisdom and love in it, that out of it was to arise from every part and circumstance in it, a far more transcendent Glory to the supreme Love, their Father and Bridegroom. They saw, that this Love itself would go along with them through all, though hidden and vailed, reserving his own Purities and Sweetnesses in the midst of all. They saw, that he in the midst of those hidden Purities and Sweetnesses, would preserve that Love which he had to them in eternity, when he beheld them in that firstborn Image of all loves and lovelinesses, and that in these loves and lovelinesses he would conduct them, and direct their way through this Wilderness. They understood, that he would be a seed of hope to them, by the virtue of which they should certainly in the set time, in their proper season ascend out of this Pit, return home from this Exile: then should they be received with an universal shout of Joys and Glories, resounding from all things without them, and within them, when they should see all these sufferings break up into the most heightened Glories of the supreme God, the supreme eternal Love, and themselves with Raptures of highest pleasures, transcending all Humane or Angellike thoughts, taken up into the fellowship of these Glories.  
This imagination seemeth to some to be well-grounded upon, and naturally to arise from that Scripture, The earnest expectation of the Creature (or the Creation) was made subject to vanity not willingly, but by reason of him (or for his sake) who subjected the same in hope; because the Creature (or the Creation) itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of Corruption, into the glorious liberty of the Children of God: For we know that the whole Creation groaneth and traveleth in pain till now.  
Reader, I hope it will not be unacceptable to you, that I have endeavoured to divert thee and myself by these Speculations, which seem to be very pleasant, representing to us the Soul, as a Celestial Bridegroom with its Bride and Bridal Chariot both in one, its Body descending and returning, as in a Celestial Dance, measured by the Music of the Divine Harmony. Let these things have with thee that weight of probability or truth which thou thyself shalt give to them in thine own judgement. However I have thought them proper to my present end, the illustration of that truth, the harmony of things in the whole, and of the several parts as they lie in the whole, which seemeth to me to be clearly charactered in all the beautiful and bright lineaments of Reason itself, which its essential form, is an universal Harmony, and to be expressed through the whole Scriptures as their proper design, which are a Divine Draught or Description of the Divine Harmony in its eternal Original, and in its Figure.  
St. Paul saith, That all things work together for good for those that love God. The only true love of God, is the immediate and proper Birth of the Divine Love, its clearest and fullest effulgency, and its most perfect reflection upon itself. This is the essential Character of a Saint, as he is the Spiritual man. To this person St. Paul saith, All things are yours, this world, lise and death, things present, and things to come; you are Christ's, and Christ is Gods.  
God is the Head, the beginning, the end, the measure of Christ. Christ is the Head, the beginning, the end, the measure of a Saint. A Saint is the head, the beginning, the end, the measure of all things. All things through the whole World, through the whole compass of time, in both those bright and black Regions of Life and of Death, are exactly tuned each to other, and struck with a Divine Hand of Power and Skill with all manner of sweetness, to make the most agreeable and charming Music to God, to Christ, and to a Saint, as they dwell together in one heavenly Image, and in one eternal Spirit. All things, even the most distant and most contrary, meet together by a most admirable and ravishing consent, in one most beautiful Harmony of a perfect, universal, eternal good, to a Saint, as he is in Christ, as Christ is in God, as all three lie together in the pure, the soft, the spacious bosom of Divine and eternal Love.  
But I shall speak more fully of this universal Harmony in the Second Part, when I shall have occasion to show, what place Sin hath in this Harmony, how Disorder itself is reduced into Order by its powerful Charms, how the Harmony is made perfect by a full Variety; The Variety cannot be full without a Contrariety; how in the contrariety the Law ariseth, as a ministry of wrath, out of which Sin takes its birth as a Contrary, which is the proper correlate, or mark, or object of the Divine Contrariety and Wrath, how this Divine Contrariety heightening itself to the utmost upon Sin and Sinners, to declare to the utmost their irresistible contrariety to the Divine Nature, and prevailing over them, in the Person of Christ consuming them, consumes itself together with them as a flame with its fuel, like a flame it vanisheth into the pure Air, Light and Heaven, where all things now spring again, and are seen new in the beauteous Glories and ever-flourishing sweetnesses of an Universal and Divine Harmony, through the Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.  
But we will leave these things to their proper places: In the mean time this Truth seemeth t●… be firmly established upon unmoveable grounds, that nothing, as it lies in the whole, in all its causes, concurrences, relations, and circumstances, is mean, vile, or little, unworthy of the Divine Mind, which if it were a stranger to any the least circumstance of things, even the first, most unperceptible motions of the Will, were uncapable of judging of the Harmony of the whole, of Good and Evil, which consist in order and disorder, especially of moral Good and Evil, the chief Good and Evil, of the chief pieces of the whole Work, Intellectual Spirits, whose Good and Evil in order to an eternity of Happiness or Misery, are defined and determined by every motion of the Will.  
If I have been at the expense of much time and pains upon this Subject, the Omniscience of God, or the universality of his Knowledge, and the exactness of it in this Universality, I humbly conceive that I have not done it impertinently, being moved to it by these two Reasons,  
1. Learned men know, that this Flower in the Crown of the Great King, this Attribute of God, hath been denied to him in the face of the whole World with great confidence, with bold pretences of Reason and Learning opposed to it. I have heard this perfection of the Divine Nature, in the Process of a Discourse upon this freedom of the Will, questioned, Whether it were proper to God, or a Perfection? and this Question made soberly there, where modesty, goodness, and learning have met together.  
2. This Argument of the Divine Omniscience appeareth to mewith so great weight in this cause, that if this be freely granted, and clearly understood, I cannot at all comprehend by what way or means the liberty of the Will, now examined, can suppart itself, without the overturning the whole fabric of our Philosophy and Divinity, with the absolute ruins of all their beauties and strengths. I hope in a few words to manifest this in the Second Part of this Argument, which now follows.  
2. Part. The Second Part is the Original of the Divine Knowledge.  
This knowledge of God ariseth not from without, but from within himself. This Truth seemeth to carry the full and sweet light of its own evidence brightly shining in the face of it. If God receive any thing from without, he is no more immutable, impassable, independent, a pure Act, a perfect eternal Act, a simple Unity, but a composition of divers and different ingredients. If any Species or Image, if any Knowledge flow in upon the Divine Understanding from any external Object, not only all the Properties, Perfections, and Attributes ascribed to God, but his Godhead itself, with all its most essential Glories are shaken, overthrown, and utterly demolished. If God be receptive of any thing from any other, he is no more the first, the universal Being, the Fountain of all Being, and so no more God. It is generally and rightly affirmed, That the Essence of God and the Operations are the same, that his Knowledge is Himself. If then He receive the knowledge of any thing, He receiveth also Himself, and his Godhead from a Foreign Spring. W●…o, saith St. Paul, hath been his Counsellor? or who hath given to Him first, that He should repay?  
Object. Some eminent Divines seeming to understand, the force of the Reason in this Point to lie in the foreknowledge of God, have believed themselves to have gained a full Victory over it, by an imagined coexistence of God with the Creature. For, say they, God is infinite, as in his Essence, so in his duration. By virtue of this infiniteness he after an immutable manner coexists with the Creature in all its changes. Eternity, which is the duration of the Divine Essence in its undivided and unchangeable but unconfined Unity, coexists with time, the duration of the Creature in all its numerous and successive motions, in all its undivided moments. Thus, say they, God properly foreknows nothing, but knoweth every Creature, as it is present with Him in its own proper existence and time.  
Answ. If all this in the full Latitude be freely granted, I humbly conceive, that the present Argument remains still in its full force, unshaken, untouched. But first, I shall crave leave to offer some incongruities and mistakes, which make me uncapable of satisfying myself with this coexistence, thus form and founded:  
1. This seems to take away out of the mouth of God Himself, speaking by the Prophet Isaiah, one Principal proof of his Godhead, which he pleaseth to make use of several times over, and in which he glories, challenging all the gods of the Heathen to come and try their Divinities by this Test; This is the Power of Prophesying, the declaring of things to come.  
2. Doth not the Coexistence mentioned commensurate God with the Creature, make God the Subject of a Relation to the Creature, establish a proportion between Him and the Creature; which are all contrary to the infiniteness of God, as to the most uncontroverted Principle of Divinity shining in upon us by the light of Nature, or of Revelation.  
3. If God by Co-existing with the Creature, in the moment of the Fall, at the beginning of time, declares that full Victory of Christ over the Serpent at the end of time, which he knows only by coexisting with that action in its proper scene and duration, at the winding up of all Ages; Doth it not follow, that the beginning, and the end of time in their proper seasons and durations, co-exist and fall in with each other? For this is a Maxim of universal force, That those two things which meet in a third, meet in themselves.  
4. The best Understandings, pure and clear as the Sun itself, clouded with flesh, while they see through so thick a medium, are capable of various and disproportionate views of their Object. A weaker sight fixed on, and confined to some narrower and more particular Image, may in that sometimes discover to better eyes, which extend themselves to a more spacious Object, an error in that smaller Point. Accordingly those great Spirits, with whom I now treat, perhaps may find themselves mistaken in their sense of the Divine Coexistence with the Creature, if they please to consider this which I shall now propound.  
God indeed is infinite. By this infiniteness he is above all proportion to, all commerce with every thing that is finite. By this infiniteness he comprehends in himself all Creatures, with all theirExistencies, Formalities, and Modifications, after an infinite manner, eminently, and with the highest transcendency. Thus he beholdeth, thus he converseth with all things within Himself.  
Divines generally place the Joys of glorified Spirits in that Beatifical Vision, which is the sight of all things in the most amiable face of the most highly adored Trinity, as in the only clear Glass of all Images of things, in their eternal Truths. Is not God Himself blessed in the first place with this Beatifical Vision? Doth not He much more certainly, with a delight proportioned to a God, behold all things in this Glass of the Trinity, in the supremely beautiful face of our Jesus, his own eternal Birth, his own essential Image, the full reflection of himself upon himself? Is not this first and full birth of the Godhead its most universal Birth, where by bringing forth him, he brings forth all things at once in him, according to their first and fairest Births, as beautiful lineaments composed of Divine Lights and Shades in this face and Divine Form, where all pleasantnesses dwell.  
Thus, of a truth, God coexists with all Creatures, hath in Himself, in his Essence, Existence, and Duration, the exact measure of all Essences, Existencies, and Durations; but this is according to the manner of the Divine and Uncreated, not of the created nature, as he comprehends all in himself.  
5. I come to that now, which I promised, as my chief and concluding Answer.  
Here I shall endeavour to make it appear, that all this established in the most desired sense falls short or flies wide off our present Argument, leaving it altogether untouched. For let it be, that God doth exist, together with the Creature, in the proper and formal existence of each Creature; yet still we fall upon this Dilemma, The knowledge of each Creature, in the Divine Understanding, arriveth from without, or ariseth from within.  
The first of these hath following it an horrid train of direful inconveniencies represented above, such as I may well tremble to mention and the holy Angels stand amazed to hear, the passibility, mutability, dependency, imperfection of the Divine Essence in itself, compositions, divisions in the Divine Nature: in a word, the disposing of God from being God. The Devil indeed in all forms practiseth this as his chiefest Artifice, the establishing of such imaginations and opinions in our Spirits, as by the dividing of the Godhead in itself, may divide God from Himself in our sense of Him, and so in truth separate us from the supreme Unity, the only Crown of all Righteousness, Rest and Joy, that by dividing he may Reign.  
If I deceive not myself thus this imagination of Gods receiving his Knowledge of created things from the objects themselves, existing in their own proper forms out of their causes and present before him, is thus attended with such a troop of infernal Monsters, as cannot but affrighten us from entertaining any such conception. The first part of the Dilemma being then removed, the second is established, namely, that the knowledge of all things in the mind of God, hath no spring from which it streameth besides God Himself. All the Attributes of God, all the sense which all Nations, all Spirits have of God from the light of Nature or of Revelation, his All-sufficiency, his Being the beginning, the end of all things, testify with great concurrence to this Truth. It seemeth to me indeed Impertinent to use many words to clear or confirm it. If then God have his Knowledge of every Creature from within, he comprehendeth all the Creatures in his own Divine Essence, either formally, in their own proper Natures and Existencies, or virtually and eminently, as in their first cause. No other way seemeth to me imaginable, by which the Divine Mind should be at once both the Eye and the Glass, to behold all things in itself.  
If we place any Creature, according to its proper form, in the Divine Essence, we place it upon the Throne of the Godhead, and clothe it with the form of God. It remaineth then, that the Divine Knowledge is the intuition or view of things in their first and eternal Original.  
Moreover, Knowledge is the Im●…ge of the thing known, in the understanding of him who knoweth it. There are only three sorts of Images: 1. The Original Image, the exemplar cause and p●…ttern. 2, The essential form, which is the thing itself. 3. A Copy or Figure of this, as the Picture taken from the life, and the shadow cast from the substance. Thus the Lord Jesus in his spiritual Glories, as He is the Divine Understanding, is the Original form of the Sun, the Suns Sun. To him agrees that, which Plutarch delivereth to us from the ancient Philosophers, that the God of the Sun, which inhabits the Sun, excels the Sun in the sweetness, beauty, and glory of his Light, ten thousand times more, than the Sun doth this Earth, or the darkest Cloud. The Sun itself shining in these visible Heavens, is the essence or essential form, framed by this pattern, sprung forth from it. The Light, the Sunshines, and Suns which we severally take in with our eyes, are so many figures, and pictures, or shadows rather of this Sun flowing from him.  
If we believe the Creatures in their essential forms, or in their shadowy figures, to inhabit the Divine Understanding, we either exalt them to an height too far above them, by bringing them into the Divine Unity, and so making them one God with God; or we debase the Divine Nature, by bringing it down to a composition with things foreign and inferior to it.  
The Philosopher teaches us, that Science, or clear and certain Knowledge, is only the knowledge of things in their causes. The first and most perfect Spirit is only capable of this knowledge, which alone is most perfectly clear and immutable, the knowledge of things in their first and universal cause. Thus the Divine Essence in the Person of our Jesus, the Divine Wisdom and Understanding, the brightness of the Divine Glory, the Image of the Godhead, pure, naked, full, substantial, eternal, is both the only Object of the Divine Eye, worthy of it, and completely suited to it, and also the Species or Image, in which and by which alone all Creatures, all forms of things in Heaven, Earth and Hell, are presented to it. This is that Unity, which in its pure simplicity, being free from all division of parts, or diversities of forms, is absolutely unbounded, and so diffuseth itself into the most perfect and unconfined Variety, comprehending it entirely, altogether undivided within itself, as in a spiritual most spacious Palace of Light, and Paradise of the Divine Life, upon the high and flourishing Mount of Eternity. This is that Unity in its first distinction, and so in the most full Variety, our Jesus; in whom all fullness of Nature, Grace, and Glory dwelleth in its sweetest repose, in the most perfect Harmony of all the most heightening Beauties and Delights. This is the Beatisical Vision, in which God clearly contemplates, completely enjoys Himself, and all things in Himself, as in the Crystalline Fountain of the Godhead.  
Let me now bring home to my present mark, this present Argument, by drawing up my whole Discourse upon it, into three short Propositions:  
1. God, who knoweth all things distinctly and exactly, knoweth every Act of the Will, every actual determination of it in each Act.  
2. God, who only knoweth all things, by beholding them in the Glass of his own Essence, in the divinely beautiful, the only beloved Person and form of his only eternal Birth, his own Son; there hath the view of the Will of Man in every distinct motion, act, and determination, as in its first exemplar cause in eternity.  
3. The will of man then in every motion, act, and determination of it, is from eternity predetermined in the Divine Understanding, as in its first cause and Original form. Upon these grounds, the Knowledge of God is at once a foreknowledge of future things, and a knowledge of things present: 1. It is a foreknowledge, as it sees things in their first cause, in a state far above and transcendent to the state of their proper existency, as they stand forth out of their causes. 2. It is a knowledge of things present, as eternity and the Divine duration containeth in itself the measures, the exemplars, and so the most exact forms of time and every successive duration, in its several aspects of past, present, and to come. Besides that, as the Sun looking forth, makes the Day and the Light, with all the visible Images, with which it beholds the Heavens and the Earth, so the Divine Eye is at once a Glass to itself, and a Fountain to all things; by beholding things every moment in itself, it doth formally every moment send them forth from itself: so at once it seeth them in their formal cause and present existence.   

6. Argument.  
The sixth Argument drawn from this Head, is the infiniteness of God. This is a Negative expression, representing to us a Positive Perfection, which surmounts all Assimilations, all Similitudes or Images, which the highest understanding of men or Angels is capable of taking in, or the whole Creation united in its most abstracted and heightened Excellencies of bringing forth. We figure it to ourselves only by a Negation, or removal of all figures, of all terms or bounds. We seem to touch it with the Top point, and simplest Unity of Spirits, by a silence and cessation of all created powers or faculties in us. We seem to apprehend it only by being comprehended of it, and lost in it. If we knew and tasted the unexpressible Sweetnesses, the high Raptures, with the Divinest Pleasures, in the contemplation of the Divine Infiniteness, how far should we be from straightening or darkening its Glories by limiting, and in limiting, dividing them? If God be God, that is, before all things, and above them, he is absolutely unchangeable: As He is unchangeable, He is every where, every way the same, equal and entirely perfect, equally and endlessly removed from all bound and limit. If God be God, that is, the first of all things, He hath the Fountain of Life in himself. Thus he is ever fresh and new, ever springing into fresh and new Glories, ever equally, endlessly removed from any conclusion or confinement in his Births and Beauties.  
The Divinity and Poetry of the Heathen from their most ancient, most sacred mysteries, teach us, that Love is the Eldest and Youngest of all the gods▪ Our God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, is the God of Love in the truest, the sweetest and the best sense. He alone is Love itself, in an abstracted eternal Divine Essence and Substance, pure Love, altogether unmixed, having nothing in itself different, or divers from itself; thus is an infinite Love, a sweet and clear Sea, which swalloweth up all bounds, all shores and bottoms, into itself. This Love, as it is every way the same, is the ancient of Days, the eldest of all the Gods. This Love, as it ever flourisheth with a perpetual Spring and Youth of all Beauties, of all beautiful Delights, is the youngest of all the Gods. Thus is this most high and holy Love, the God of Gods, the First and the Last, containing all things within its own blissful bosom, as the bound of all, but being itself every way beyond all bounds, without all bounds, infinite.  
How infinite are the joys and blessedness of this Infiniteness! How is this infinite God, our God, the only true God, a Paradise of Love, infinitely heightened in all the beauties and sweetnesses of Love, infinitely diffused through all things, beyond all things? How is He at once the Paradise of Love, with its infinite heightenings, with its infinite amplitudes in every part, in every point of things, entirely perfect? How is it every where the same, every where new, to the satisfaction, to the swallowing up of all the most fixed, most various, most vast desires, into an Aybss or Ocean of Delights equally unconfined and undivided! Shall we then limit the holy One of Israel? If we do not, we must ascribe this greatness to Him, that He contains all things in Himself. In Him all things live, move, and have their Being. We must attribute this immenseness, or immensurableness to Him, to fill all in all, as the only distinct, exact measure of all things; himself still transcending all, and being measured by nothing. It is said of Christ, That the Church is the fullness of him, who filleth all in all. The Humane Soul, or Intellectual Spirit, is a rude imperfect shadow of the Divine Infiniteness. Our thoughts are living Images in various postures and motions. They are in a manner the Creation, the Creatures of our Souls. They live, move, and have their being in our Souls. Our Souls alone fill all in them all. How far greater is the distance between God and his Creatures, than between the Soul and its Creation? How much more less, even less than nothing are all the Creatures to God? How much more truly, more entirely are they all that they are in Him? how much more absolutely is he their fullness, shilling them all in all? All things then, all Essences, all Lives, all Vital Powers and Faculties in each Essence, all Motions of life, all Acts or Operations of every power and faculty, are in God. He alone filleth all in every Essence, Life, Power, Faculty, Motion, Act. All are in Him, have all their distinct forms, degrees, modes of being in Him, to the least degree, or shadow of Being.  
Thus Angels and Men, the Understanding and Will of each Man, of each Angel, every act, motion, determination of each Understanding, of each Will, are comprehended in God. God entirely filleth all, every Person or Spirit, every Understanding and Will, every Determination and Motion. Where we exclude him out of any Spirit, Essence, Power, or Operation, there we set a bound to the eternal Spirit, there we limit the holy One, that pure Essence and Act, there we say to Him, Thus far shalt thou go, no farther.  
If God be acknowledged for Being itself in its purest simplicity, it is Being alone which can bond him. All without him, where he ceaseth and terminateth, is not Being. But who understands not this, that that which hath no Being can be no bounds?   

7. Argument.  
The seventh Argument is the causality of God. The celebrated Argument of the Philosopher, by which he asserts the Divine Being, is the necessity of one first mover. For, if the causes of motion did not terminate in some one first mover, but did proceed to an infiniteness of successions, all things will be at a stand, motion will universally cease. For an infinite succession of causes could never be passed through, nor arrive at any effect.  
This determinates the truth of a God, and the Nature of a true God, that He is the first Mover, the first Cause.  
The force and dignity of this first Cause declareth itself to us in these following Maxims, which stand fixed in the eternal Reason of things, as in their proper root, and shine clearly in the evidence of their own Light, and have their Truth sealed by an universal Testimony.  
1. The first Cause is the universal Cause. All things, all causes and effects, all causalities and efficacies, all order and connexion of things, are virtually and eminently comprehended in the first Cause, from which, according to their proper places, and eternal patterns, they flow.  
2. The first Cause is most of all, most truly and most fully, most properly and most powerfully the cause of every effect.  
3. The first Cause is more intimate to every effect than any second Cause. It is most intimate to every effect, with an intimateness of presence and power, it is immediately omnipotent with an immediateness of Person and of Virtue, of Operation and of Efficacy.  
4. Every second Cause hath its causality, acteth and produceth its effect, in the virtue of the first Cause. Therefore Philosophers and Divines have taught us, that all Causes and Effects, in their orders and connexion's, are only explications or modifications of the first Cause.  
5. That which is the Cause of the Cause, is also the Cause of its Effects. The Operation of each thing followeth its Essence. All Operations, which are second Acts, are folded up in the first Act, which is the Essence, and flow forth from it, as that unfolds itself in them, within the compass of its own proper Orb and Sphere.  
All these Maxims reign with an universal Sovereignty of Truth and Power through all orders of things, over all minds. They seem to be unmovably established upon the Basis or Foundation of that Principle, That which is the first in any kind of things, is the universal Root, Rule, Truth, and Life, to all things of the same kind. That alone is such by itself. All other things of the same kind are such in the force and virtue of that, by its presence and power in them.  
Let us now bring this down to the particular Subject of our Discourse. If God be the first Cause, if the Will be a second Cause, if the Acts of the Will, and the determination of the Will in these Acts, be the effects of the Will, then is God the universal cause of all these, then is he more truly and effectually the cause of each act and determination of the Will, than the Will itself, then is he in the immediateness of his Person, Power and Operation, more intimate to each act and determination of the Will, than the Will itself, then doth the Will, with all its acts and determinations, in their several Orders, Connexion's and Circumstances, lie virtually and eminently in the Divine Will, as in their first Cause, from which, in their proper seasons and places, they flow distinctly forth, as that first Will, which is one pure eternal Act, unfoldeth itself into them.  
A great Philosopher and Divine representeth all Births and Productions, those of Flowers and Trees in Gardens, of Beasts in the Fields, of Fishes in the Sea, of Birds in the Air, of Celestial Light, of Men and Angels, as so many Songs of Praise celebrating the first Birth and Production, the eternal Generation of the Son from the Father in the Trinity. For, saith he, all other Productions or Births spring up and stand, in the virtue of this.  
All causes and effects in like manner are so many Divine Songs, sounding forth through the whole Heavens and Earth the Praises, the Power, the Efficacy of the first Cause. For in the womb of that, as they all immediately fall in the bosom of that, they lie together in its virtue and presence, they spring and flourish, its sacred Image and Impression they all bear divinely engraven upon them. I have now finished my Arguments drawn from the first Head, the Nature of God.  
Gentle Reader, Perhaps I may seem to thee to have drawn out to a great length, and to have made frequent large Digressions upon this Head of the Deity. I have indeed willingly taken every fair occasio●…, as I have passed along through this Land of Life and Bliss, amidst the Gardens of true Adonis, the eternal Son, to stay thyself and me some moments, upon the contemplation of the charming Prospect, as also to gather and present thee with some of the Paradisical Flowers and Fruits which grow so plentifully here. I have endeavoured in my way, according to the narrow measure of my weak capacity, far below the Glories of this Object, if not to open, yet to point out to thee the Excellencies of the Godhead, as they lie in their first and fairest ground of eternal life.  
Two Reasons have moved me to this,  
1. God is the first and fairest Ground, the clearest and sweetest Light of Truth. The Philosopher hath taught us, That demonstration is only by first and immediate Principles. The first and immediate Principle is that, which hath the Light of Truth immediately seated and shining in itself, which receiveth not its evidence from any Superior Medium or Argument, which immediately displayeth its beams from its own face on the eye of the Understanding, without the interposal of any inferior Medium or Argument. This is the only Principle of Demonstration, and this is God alone. He is the Father of Lights, the Intellectual Sun, God unvailing Himself in our Spirits, setting Himself, as the golden Seal of purest Light, upon our Spirits. Thus, by his immediate embraces, he impregnateth them with the Divine forms of truth. In this sense St. Paul saith, That our Faith is in the demonstration of God. Accordingly he describeth the truly Evangelical or Spiritual Knowledge, to be the shining of God in our hearts, unto the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.  
He, that in a clear Evening fixeth his eye on the Firmament above him, beholdeth by degrees innumerable Stars, with springing lights sparkling forth upon him. If God lift up a little of his Veil, and by the least glimpses of his naked Face enlighten and attract the eye of our Soul to a fixed view of Himself, with what Divine Raptures do we see the eternal Truths of things, in their sweetest Lights, springing and sparkling upon us, besetting us round in that Firmament of the Divine Essence, as a Crown of incorruptible Glory?  
The heavenly Bridegroom in the Canticles singeth thus, I am come into my Garden, my Sister, my Spouse, I have drunk my Milk with my Wine, I have eaten my Honey with my Honeycomb. If this lovely Bridegroom lead our Souls, his Bride, into the Celestial Gardens of the Divine Mind, in the eternal Spirit, than they with a pleasure unexpressible sit and sing in those Gardens. Now we drink in the Crystal Streams of all Truth, now we drink in the Light, as warm Milk, most sweet and lively, from the warm and living Breasts of Truth, now we eat the living Honey of Divine Wisdom, as it drops and distils upon our Lips, from the Honeycomb itself of the Divine Nature.  
2. God is the Pleasantest, the only pleasure of all Objects. He alone is the proper Object, the true and perfect Pleasure of all Faculties, of the Understanding and of the Will, the only sweet Rest, the only and full Feast of them both. God, as He is the Light, which hath no Darkness in it, so is He Love without any allay. He is that Love, which is Goodness itself, Beauty itself, Sweetness itself, all alone, unmixed, at the utmost height of purity, sweetness and simplicity, all in all of Him, and all one in Him. This is that Trinity, which is the fullness and majesty of the Divine Essence, out of which all the Attributes, Properties, and Perfections arise to our Understanding, and into which, in the clearest Light, they most clearly resolve themselves.  
Goodness here is Beauty and Sweetness in their spring. Beauty is Goodness in its proper native and complete form. Sweetness is Goodness and Beauty flowing or in motion, or goodness, as it springs up into beauty, and in the delicious bosom of that beauty, multiplies itself endlessly into innumerable births and forms. Goodness is the ever flourishing, ever youthful Father and Bridegroom, Beauty the most lovely Daughter and Bride, Sweetness the Marriage of these two.  
Goodness, as it is the spring of all Beauty and Sweetness, is power in the abstract, in as much as Evil, the only opposite to Goodness, is the weakest of all things, weakness itself. Beauty, being the essential and full form of Goodness, being the abstract and exemplar of Harmony, is Wisdom itself, the only Intellectual Beauty, of which all the inferior Beauties of sense are only shadowy impressions and footsteps. The Divine Sweetness being Goodness and Beauty in motion, is upon this account the first and highest Activity.  
The Fowler draws the soaring Larks to his Net, by the reflection of Heaven's Light, from a piece of glass upon the Earth. Thus the best Spirits, whose Music and Flight excited or directed by no earthly Interest, no force of Flesh, mount upward to Heaven and eternity, are most properly, most powerfully drawn to any Opinion, when it appears, as the pure unmixed reflections of the Divine Beauties falling from their heights of eternal Glory upon any Understanding, and from thence diffusing themselves to enlighten the darkness of this inferior Region.  
The first Beauty, and the first Truth, are one Being, both the first Form or Image, in which the Godhead represents itself to itself, in the most full and entire Harmony of all Perfections, at their utmost heights, as they rise up immediate and fresh in their eternal spring, and of itself with itself, as the first Image with the first Original. Thus every Truth in all its descents, springing from the first Truth, is also a Divine Beauty, in the Face of which the Divine Goodness shineth, smileth, and poureth forth itself in the most charming and attractive sweetness. If then it were rightly represented and rightly seen, it would by irresistible Charms draw at once the Understanding and the Will of every Spirit into its embraces.  
We easily believe that which we desire. Reader, Set before the eyes of thy Spirit a God, whose Essence is Love. Represent to thyself a Love, which subsisteth in a Trinity of Beauty, Goodness, and Sweetness, all three raised to the uttermost height of Purity and Holiness, that being altogether without any mixture or allay, they are also without any bounds, all three so absolute and unbounded in Perfection, that they mutually unfold one another, most completely and most clearly, all three, so heightened to the supreme Point of Intellectual, or rather Superintellectual Life, that as they are Love, the band of all Perfection and Pleasantness, and so every Perfection in the Abstract and Unity, they are also in like manner complete, living, and immortal Persons. When thou hast thus represented God to thyself most perfectly, most universally amiable in all Lights of Nature and Grace, in every posture, in every glance, dost thou not at once most ardently desire this God to fill all, to be all in all, in this work? The work of some excellent Painter is known by this, that it is a finished piece. Every part, every point hath its just and full proportions, as from a spring of life opening itself there, as if Nature herself were a vital sense. This gives the life, the beauty, the sweetening to the whole piece, a living form to the Workman. Can we then think, that God, who is beauty and sweetness itself, who works immediately and alone, by beauty and sweetness in the highest Perfection, in as much as he works only and immediately by his Essence, which is one and the same with its Operations, will leave any point of his work without the sweetening touch from his own hand? Can we think that God, whose Beauty is his Wisdom, whose Goodness is his Power, whose Sweetness is his Life, his Joy, his Glory, will leave this piece, his Creation, which he hath drawn from Himself, to be in the whole a Divine Picture of Himself, unfinished? Will he suffer any part of it to pass without its just and full proportions, in an inviolable order to the whole and to the parts, upon which the life, the beauty, the sweetness of the whole depends?  
We read in the Canticles, That the heavenly Image of God, that new Creation which is the spiritual Bride in a Saint, the joints of the thighs are like Jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman. Cunning in Hebrew is there properly word for word, trusty and faithful. It implies a truth of skill and care in the workman, by which he exactly answereth the relation in which he stands to his work, the trust in him, the dependence upon him, and expectation from him. Motion is the chiefest part of Beauty, in as much as it is the most proper expression of Life, and the spring of Variety. This first Creation, the work of Nature taken together in its invisible and visible parts, from its beginning to its end, is a living Image of God, his Daughter and Bride, although it be a shadow only of the heavenly Image, or the heavenly Image in a shadow. Are not the Wills of Intellectual Spirits here, the joints of the Thigh of this Image, the manifest and most principal Instruments of motion, by which it ascends or descends, it turns itself about, and moves every way? Shall not then the faithful Creator, whose Truth, whose Goodness, whose Skill is the Idea of all Beauty in Himself, infinitely transcends all trust, all expectation, make these Joints, Jewels? Shall he not here express the most beautiful Ideas of his Skill and Wisdom? Shall he not here lay on the greatest Riches of his Divine Goodness? Shall he not stamp on these the most glorious Seal of his Truth, his Faithfulness to the work of his hands? Shall he not give the most heightened life and sweetening to this Seal of his Goodness, Truth and Skill? Doth not he understand, that the perfection of the whole work lies, that the praise and glory of the Workman depends, principally if not entirely, upon these Joints, on which the motion of the whole in so high a degree depends?  
I will briefly conclude this part of my Discourse. Reader, think of God as Sweetness itself, all pure, unmixed, unconfined. Think of God, as the Spirit of Love, Beauty, Joy, all in one, in their most abstracted Essences, in their highest Exaltation, in their greatest amplitude, in their most potent vigour, incorruptible, eternal. Think of God, as the purest and richest Spring, without beginning or end; as the clearest Sea, without bottom or bounds, of all Perfections, in the highest degree of Pleasantness, of all Pleasantness in the highest Perfection. Think of all things together with thyself in this God, the Unchangeable Original of all, according to their first and truest forms, according to their eternal Truths, one Goodness and Sweetness together with this goodness and sweetness itself, one Spirit with this Spirit of all Loves, Beauties and Joys, in Divine figures, divinely distinct, as the first and fullest Variety, in the first and entirest Unity.  
When thou hast thought thus of God, now think whether all things within thee do not with the fullest concurrence meet in this one only most passionate desire, that this God may alone conduct his whole Work, the whole course of all things, that he may be present, may act, may appear alone, in every part, in every motion of it, as filling so many figures and shadows of Himself. After all, consider whether that ground, in which is founded the desire of this, as the most perfect good, the Object of all desires, be not as firm a foundation for the belief of this, no less agreeable Truth to the Understanding, than it is of good to the Will. Can Goodness and Truth be separated, when Truth is Goodness in its essential Image, in its fullest, fairest reflection? Shall not the most perfect Workman bring forth the most perfect Work; the best from the best? Shall not the highest God, the most true of Himself thus do, who is the supreme Good, whose Will is Goodness itself, where (as Ficinus upon Plato speaks) the highest Voluntariness, and the highest Necessity, most beautifully and most pleasantly meet, in the most inviolable band of the most true, the most perfect Good.    

2. Head of Arguments.  
I pass now to the second Head of Arguments, taken from the Mediation of Christ, and opposed to that Liberty of the Will, which is placed in a freedom from the predetermination of its Acts, in its essential Principles and superior Causes.  
My method of treating of the Mediation of Christ, and directing my Discourse upon it to the service of my present design, shall be this: I will endeavour with all humility and holy reverence, by the conduct of that sweet Light which falls from the Face of Christ (by the guidance of his Eyes, the only Fountain of Grace and Truth) to set before us the Lord Jesus in those three principal Parts of his Mediation, as he is, 1. The ground. 2. The way. 3. The end of the whole Work of God.  
1. Jesus Christ is the ground of the whole Work of God. This is the first and principal part of Christ's Mediation, in which he is the Golden Head of the whole Image of things in Grace and Nature. This well understood (according to the weak capacity of our Understanding here below) seemeth to make all the other parts of the Mediatorship, with the whole tract of things, plain and pleasant.  
That, which in Divinity and Philosophy is understood by the name of a Person, is an Intellectual Being, completely existing. Therefore God, Angels, (which are called Gods) and Men, made in the Image of God, which are also dignified with the Name of God in the holy Scripture, are only styled and esteemed Persons. The reason of the Name, I humbly conceive to be this, Every Intellectual Spirit, according to the propriety of its Nature and Essence, comprehendeth entirely within itself, the principle of its own Essence, its essential form and operation, by comprehending in itself the whole nature of things.  
The Understanding in its perfect Act, and Being in its largest compass, are said (by Philosophers) to meet in a mutual proportion and union; the one being the proper and adequate Object of the other. Therefore the Greeks call every Intellectual Spirit, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the whole.  
The prime operation of every Intellectual Spirit is contemplation. The first and immediate Object of its contemplation is its own Essence. In this Glass of living and immortal Light, all other things, according to their proper essences, in their several and essential forms, appear to it most clearly and delightfully, as its own Births and Beauties. God, the first, and most perfect, the Father and King of all Intellectual Spirits, is the truest Person. He alone in truth subsisteth in himself, existeth without, and above all things. He truly containeth the whole compass of things, in their unchangeable Truths and Substances within himself, although he Himself be the most absolute, and most abstracted Unity. Angels and Men, in the perfection of their Natures, are no more than shadowy persons. They have only shadowy Essences, a shadowy comprehension of shadows.  
God then alone most perfectly and substantially enjoyeth Himself in the contemplation of Himself, which is the Beatifical Vision of the most beautiful, the most blessed Essence of Essences. This Act of Contemplation is an Intellectual and Divine Generation, in which the Divine Essence, with an eternity of most heightened Pleasures, eternally bringeth forth itself, within itself, into an Image of itself.  
According to the Perfection in which God knoweth Himself, and enjoyeth Himself, so is the Perfection of this Image. As those are, so is this clear, distinct and full. The more distinct the beam is from the first Light in its emanation, the more strong and full is the reflectiou. This Divine Image then is at once most perfectly distinct from its Divine Original, most exactly equal to it, and most perfectly one with it. As than God is, so is this essential, eternal Image of God, a complete and distinct Person in itself, in every point with the highest and most ravishing agreeableness, answering the Divine Esseunce in its spring out of which it ariseth.  
If this Image were not a complete Person, God's knowledge and fruition of Himself would be incomplete, without the pleasing and proportionate returns of an equal Loveliness, Life and Love. If this Image were not most perfectly distinct from the bosom out of which it flourisheth, the knowledge and enjoyment of God would be confused, more like to the blindness, the barrenness, the cold of darkness and death, than the life and fruitfulness, the warmth of beauty, life and love, which all have their Perfection and their Joys in the propagation of themselves into most distinct forms, and the reflection upon themselves from these forms.  
This is the first, and so the most universal Image, the first seat of all Images of things. In this all the fullness, the unchangeable riches of the Godhead display themselves in their first, their fairest, their fullest glories. All forms of things are here most proper, most perfect, most distinct, substantial, and true. Philosophers and Divines call the first Images of things, as they rise up from the Fountain of eternity in the bosom of this universal and eternal Image, Ideas. The Idea, in this sense, is the first and distinct Image of each form of things in the Divine Mind; The universal Image, of which we speak, is that Divine Mind or Understanding. This is the proper Idea of the Godhead, the universal Idea, the Idea of Ideas, and so that Mother of us all, which is above. Every Idea of each Creature is this Idea, bringing forth itself, according to the inestimable Treasures of the Godhead in it, into innumerable distinct figures of itself in the unconfined Varieties of its own Excellencies and Beauties, that so it may enjoy itself, sport with itself, in these, with endless and ever new Pleasures of all Divine Loves.  
Thus in every Idea of each Creature doth this universal Idea dwell at large, and freely shine forth with all its fullness and sweetnesses in a distinct form, as itself in another form.  
The Ideas or Images being the only and eternal Truths of all things, do from themselves, as the true Heavens in eternity, send forth, as shadowy figures, the Heaven of Angels, these visible Heavens, the Earth, all the Elements with their Inhabitants and Furniture.  
Each Idea containeth its own created figure, as the proper place of it; giveth it its essence and existence in itself, sustaineth it, and supporteth it in its own bosom by new Births, or emanations from itself every moment; it filleth it throughout, as the Light doth the Air, or rather the beams in the Air. This alone is the unchangeable Truth, the true substance of each thing, the golden Head above, the inward spring below, the Crystal Vessel which holdeth and encloseth every created Being, the living water of all Truth and true Being, which filleth every created Vessel.  
Place is affirmed by the Jews, to be one of the Names of God. Christ saith in the Gospel, In my Father's house are many Mansions. This universal and eternal Image, of which we speak, is a Divine Person: This is our Jesus, the God of all Glory, in the clearest, the fullest effulgency or brightness of all his Glories in his own most proper and most glorious form. This is the House or Palace of the Father upon the Mount of Eternity, the House of Ideas, or the first and eternal Images of things, which are at once, as so many Children of this Great King, the Father of all, and as so many Mansions in this House. Here in this House of God, as David speaketh, each Bird hath its Nest, hath its place to sit and sing near his holy Altar. Thus God, in each of these distinct and eternal Images, is the distinct and eternal Place of each thing.  
As the golden Seals were the only place of the Impression, if there were nothing besides the golden Substance and the Impression; so is the Idea, or the Divine Image in our Lord Jesus, the only place of each thing. How sweet a Contemplation is this?  
Every created Being, as a Figure or an Impression, which hath no ground, no foundation to sustain it, besides the Seal which makes it, rises, flourisheth, fadeth and falleth, hath the whole compass of its beginning, way and end, in the soft and beautiful bosom of its own Divine Image or Idea in the Person of our Lord Jesus. Thus all things live, move, and have their being in Him. It is the Rule of the Philosopher, That all motion is made upon something unmoveable. We read in the first of the Hebrews, a place cited out of the Psalms, where it is thus said to Jesus Christ, The Heavens and the Earth are the work of thine hands, they perish, but thou remainest; They all wax old as a Garment, as a Vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, thy years fail not. Behold Jesus Christ, as he is the eternal Image of the Godhead, containing the first Images of all things eternally in Himself, is the Divine and unmoveable ground, upon which the Heaven, the Earth, with all things in them (whose whole being is a perpetual motion and change) perpetually move.  
Jesus Christ is the Wisdom of God, as he is the first and most perfect Image of the Divine Essence within itself, and in this Image contains those Images which are the first Patterns, the eternal Grounds, Truths, Measures of all things. The same Jesus is the Power of God in respect to that seminal or propagative Power in those first Patterns, by which, as sacred Springs, they multiply themselves by various streams, receiving all along from them the continuation of their Being's, in continual motions, till by circling about they return to, and rest in the bosom of their Fountain. This is that pure and clear Sea of Ideal Lights and Lives, from which all their Rivers of Being go forth, and into which they return again, while that still is equally full, and capable of no diminution or increase.  
This ground of the Work of God in Christ, and of the Mediation of Christ, seemeth to be the fundamental sense, though perhaps not the only one, nor that principally intended by the Apostle in those words, where he saith, That our Lord Jesus is the Image of the invisible God, and the Firstborn of every Creature. This last expression is divinely contrived to be both in one, a collective and a distributive: with equal propriety of sense, you may read of all Creation, of every Creature.  
The holy Scripture in the Epistle to the Hebrews distinguisheth between the shadow and the Image, the very Image, the self Image of good things to come. The whole Creation, with the Law in its Angelical Glories, as it is the Crown and Ground of this Creation, according to the Doctrine of the Jewish Masters, and of all the Scripture, is a shadow of good things, and no more. Jesus Christ alone is the Image of God, and so of all good things, the very Image, the self Image, that Image which by its exactness is one self, with its Original God, in all those Glories, in which (by reason of their excess of Light) He is in this Image equally glorious, and perfectly visible to Himself.  
Jacob styleth his firstborn, the Excellency of Dignity, and the Excellency of Strength. Jesus Christ being the first Image of God, is also in that the first Image of the Creation in the whole, the first Image of every Creature, in its distinct form, in its whole compass, as a part of the whole. Thus is He the Firstborn, the Excellency of Dignity, the Exceliency of Strength, both in respect to the Father of all, and of every Birth. He is the first effulgency, or shining out of the Divine Glory, in every form imitable or inimitable.  
If this Nail were fastened by a Master of the Assembliés, how unmovably would it be fixed, and be the frame of my design. Socrates in Plato professeth to love his beautiful Friend▪ because he always generated in his mind within, and his sp●…ch without, rational Discourses, harmonious Forms of things, beaut●…ul Images, con●…ting of agreeable porportions. Reason in 〈◊〉 intellectual Spirit, is a treasure of Divine pr●…portions, the patterns and principles of its Activity. Every Intellectual Spirit by its Reason is a sacred Field, replenished with Divine Powers, Divine Springs and Forms of proportions and harmony, which compose reason in the essence of it, are at once Divine Flowers of Intellectual Beauties and Divine Springs, a prolific virtue of seminative and formative force, by which they propagate themselves. Our Jesus is this Field, and this Paradise of Flowers and Springs in the Godhead, the Understanding, the Reason of the Godhead.  
Every Workman, according to the measure of his reason and wisdom, hath in himself, before he beginneth to work, the form and perfection of his work. This is the end which first moveth the Agent, and setteth him on work. This is the reason, the rule of his works, which giveth him both life to it, and light in it. This Harmony of skill or reason within, is the Angelical Music in the mind, to which all things in the work without do move; like Amphion's Lute, by sound of which the Walls of Thebes were raised.  
Thus the Workman works by wisdom; For his God teacheth him. Shall not the only wise God much more work in Wisdom? Shall not He have the form of that Work, which he intendeth, perfect and plain, with all its proportions in his Spirit, before He beginneth it? Shall not He have his end, the pattern, the principle, the reason, and the rule of His Work in Himself? Or doth He work blindly, or by chance? Or is He enlivened or enlightened from without for his Work? Doth He not from the treasure and measure of all harmony in his own mind give to it its proportions and perfections? Solomon bringeth in Wisdom, as a Person in eternity, speaking after this manner; When God stretched out the Heavens, when he laid the foundations of the Earth, when he digged up a place for the Sea, than I was with him. St. John in the beginning of his Gospel takes the Veil off from his Person, and discovereth this Wisdom in an eternal Person, to be the Lord Jesus. For he saith, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and by him were all things made. This is the internal Word of the Mind, the Wisdom of God, the essential Image of the Godhead, the Original, the eternal Image of all things. In this Word, are eternally contained the Patterns, the prolisick Virtues, by which the whole Creation, with all things in it, are brought forth and form. This is the Word in the Mind of God, in which the whole Creation is drawn forth, in which it lieth in the first and most proper draught of it, from the beginning to the end, before it cometh forth in itself. This is our Jesus bred with the Father in eternity, ever before Him, who thus day by day sporteth Himself, and playeth with Him, whiles in all his Work, ●…e multiplieth and spreadeth forth round about him to the uttermost bounds of things, Divine Figures of those Archetypal and exemplar Glories which he seeth in him.  
Can this then be? Can Jesus Christ thus be the ground of the Creation, and of the whole Work of God in it? Can the whole piece in all its proportions and perfection, lie here in the Person of this Jesus, in its first draught, in its exactest patterns, and the will of man with the motions of it be left out of this model? Is not the Will of every Intellectual Spirit, are not the motions of this Will the principal parts of this Work, are they not those Hinges and Engines by which the whole is turned about in all the great revolutions of it? Doth not the Catastrophe, the final change, doth not the finishings and perfections, the Ultimate and most glorious closes of the whole, on which the expectations of Men and Angels are fixed, in which the full Harmony of the whole Work, the full glory of the Workman do consist, and are discovered, depend upon these, the Will, and its motion?  
If therefore these also lie in this Jesus, the essential, the personal Wisdom of God, their first ground, their most perfect pattern in eternity, are they not here determined, as in their first cause? But thus much of the Mediatorship of Christ, in the ground of it, as the first ground of the whole work of God lies most fair, most full, and flourishing in his Person in eternity.  
2. Jesus Christ in his Mediatorship is the way of the whole work of God from the beginning to the end of it, a most beautiful and a most pleasant way. I shall set this way before us in two parts.  
1. Part. Jesus Christ is the first and universal Creature, the first created Head, the first, the fairest Copy of the whole Angelical Nature with all its Glories, of the whole Creation, the Life-Picture, taken immediately from the Life itself. I shall not insist much on this, as seeming perhaps not so clear, not having been generally received, neither doth it bring any new Argument to this Cause, but only add new force to the Argument immediately before, taken from the ground of the Mediatorship in Christ.  
Yet am I not willing to pass it by, without a brief offer of those Reasons, which seem to give clearness and countenance to it, and that upon a twofold Consideration:  
1. I gladly thus far gratify the Arians and Socinians, by complying with them, in giving to our Lord Jesus, as a Creature, this pre-existency to the whole Creation, and pre-eminence above it. I cannot but conceive fair hopes, that clear and candid Spirits among them, will by this link in the golden Chain of Christ's Mediatorship, in which God, and all his Works, are by an inseparable and harmonious order fastened each to other, be easily lead to that first and highest Link of the Godhead of Christ, the original, eternal, essential form of the Divine Essence, sweetly conceived, and completely finished there, as the womb and bosom of the first Love. Neither can any more doubt, but that those intelligent and ingenious Persons, of which I speak, will as delightfully by this same Link, upon a wise contemplation of it, be carried to those other lower Links of Redemption and Justification, Sanctification and Salvation by Jesus Christ, as the purchase, the power, the pattern, the meritorious, the efficient, the formal cause of all this, in his Humiliation and Exaltation.  
If Jesus Christ be a created form, living, immortal, glorious, containing in himself the whole Creation, with all its Vicissitudes of Lives and Deaths in one entire Beauty, more fresh, more fair, more full, then ever it can be in itself, if it be seen at one view, at the uttermost height of all sweetness, softness, amiableness, lustre, that it is capable of, (although that be true, which some say, that the World in the whole is the most beautiful of all things, or which others say, that it is an Angel.) This created form then hath a Prototype, its Original Image, its exemplar Cause in eternity, in God, on which it depends, and from which it flows; otherwise it is not a created form, but uncreated, absolute and eternal. This Original Image is one with the first, the supreme Image of eternity, and of God. For all things are there, as in the fullest Variety, so in the most entire Unity. This then is the Godhead of Christ, that essential Image of the Divine Nature, in which Jesus Christ, with all his created Glories, pre-exists in eternity, from whence he descends into a created state, and hath there an existency antecedent to every other Creature.  
If this Jesus be the first and universal Creature, the whole world, in one Spirit and Person, who takes flesh of the Virgin Mary, then doth the whole world live, die, and rise again in him. Now is his Death the Death of the whole world, his Resurrection is the universal Resurrection of the whole world in its Divine Head, and in its immortal Root. Now is Jesus Christ a Sacrifice for our Redemption, Sanctification, Salvation; not by an imaginary, notional, arbitrary Imputation, but a judgement founded upon the Divine Nature of things, and a real immediate Union between Christ and the World, as a Divine Seed, and a Divine Plant, which with a Divine eminency is comprehended in that Seed, and virtually produced out of it, receiving every moment its alterations from it, according to the seminal and Divine proportions treasured up in it. Thus Christ takes away the Sin of the World; thus he makes all things new. These are only glances by the way.  
2. The second Consideration which moved me to touch this string, is the perfection and the heightening which it seems to give to the whole mystery of Divine Truth in the Scripture, and in the Gospel. A sweet and beautiful line would probably arise from this Point, to illustrate many and principal Scriptures, many and principal Mysteries of the Gospel, if it were found consonant to the letter of the Scripture, to the Analogy of Faith, and so generally received. I will now therefore offer in few words, a reason or two in this case, leaving the judgement of it and the full prosecution, to those who have either Humane or Divine Learning in these things above myself.  
1. The first, or rather cluster of Reasons, lieth in that Scripture, Col. 1. 15, 16, 17.  
1. Christ is here described in the proper Character of his Divine Person (as the general ground of his Mediatorship) by these words, Who is the Image of the invisible God. He is the Image of God by way of eminence, the first, the supreme, the most perfect Image, representing the Essence, the Substance, the Unity of God to himself within himself, essentially, substantially in his own proper Unity. He is the Image of the invisible God, as he is invisible in that Glory of his own eternal form, in which he is visible by no Light, to no Light, to no Eye, in no Spirit besides his own. He is the only Image of God in every Image, the Image of God in its first state upon the Throne, in its descent through all states, in the Grave, unto the nethermost parts of the Earth, until it return and re-ascend above all Heavens thither where it was at first.  
2. Jesus Christ is here described in the two parts of his Mediatorship, one relating to the state of Nature, the other to the state of Grace. At the 25. verse he is styled the firstborn of every Creature, at the 18. verse, the firstborn from the dead. These two being contra-distinguished from each other, seem to point at, and paint forth Jesus Christ in two different forms, agreeing both in this, that they have their ground in his eternal form, and are subordinate to it. These two being contra-distinguished, and answering each other, seem to be interpreted one by the other.  
Jesus is the firstborn of the Resurrection in a twofold sense. He is the first of those that rise from beneath the shades of this Creation into the true Heavens, the Holy of Holies, the unvailed Glory of God. He is the fullness of the Resurrection. He, as a Divine Head, comprehendeth clearly, completely, eminently in himself all these, who are to rise as Divine Members of himself, inseparably joined in the Unity of the same Divine Spirit. They all rise together with him at his Resurrection. He is the Fountain of the Resurrection. Every one in his own proper person and season riseth up out of him by his Power, in the Virtue of his Resurrection.  
After the same manner is Jesus the firstborn of every Creature. He is the first, the fullness, the fountain of the Creation. He is the first Creature. So in the 17. verse, in the illustration of this state, as he is the first of every Creature, it is said, He is before all things. He pre-existed in a created form, when there was yet no other Creature form. All things were made in him, whether visible or invisible, Principalities, Powers, or Thrones, things in Heaven, or on Earth, and all things stood together in him, saith St. Paul, verse 17. So the Greek words in both verses are most properly rendered. Great men in the mystery of Philosophy and Divinty affirm, That which is below to be the same with that which is above. Every Flower on Earth is a Star in the Firmament. Each Star an Angel in the Heavens above. If this be St. Paul's sense, which we have represented from these words, the Elements with all of them, the visible Heavens with all in them, the innumerable Company of Angels in their invisible Heavens, have all met and subsisted together in one created Form, in one Divine Spirit and Person, which is our Jesus. In this Person they are not Flowers of Beauty, not Stars of Light, not Angels of Glory, but Divine Forms, antecedent and transcendent to the brightest Cherubims, the highest, the most flaming Seraphims.  
Thus they exist in Christ. Thus with the unsearchable Riches of all agreeable Varieties they make up the Body of Christ, as he is the created Head of all. Thus as he is the first of all Creatures, so is he the fullness of the whole Creation.  
He is also the Fountain. St. Paul addeth also this, All things were made by him, verse 16. All Creatures flow from him, as second Lights are cast from the first brightness by various reflections and refractions.  
3. The design of all this discovereth itself to us in these words, That he in all things might have the pre-eminence, verse 18. The first sense of the Greek word is this, that he in all things may be first. So you have a plain allusion to that word of Firstborn twice applied to Jesus, once in respect to the Creation, another time to the Resurrection. Jesus Christ as God (if so we may speak of him after the manner of Man) is alike the first of all things, not as by design, or any act of the Will, but by Nature and his Essence, as in our Conceptions it antecedes every act of Council or Will. This primacy then, which is attributed to Christ, as founded in a Divine contrivance, properly respecteth him as in a created Form, in which he, who, as God, is by Nature the first of all things, so by design of the Godhead, as a Creature, becometh the Firstborn Son of God in Nature and Creation, the Firstborn Son of God in Grace, in Glory, in the Resurrection: Until he in his created Nature, by his Resurrection, became a new Creature, anointed with the eternal Spirit, and entered into the Holy of Holies, by the rending of the Veil of Flesh: The Seed of the New-Creature, of the spiritual Man, and the heavenly Image, was not yet come up into its proper form, nor risen up out of the Earth of the first Creation, where it lay buried.  
4. The ground of this design appeareth, verse 19 For it pleased the Father, that in him should all fullness dwell. The Greek word signifies a perfect and most agreeable rest of all our faculties, a sweet and full complacency in the presence and appearance of an Object most entirely, most universally amiable and pleasing. Thus the joy of the Father is full, to see in the same Person of his beloved Son (the dear and entire reflection of himself) to dwell together at once in One, the fullness of his Godhead, the fullness of all his designs and works, in Nature, in Grace, in the Creation, in the Resurrection. Thus is this Son of his Love ever before him, his Delight day by day, all along, through time and eternity. All his works are love-sports with this his Son and Bride, various parts of Divine Love which he acteth, various forms of Divine Beauty and Joy into which he casteth himself in the Bosom and Person of this lovely, only beloved One. Now his Soul resteth in all his Counsels and Works, while he seeth the Face of his Son with all pleasantness there. Now his Soul resteth in his Son, while he seeth all his Counsels and Works, as the finished Beauties, and unsearchable Riches of his Person. Now is the Person of his Son a complete Paradise, while out of this ground he makes to spring every Plant that is desirable for Beauty, for Pleasantness, for Wisdom, for Food, for a Feast to Men, to Angels, to God himself.  
2. I pass now to my second Reason, the Lord Jesus thus set in a created form, rendereth the order of the Creatures proceeding from God, more harmonious and entire, its connexion more immediate and inviolable, its dependence more firm and sure: for thus the Creature cometh forth from God, first in a distinct Nature from him, but in the Unity of the same eternal Person with him; then in a distinction both of Nature and Person. While the universal nature of the Creature subsisting in the Person of Christ, reposeth itself immediately upon the Godhead, and becometh itself the ground of all the Creatures in their several subsistencies and essences, reposing themselves in the bosom of this first Creature; How perfect is the order of things without any gap or leaps? How full is the Harmony in this entireness of the Order? With what clearness and delightfulness are the Links of the Chain in the whole frame, by mutual embraces fastened to each other? How doth the beautiful blissful Unity and Union of the Divine Love, in the connexion, in the mutualness of influences and dependencies, shine through all, sustain, animate, beautify, and sweeten all? How clear now is the passage between God and the Creature, time and eternity, by this milky way in the bosom of Christ?  
That Scripture seemeth under that covert of rich expression to contain the riches of this sense, where Christ is said to be the brightness of the Glory of God, the engraven Image of his Substance, and so to bear all things by the Word of his Power, Heb. 1. That word Bear signifieth both to bring forth, and to sustain, as a Root the Plant.  
The Sun hath a threefold effulgency or light; 1. The essential and internal Image of the Sun within itself. 2. The Sunshine immediately fastened to the body of the Sun, and flowing from it. 3. The Light cast upon the elementary World, as the figure of this Sunshine. Thus is Jesus Christ a threefold Light, or effulgency of the Divine Glory; by one, he shines as the essential Image of God in the bosom of God; by the other, he shineth forth, as the first Creature, fairest, freshest, and fullest, like a knot of beams springing immediately from the face of the Sun, and subsisting inseparably in it; by the third, he shineth out in the distinct forms and existences of all the Creatures.  
The figure of a living substance first engraven upon a golden Seal, from thence impresseth itself on manifold & various pieces of white, or yellow, or red, or black wax; so the essential Image of God engraveth itself first in a created form upon the Person of Christ, as a golden Seal, from thence multiplieth itself into innumerable figures, in the various forms of all the several Creatures.  
Power and Glory are frequently Names of God in the Scripture: The Power of Christ is his Godhead. The Word of his Power is threefold; 1. The internal Word, which is Christ in his Divine Nature. 2. The Word upon the Lips, is the Person of Christ in the first created form. 3. The Word from thence multiplied and figured upon the Air all round about, are the Creatures, in all their various forms, thus encompassing their King, as figures all round about him, flowing out from him. Thus Jesus by the outshining of the Divine Glory, by the engraven Image of the Divine Substance, by the Word of the Divine Power, in an order altogether Divine for beauty and strength, bringeth forth, beareth up all things.  
3. I shall propound only one Reason more, to give light or strength to this Opinion, submitting it entirely to the judgement of the Reader. Jesus Christ saith of himself, I am the Light of the World, 1 Joh. 8. 10. St. John in the beginning of his Gospel, manifestly alludes to the beginning of Genesis, while he attributes the Creation of all things to that Word with God, which is God. In the same place he teaches us this mystery, That the Life of all was in Christ, and that life was the light of man, both Intellectual and Sensitive, this latter being the shadow of the former. Then he adds, The Light shined in Darkness, but the Darkness comprehended it not. This seemeth to be a clear allusion to the work of the first day, when God called Light out of Darkness, dividing at the same time between the Light and the Darkness. The Light now shined in the midst of the Darkness, enlightening the Darkness, so that it still remaineth incomprehensible to the Darkness, as that abode in its own natural form divided from the Light.  
All generally agree, that Moses comprehended the History of the whole Creation in this Chapter. And under the Covert and Veil of the visible part as a figure, divinely describeth the Intellectual, Angelical, and more Divine part, as the immediate Original and Life of this Figure. We have an Image of this in the Body of Heaven, with the Sunshining in it by day, or the Moon and Stars by night, when they present themselves to our eyes, by plain figures of themselves, form in a flowing stream here below.  
The Jews therefore say, That a man of Flesh and Blood, cannot understand the first Chapter of Genesis. St. Paul affirmeth, That the invisible things are perceived, being understood by the things that are made. By these words he seemeth plainly to signify, that while Moses painteth out to us the visible world, and framing of it, his design is to set before us a lively Picture of the invisible part of things, which is, as the heavenly Person, whose Picture is drawn on this Table.  
The Light then, which is the work of the first day, being not only Sensitive, but Intellectual, is the first Creature, the first and most immediate effulgency, irradiation, or outshining of the Godhead, the beginning of the Creation of God. St. Paul saith, That which makes manifest is Light. Then the first Light is the first, the most eminent, the amplest, the clearest, the compleatest manifestation of God, and so of the whole Creation, as its golden Head.  
The first day, according to the Hebrew, Idiom is the one day, which Idiom hath this mystery wrapped up in it, That the Unity, the Fountain of numbers, is the first in order, from which we begin to number. This Light, which is the first Creature, the work of the first day, is the first procession of the Divine Unity without itself. It retains therefore the highest Image of this Unity, and partakes of it in the highest degree, that any created Nature is capable of. This is the Unity of the Divine Person, or subsistency, in a distinct created Essence or Form. Thus you have in this lovely Form of the purest, the sweetest of all created Lights, the Person of Jesus Christ, as he is the first Creature, divinely subsisting in the Godhead. This is that Light, which while it shineth with a derived brightness, in the midst of that darkness which is the first matter of every Creature, it remaineth, in the Unity and Divinity of its Person and subsistence, vailed to the highest and most glorious of all Creatures. For even in this blessed Person the darkness is a dividing Veil between the Nature and the Godhead, in which that Nature subsists.  
The Jewish Masters by a twofold tradition, seem to seal up this mystery for Posterity. First, they number the Soul of the Messias among those sacred and sublime Glories which were before the world. Secondly, They mysteriously affirm the Light of the first day to be a Light, in which the whole work of Creation in all the parts of it, with all its Revolutions from its first beginning to its last end, are clearly and distinctly seen. But say they, at the fall of man by Sin, this Light was hid beneath the Throne of God, until the days of the Messias. Can any thing more plainly express our Jesus, as He is the first and universal Creature? the first, the fairest, the clearest draught of the whole Creation, in the whole course and conduct of it, pre-existent to every Creature, comprehending all the works of God, from the first line to the last finishing of it, in one most delightful View, in one most agreeable Prospect, in one Spirit and Form of purest, sweetest life, more than Angelical, only less than Divine, yet subsisting in a Divine Person? If the will of man, with its motions, be seen and pre-exist here, are they not here predetermined?  
But I have said before, that I would neither insist long upon this Point, nor lay any thing of the weight of this Cause upon it, being itself by few received or understood.  
I divided my discourse of the Mediatorship into three Heads: 1. Christ, as he is the ground of all the Works of God, in which also lies the ground of his Mediatorship. 2. Christ, as he is the Way. 3. Christ, as he is the End of the whole Work of God. There are two parts in the way; 1. Christ, as he is the beginning of the Works of God, the first Creature. 2. Christ, as the coming forth and the conduct of every Creature (from the beginning to the end) is in him, and by him. This I am now to take in hand.  
Christ is Mediator, as he is the way of the coming forth, and the conduct of the Work of God, in the whole and every part of it. As in a Plant, the seminal Spirit hath treasured up in it the seminal Reasons, the whole Harmony, all the proportions of the Plant, in the whole Plant, and in every part of it, as this seminal Spirit hath in itself the formative power of the Plant, according to the proportion, as this Spirit putteth forth itself into every part of the Plant, springeth up together with it, gives it its proper measures and proportions suited to the Harmony of the whole Plant, appears in each part as a living Image of that particular proportion or harmony which with an invisible Beauty flourisheth within itself, resides on every part of the Plant with the full harmony of the whole, being one and the same, altogether undivided, in the whole Plant and in all its parts; Thus is Christ after a more eminent and divine manner the seminal Spirit of the whole Creation.  
I have before represented him, from clear Scriptures, as the Wisdom and Power of God, by virtue of which he is clearly a Spirit, containing in himself the seminal Reasons, and the formative Power, by which every Creature is form universally in its production, and in its conduct.  
Jesus Christ is frequently known in the Scriptures by that Name of the Seed, which though it relates eminently to the state of Grace and Glory, where it cometh up into its ripe fruit and entire form, yet doth it relate to the state of Nature. For by virtue of this Seed Adam was the Son of God. By this Seed, and in it, were all things made, as Plants springing forth from it, although the Seed were yet come up in them only into the green Leaf, or smiling Blossoms at the best. That Name given in Greek to Jesus, which is translated the Word, signifieth as properly Reason. Jesus Christ is the Reason of God, the Reason of the Divine Nature, the universal Reason of the whole Creation, in which lieth the particular Reason of each Creature, in its Essence, in its Operations. Thus is Jesus Christ the universal Harmony of the Godhead, and of the whole Work of God. He is that Harmony, according to the measure of which the whole work of God is form.  
The Reader is desired to take notice, That the Author's Papers upon this Head were imperfect, and that he will find what can be recovered of them before the finishing of this Work, together with a large Discourse upon this whole Argument of the Mediation of Christ at the end of the Book, where it was thought most convenient to place it, because of its length.  
The third Head of Arguments in this Cause of freewill, is the Universal Nature of the Creature, Every Creature is a shadow. That that is first in every kind is such by itself, and every other thing by that. God is the first Being, the only Original. All created Being, in every kind, degree, or manner of being, is a shadow of this Original, and so is all that which it is, in every distinct form, motion, or circumstance, in its Essence, Subsistence, and Operations, distinctly by this. It hath its Being by the first Being. It subsists, it acts by the subsistency, and by the acting of this first Being, this first subsistency, this first activity in it. The whole Creation in its best state, is no more than a shadowy Image of the Great Creator. Man, who is styled the Glory of God, as being the band, the sealed sum, the circling Crown of the whole Creation, is said to be made in the Image of God. The various Powers and Beauties dispersed thorough the several Creatures, to make the whole a complete Image of the Divine Nature, meet in one in Him, as a comprehension of the whole, in whom the Divine Image is as entire, but more heightened and refined, as being more finished here, being drawn out further, being more elaborate, and having the last hand put to it. Thus was He made worthy to be the Son of God, the Figure of Jesus Christ, in order to lie eternally in his bosom, as his Bride, and to be a Fellow-Heir of God together with Him.  
Yet was this Image, in which man was thus made, a shadowy Image only. The word by which it is expressed in the first of Genesis, is Tselem. This word hath in it entirely the name of a shadow. It hath also the first and chief letter of Death with which it ends. It signifies properly such an Image, as is an empty, vanishing, dying shadow; the shadow of a substance, without any substance; a shadow of life, without any true life.  
The same word is used Psal. 39 6. Man walketh in a vain show, and disquieteth himself in vain. The word here rendered, a vain show, is Tselem, the same with that by which the Image of God in Man is expressed, Gen. 1. The words immediately preceding in this Psalm are these, Man in his best state is all of him all vanity. The Reason is added, Man walks in a vain show. Man himself in the purity of his Nature, in the unfaded, the unstained flower of all his senses, in the primitive height of all his Intellectual Glories, was a vain show. The Paradise of his Understanding, the invisible World of Angels, with all the Virgin beauties and sweetnesses of both in the midst of which he walketh, were a vain show. For they, round about him, with all their pomp and pleasantness, were no more than a shadowy Image of the Divine World, lying in the bosom of it. He himself was a shadowy Image of the Divine Essence and Person, in the midst of a world of shadows.  
We have this word used again, Psal. 73. 20, As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their Image. Image here is Tselem, which before was translated vain show. God the supreme and eternal Spirit is here presented, bringing forth this World, as a man doth a dream in his sleep. The darkness at the beginning of the Creation, described Gen. 1. seems here to be alluded to, as a mysterious sleep into which the first Spirit, the Fountain of all, the Father of all, after a Divine manner cast its self. Then the Light, with the work of the six days, and so the whole Creation, springeth forth from this Spirit in this sleep as a dream.  
The Devil, with his Ministers or Creatures, Angels and Man, by the Fall become Princes and Lords of this Creation. They possess the Powers, Treasures, and Glory of this World. But all this while, themselves with all these created Riches, Honours and Joys, in which they swim and swell, are only shadows in a dream, beneath the shining and anointed feet of those true, substantial, immortal Beauties and Sweetnesses, to which their hope, their sight, their imaginations can never raise themselves. When this eternal Spirit in whose sleep, like painted forms in a dream, they vainly flutter about, awakeneth himself, he at once dissolveth them into their own nothingness, and despiseth them, as having never been any thing, yea, less than nothing in the Light of Divine Truth, and in the glorious face of the eternal substances.  
Thus we see the universal Nature of the Creature and of Man, in their first form, to consist in a shadowy Image. If the Creature were its own Original, and had the truth, the life of its own Being, its Original form in itself, it were no more a Creature, but a God. As then the Face in the Waters, or in the Glass, in all its powers, parts, colours, and motions, dependeth upon the living face, being determinated by it every moment; so are all Creatures, all Spirits, Angels, or Men, in their Essences, Powers, or Operations, continually figured by those forms in which the eternal Spirit from above presenteth itself, as the reflections of that Spirit, like the shapes of the Clouds, or the Face of Heaven in a clear stream.  
This truth seemeth to be with a Divine elegancy set forth, Cant. 5. 12. It is said there of Jesus Christ, That his Eyes are as Doves, above th●… Rivers of Waters, washing in milk, full set. Thus the words in Hebrew most properly render themselves. A learned Jew in his Paraphrase, hath this gloss upon those words, Full set; The whole world is the fullness of his Eyes. There seemeth to be in this verse, a plain allusion to that expression, Gen. 1. of the Spirit moving upon the waters, or above the waters. The Chaldee Paraphrase makes this to be in the form of a Dove.  
The Lamb in the Revelation is said to have seven Eyes, a perfect number expressing a full Variety. The Ideal forms, or the first Images of things, those eternal Truths and Lights of Life in the Person of Christ, as the essential Image, the sweetest, the only living Light of the Godhead, are these Eyes of the Bridge-groom here celebrated. These Eyes are Doves, pure, eternal Spirits of Divine Love and Beauty, in the bosom, in the Unity of the eternal Spirit, the heavenly King and Bridegroom of all Spirits. These Doves are the lovely Eyes with which this Spirit is all over thick set, like the wings of the Seraphims full of eyes within and without.  
These Doves are washing themselves in Milk. So the Hebrew hath it, as a present perpetual Act. They lie washing and bathing eternally in the springs of Divine Light and Beauty, in the softnesses, sweetnesses, and walks of the Divine Love. These are the Milk of the Godhead, and of blessed Spirits; These Eyes are full set. For each of these Ideal Original forms in Christ comprehendeth in itself under the character or property of its own distinct Variety, the whole Divine World, and all Worlds in their first forms.  
These first eternal Images of things in Christ are his Eyes, the sweetly shining Springs of all Light, Life, Love, and Joy. For he ever beholds all things with these, in these. By these, as he looks forth with them, he guides all things. In these is he, as the supreme Spirit of truth and beauty, seen in his liveliest and loveliest appearances. These Eyes are Doves, being each of them one Spirit comprehending all things in its Unity, a Spirit of purest Light and Sweetness, the chaste and beloved Mate of the eternal Spirit, eternally springing up, lying eternally in the Bosom and Unity of it.  
These Doves in the Firmament of Divine Glory spreading their Wings, flying every where to and fro over the water of this Creation, figure themselves and their motions in shadowy Images upon them. Thus are all things here form and moved, as the face in the Glass by the living Face.  
This similitude hath in it a signal difference from the Truth represented by it. The living Eye or Face sendeth forth its Image. But this Image hath its reception and subsistence in another substance, the glass or the water. But the Creation hath no ground to bear it up, but that alone which bringeth it forth. These Divine Eyes of which we speak, at once send forth and support these Images of themselves. They are the clear Springs from which they stream, and the Crystal Looking-Glasses in which they appear. In this eternal Spirit, in this living Light all things as varied shadows of this Light, as shadowy forms of this Life, live, move, have their being and appearance: Not as accidents in their subject, but after a manner far more eminent, a●…d altogether transcendent to any resemblance in the Creature.  
This is the Universal Nature of the Creature.  
How pleasant? how Divine a Spectacle is this? All things in their primitive purity are spotless Doves, Celestial Loves, Virgin-Spirits like Angels clothed in white, Eyes that are Springs of purest light and sweetness, looking up from a Divine Light, vailed with a Divine shade, to their Life, their immortal Mates, their Divine Originals, those Doves, those Eyes above, which looking down meet themselves here beneath, in shadowy figures, in sweetest reflections of themselves from the midst of loveliest shades upon a ground of eternal Light.  
It is time now to close this Argument. All the Creatures are shadowy Images, both Men and Angels. As are they, so is their Liberty, so are all their motions shadowy, as figures they are all form and determined by the Life in eternity.  
I pass now to the second Argument under this Head.  
2. Every Creature is an emanation or stream from the Divine Essence, the emanation of a moment. This is a truth generally established upon all the clearest, the firmest Principles of truth, in Philosophy or Divinity, by the most universal consent and harmony in the spirits of learned men, in the nature of things. ●…sse Creaturae est emanare, The Being of the Creature is the beaming forth from God, like light from the Sun. The preservation and continuance of things is a continued Creation.  
The whole Creation, with every Creature comprehended in it, thorough all the moments of time, to the end of time, riseth up immediately, entirely out of God, as in the first moment of its Being at the beginning of time. The white sheet full of all living Creatures, was let down out of Heaven thrice in the sight of St. Peter. The World is a Divine Light, with all forms of things Angelical or Humane, visible, invisible, appearing in it, let down out of the Heaven of the Godhead, as often as there are moments in its duration. Thus are all things a new World, a new Creation, each twinkling of an Eye brought forth a new, by a fresh glance of the Divine Eye.  
If any Creature could subsist one moment apart from God, the first and supreme Being, without the particular dependence, a particular derivation, of that moment, it would have the principle of Being in itself, and so eternity in that moment, and so a Godhead.  
The connexion, the dependence between God and the Creature, the first, the universal Cause and every Effect, is much more universal, intimate, immediate, inseparable, than that between any effect and any second Gause. We have a demonstration to our sense from the interposal of a Cloud between our eyes and a clear Sky, that the beams are continued streams of light from the body of the Sun. In that moment in which they cease to flow from the Sun, to subsist in the Sun, they cease to be.  
It is affirmed of all things material and visible, Fiunt, non sunt; They are sent forth, but subsist not. They are only in the making; in the same moment in which they are brought forth, they are no more.  
This is universally true of all Creatures, Men and Angels. They have only a transient, no permanent Being. No eye ever takes in twice the same beam of Light. No man standing upon the bank of a River sees twice the same water present with him. Before he can cast his eye upon it the second time, it is passed by, and gone: So is no Creature no appearance the same two moments. We can never say of created Being's or Beauty's, of our sweetest Solaces, or bitterest Sufferings, they are. For while we are saying it, they fly away, and are no more; like Lightning, or the shadow upon any point of the Dial. As our Afflictions in the Language of St. Paul, are Afflictions of a moment; so are all our Joys, Glories, and Being's in the Creature. No one of them lasteth two moments.  
The Scripture testifies to Jesus Christ of the Heavens and the Earth, As a Garment thou roulest them up, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years fail not. Again, in another place, Jesus the same yesterday, to day, and for ever. Nothing below Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day, the last moment and this. This is one part of the Vanity marked by Solomon in all things beneath this Sun of the Godhead, fixed in the midday point of eternity; that thorough their whole Being, they are ever in motion, like the Rivers, and the Wind, In each point of time, one breath, one beam, one stream from the eternal Spirit, succeeds new in the place of the other sprung forth from it in the point of time immediately preceding. The whole Creation, each particular Creature is no more the same, hath no continuance, hath no Unity with itself, save only as it is in Jesus Christ, in its first and eternal Form, its truest Form, its truest Self, in Him, who alone is the true, the substantial, the universal Image of God, the express Image of his Substance, Unity, and Eternity. All created forms are so far only the same, and one in a figure or similitude, as they are sealed with the impression of their Ideal and Original form in Christ, as they subsist in this Root, as they are Garments with which this their eternal Truth and Substance clothes itself.  
In the my stical Fables of the Heathens, the Goddess of Wisdom contending with the God of the Seas, for the tutelage of Athens, made suddenly at once to spring up out of the Earth an Olive-tree in its perfection, with its branches and leaves all green, laden with ripe Olives. When an Olive-tree or an Appletree riseth up by degrees from its Kernel to a perfect Plant, when it successively putteth forth itself thorough the Spring and Summer, in buds, in leaves, in blosomes, in fruit, unto a fullness in Autumn; then in that state of maturity, with its leaves, and fruit in full growth and beauty upon it, it standeth up immediately and entirely out of its Ideal, or first Cause, out of the Divine Omnipotency or Almightiness, as if it had never before existed, as if no Summer, no Spring had ever gone before. Yea, the whole Creation round about that Olive-tree, in its present posture with all Plants on Earth, with the present face of Heaven, with the present configuration of all Bodies, of all Humane or Angelical Spirits comes forth from God, as immediately, entirely, absolutely, as when on the third day, all Herbs, Flowers, and Trees first appeared, and rose up in a moment, at once perfect out of the Earth; or as if this present Autumn had been the first, and the beginning of the World, as some suppose that season to have been.  
All things in the Creature upon this ground have their order and connexion, not by virtue of any dependence upon each other, but by the force of the eternal Order, the inviolable Harmony in the first Cause, the Ideal, or exemplary World in the Divine Mind. If the Being of the Creature be an emanation, or beaming forth from the first Being; then as the emanation, or flowing forth is distinct, new, and fresh every moment, so is there every moment a new, fresh, distinct World, or Creation.  
If man thus with his Soul, his Powers, his Operations, with all the modifications of his whole Person, Body, and Spirit, in each moment spring forth fresh and full that moment from his first and universal Cause, as Philosophers say, the Sun and his beams were concreated at the beginning of the World; What then is the liberty of the Will in determining itself? Is it any other than this, the truest, the happiest, the only desirable freedom of coming forth as it is sent forth from God, the first, and the best of all things, in a conformity to its eternal Truth, its Original Form, in the highest Beauty, the highest Bliss, the Divine Wisdom and Will?  
Reader, if any difficulties arise in thy mind, about the reconciling of the appearances of things in the World so mixed with Good and Evil, the evil of Deformity, the evil of Sin, the deformity of Intellectual Spirits, the most hateful Fountain of all Deformity, the evil of Sufferings, consequent to this Deformity, with this proceeding of the Creature distinct and new every moment from God, the pure Fountain of Good, I entreat thee to carry this along in thy thoughts, that the second part of this Discourse is designed for a clear stating, and full examination of all Objections. I am unwilling therefore to disturb my method, to prevent myself, or make Repetitions by bringing in these things here, which are there to be treated of. I entreat thee here only to mark with a skilful and curious eye, whether the foundation of Truth be firmly laid, and whether the building arise regularly out of it. In the second Book, it will be thy part to see whether this building stand fast against the assaults of all contrary appearances, which like the Rivers, the Wind, the Rain, from above, from below, on every side beat upon it. This is enough upon this Head, the universal Nature of the Creature.  
4. My fourth Head, from which I draw my Reasonings upon this Subject of freewill, is, The Nature of the Soul. From the Nature of the Soul we thus reason; the Essence of the Soul, and its Faculties the Understanding, and the Will differ not really, but formally alone. All three are one and the same. Every one is all three in one. They are distinguished according to the distinct forms in which they appear, ever appearing with all their forms in each form.  
1. The Essence of the Soul is immaterial, a substantial Act, an undivided Unity, and essential Form, which comprehends the forms of all Essences essentially in itself. We speak all this while of the Intellectual Soul. This Soul then essentially comprehends itself, reflects upon itself, and all forms of things in itself. Thus it springs up into an essential Image of itself, and of all Essences to itself, within itself. Thus is the Essence of the Soul it's own Understanding, by virtue of its immaterial Substance, and its substantial Unity.  
2. The Understanding of the Soul differs from the senses in two things: 1. The Senses touch and take in their Objects only by material accidents, as shadowy figures. The Understanding toucheth, taketh hold of, and embraceth the Substances themselves incorruptible, immutable in their eternal Truths. 2. The senses take in the Images of their Objects from without, but the Understanding brings forth its Object in an essential Image from within, which is therefore called Verbum mentis. The Senses being material, are thus passive; but the Understanding, as an immaterial power, altogether active. If the Understanding bring forth from itself, and comprehend within itself the essential and substantial forms of things, it can be no less than a substance itself, and one substance with the Soul in the essence of it. For nothing unsubstantial can receive into itself that which is substantial. We have also said before, that the Soul in its essence or substance essentially comprehends all things in their essential and substantial forms. Let me add this upon the same ground, that if the Soul understand itself, the understanding is every way adequate and equal to the Soul, in as much as it adequately comprehends it.  
The Will is described by Thomas Aquinas to be the Inclination of the Soul. It is also a Rule, That every Power or Faculty is distinguished and defined by its Object. The Object of the Will is Good. Good is the perfection of every thing. The suitableness and convenience makes the Goodness. Every thing hath essentially in its nature an inclination to its Good, to its Perfection, to every thing suitable and agreeable to it. Suitableness is from Similitude. Similitude is from Unity. For it is an agreement in the same form. Every thing than hath in its essence an inclination to a suitable Object, to its Perfection, to its Good, as to itself presented distinctly to itself, and to the completing of itself in the embraces of itself. Thus it appears, that the Soul essentially is its own Will, in as much as its essence taken most abstractedly, being a substantial Act, is in that Act an essential inclination to its own Good and Perfection. Thus also it appears, that the Understanding of the Soul is the Will of the Soul, in as much as in its distinct formality it is an inclination to Truth, as to its proper Perfection and Good.  
Again, the most proper and most perfective Act of the Will in its most perfect state is Love. Love is an Union. The Object of the Will is Good in its full Latitude, the essential, substantial, universal Good. The Act of the Will in Love is then a mutual, intimate Union with the Object, by which it adequately comprehends it, and is adequately comprehended by it. The Will then, which is necessarily equal to that which it comprehends, can be no other than the essence or substance of the Soul itself, of which we have before said, that it hath all Essences of things essentially within itself, and so the whole compass of Being complete within itself. As it represents itself in this whole compass of Being to itself, in a distinct Image, and so reflects upon itself, it is its own Understanding. As it doth by this distinct Image with mutual embraces, mutually comprehend and enjoy itself in Love, and Joy, it is its own Will, it's own Love and Joy. So we seem to have proved, that the Will, as it is a distinct faculty, is really, and formally the same with the essence and substance of the Soul.  
We will endeavour also to prove, that the Will comprehends the Understanding in its own proper and distinct formality.  
1. When the Soul Loves itself, and understands itself, both these Acts fall under the same definition of comprehending itself in a distinct and complete Image of itself. This Act cannot but be mutual, if the Image of the Soul be adequate to the Soul, and so are Love and Understanding both in one.  
2. The Acts and Motions of the Will do imply sense in their essential Formalities. Sense in the Intellectual Soul is Understanding.  
3. The Object attracts and acts the Faculty by impressions of itself. The impression of Good upon an Intellectual Subject, is an Intellectual taste or relish of the Good. The impression of an Intellectual Good, which is the proper Object of the Will, is an Intellectual impression.  
4. The Will, as it is essentially distinguished from the natural Appetite, which inanimate things are naturally moved by; and from the sensitive Appetite proper to bruit Creatures, is defined to be a rational Appetite. Thus it comprehends Reason or Understanding in its essential Form.  
So we have attempted to make it plain, that Those three, the Essence, the Understanding, the Will of the Intellectual Soul, mutually comprehend one another in their essential Formality, and are perfectly adequate one to another, so far as the Soul is in a state of Perfection, perfectly understanding and loving itself.  
By the way, In this Glass you may have a pleasant glimpse of the Trinity: 1. The Soul in its essence is an Unity comprehending itself, and all created forms of things entirely in one substantial and indivisible Act, as the Fountain of all. This is a shadow of the Father in the Trinity. 2. The Understanding of the Soul is the essential and adequate Image of this Unity, in which it bringeth forth, and contemplates itself within itself. This is the Son, the Word. 3. The Will is the essential, the intellectual, and adequate Union of these two, with the most full communion and highest complacency, by which they propagate and multiply themselves within themselves into an endless Race of innumerable Forms, in each of which they are still themselves entire and complete. This is the figure of the Holy Spirit.  
Thus he that knows God knows the Soul, as the Picture by the Life; and he that knows the Soul knows God, as the Life by the Picture. Each of these is all to itself within itself: God as the Original Life-World, the Soul as the shadowy World, the World of shadows.  
But to conclude this Argument, If the Essence of the Soul, the Understanding and the Will, be really one, and formally distinct, so that every one comprehends all Three, in its proper Formality, where is that freedom of the Will, by which it may act independent on the Understanding?  
We will seal up this Argument with that confirmation of it, which seems to have great strength and clearness. Powers and faculties are distinguished according to their Objects. The Essence of the Soul, the Understanding, and the Will differ as Being, Truth, and Goodness; not really, but formally only, formally comprehending the formality of each other.  
The Reader is desired to take notice, That how ever the Author, in one of his Copies, intended only this short account of this Argument taken from the Nature of the Soul; yet a larger Discourse upon this Head being found amongst his Papers, it is judged most fitting in this place to publish it.  
The chief Praise of this Age is, that it runs along in a stream directly contrary to the Romish Church, having little veneration for an implicit Faith, Tradition, Antiquity, Universality in the pursuit of Truth. It's labour and glory is with its hands, eyes, and spirit, to penetrate and view the first grounds of Truth. I desire it may be as happy, in distinguishing between the upper part of the beam of Light, where it unites itself to its Sun and Fountain, where it is firmest, fullest, brightest, warming, enlivening as well as shining; and the lower part of the beam, which touches the Earth, and the Senses, where it is weak, wavering, obscure, mixed with and vanishing into the darkest shade.  
I shall therefore endeavour (taking my rise somewhat high from the Fountain of things) to open the Nature of the Soul with as much clearness and plainness as I am able, and the nature of the Subject will bear, in these three Propositions.  
1. Prop. The Intellectual Soul in Man is an Unity altogether indivisible, comprehending Variety, Diversity, Contrariety of Forms, Powers, and Parts, without and above all Division.  
2. Prop. This indivisible Unity, containeth in itself the full Variety of all forms created, uncreated, after its own manner, according to its own proper Character.  
3. Prop. The most perfect and full Image of God in the midst of the Creation, resulting from the Harmonious Union of the Unity and Variety, is the Soul's Essence, and essential Form.  
I design, and hope, so to open and establish these Propositions, that the true Liberty of the Soul in its Operations, may all along shine clearly forth from the Divine ground and form of its proper nature.  

1. Proposition.  
The Intellectual Soul in Man is an indivisible Unity, comprehending Variety, Diversity, Contrariety of Forms. This is the first Proposition. There is a threefold Unity.  
1. There is an Unity in the Division of Parts. This is the most imperfect Unity, or rather a shadow of Unity, the Unity of shadows, of Corporeal substances or bodies.  
2. There is an Unity in Diversity of Forms or Essences, above all divisibility of parts. This also is an imperfect Unity. This is the Unity of Essences, of Intellectual Substances, of all created Spirits. The Unities of this sort are the Essences of things in their created state, which are said to be indivisible.  
3. Above all Divisibility, or Diversity is the first, the supreme, the perfect Unity, having in itself the first, the fullest Variety, and distinction. This is the Unity of the Divine Nature, or the Divine World. This for its infinite height, above all expression or comprehension, by any created Image or Understanding, for the equal concurrence of the first, the most entire Unity, and the first, the most full Variety, both alike boundless and infinite, is well termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Above an Unity.  
The Humane Soul is an Unity of the second Rank, whether you ascend or descend, in the number of Intellectual Substances, like the Angels, above all Division, but subject to Diversity.  
This is an Unity in a Diversity. Diversity (which is Variety contracted and obscured) by a mixture of the Contrariety with the Unity, overshadows the Unity of the Soul, and rendereth it a shadowy Unity. The Divine Unity and Variety lie hid and vailed beneath the Diversity, in the shadowy Unity of the Souls natural Form.  
This Diversity, as it over-shadows, so it also bounds the Unity, and renders it finite, infinitely beneath the first and supreme Unity in the Divine Nature.  
This is the Unity of the Intellectual Soul, an Unity free from, raised above all Division, or divisibility of parts, lying one without another, as they appear in Bodies, or Corporeal Substances.  
The explication of this Unity in the Intellectual Operations of the Soul, as I humbly conceive, will be a full demonstration of it.  
There seemeth, according to common sense and language, to be manifest in us, a Life, a Power, which compareth and judgeth things; which discerneth the differences of things, relations, proportions, agreements, disagreements; which is delighted with Harmony, Beauty, Music; which taketh in, entertaineth itself with the Essences of things, the whole, Universals, as its most native, and most suitable Companions; which adorneth itself with Sciences. The Sciences are an Angellike building, which this Life or Power hath framed by single notions, or forms of things regularly composed into Propositions, by Propositions in a most beautiful order laid one upon another, and by fit joints, like Jewels knit together into one Body of Divine Light, which setteth its Feet on the Earth, and raiseth its Head into the unseen Glories of the highest Heavens.  
This Power and Life within us, which makes good all this, or a similitude of this, with more or less degrees of Perfection, is that which we call the Intellectual Soul in Man.  
If the Object, or its Image, be extended, and so composed of parts, which lie all one without another, if the Subject, which receives into itself the Object, or the Image, be of the same nature, Now the one part of the Object is taken into, and seated in one part of the Subject; Another part in another. Thus all lie diffused differently in different parts; not only divisible, but actually divided from each other. Now they no where meet together in one, they are no where compared and judged, the Discord, the Harmony, the Whole, is no where understood.  
Yea, These are no more in the nature of things. There is no such thing as Picture, Prospect, or Person, Life, Love, or Joy, Death or Suffering. All is an unimaginable heap of unconceivable Atoms, which have no Relation to, no Commerce with each other, if there be no indivisible Unity, in which things meet, in which they are compared, judged, and proportioned. How an Atom itself, or any thing of whole, or part, can be without Unity, which constitutes it, which connects it, into which it Ultimately resolves itself, from which it first ariseth, is of all things to me most hard to comprehend.  
But this is a digression, and more than is necessary to my present design.  
Let us return. The two essential Operations of the Intellectual Soul, are to understand, and to will. The Objects of these, are Truth and Goodness, real or apparent.  
1. Truth is a representative conformity of the Image to its Original.  
2. Goodness is a mutual, perfcctive Conformity, or suitableness of the Original and Image, or of the Object to the Faculty, Power, or Spirit, to which it relates.  
These two are the Divine Meat and Drink of the Soul, like the Ambrosia and Nectar of the Gods, or separated Spirits, with the Poets.  
But where there is any impression, any sense or relish of these two, Truth or Goodness, in the lowest forms of things, These three must meet undividedly in one, The two terms or bounds of conformity or suitableness, the relation between these two, their suitableness and conformity to each other.  
The Intellectual Soul riseth an higher pitch, according to the Doctrine of all the Schools, and its own innate testimony of itself, in all its Motions, in all its Virtues and Vices. It is carried up upon these two soaring wings, as the wings of an Angel, quite out of the sight of sense, above all the tumult of Individuals and particulars, to the invisible Glories, and Harmonies of universal Forms. The universal Truth and Good are its only mark and rest, where its motions terminate.  
The heavenly Beauty of the universal Truth, can be no where seen, the heavenly sweetness of the universal Good, can be tasted by no Spirit, but that alone, where all Truths, all kinds and degrees of good, all things in their friendships and enmities are met and concentred with a full, with an exact Harmony, in one indivisible Point, or in a perfect Unity.  
It is indeed a Divine Unity, running like the Spirit of Music through all these, terminating them all by itself, recollecting them all entirely (with their several Divisions) after the most undivided manner into itself, which makes this Harmony, the Joy, the Glory, the Divine Life of Angels, of God, and Godlike men.  
This Divine Unity can be no where received, but into an Unity like itself. This Unity in the Intellectual Soul, makes it a Divine ●…ye, Ear, and Spirit, capable of taking in the Beauty, enjoying the Music, being entertained at the heavenly Feast of the universal Truth and Goodness, in the Society of all blessed and immortal Spirits.  
Keep the Unity of the Spirit, saith St. Paul, in the bond of peace. Peace in Hebrew is the same with Persection. The word signifieth the Harmony of things, mutually answering each other in fit and full proportions. In Greek, peace signifieth the harmonious Union of things, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, peace, from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to knit or join together.  
Without Union, without Order and Harmony in the Union, Many things can never become One; there can be no Beauty to the Eye, no Music to the Ear, no Life, no Light of Sense or Understanding, no Form of things, no Peace, no Perfection, no Power, no Pleasantness, no Person. Without an undivided Unity, where all meet in one, which is One, the same undivided in All, there can be no Union, no Order, no Harmony.  
The eternal Spirit is the first and supreme Unity. Intellectual Spirits, next to this Spirit, are Similitudes and Births of it. Substantial, undivided Unities, the Springs, the Seats of the universal, the supreme, the incorporeal Beauties, Musics, Perfection, Order, Harmony, through the Creation; the only Persons; the bonds of all Union, Order, Harmony, Peace, Perfection, Beauty, Life, Loveliness, Virtue, Joy, Power, Personality, in all Bodies, in all Corporeal Forms.  
By one Spirit, saith that Spirit, we are all baptised into one Body. In spirituality, by meeting together undividedly in the Unity of the eternal Spirit, which is undividedly one and the same in all, by which all are one, and the same in every one, All the Saints become one heavenly Body. This Unity of the Spirit, springing up into every one, as a Divine and complete Image of itself, having thus the Whole, the Image, the Life, the Spirit of the whole in itself, is the bond of their fellow-membership.  
This is the ground and spring of their Sympathy, of all their Motions, by which in a Divine Love and Harmony they exactly accord with each other. We have the shadowy figure of this mystery in natural things.  
How inexplicable is motion in Bodies, without the understanding of this Unity? What shall excite Motion in any Corporeal Subject? Accidents, Virtues, Qualities, pass not from one Corporeal Substance to another. They are essentially inseparable, from their Individual Subjects. Corporeal Substances are impenetrable each to other, and so cannot operate immediately one upon another.  
In what order shall Motion be advanced, if it be excited? Shall the part immediately touched move first? How can it, until that part next before it, give place to it? Upon what account shall this before move, until that behind it on which the impression is first made, thrust it forward?  
How Beautiful? how Harmonious? how Easie is all? If an Intellectual Spirit, containing the whole Body, the whole Corporeal frame, in an undivided Unity, being undividedly entirely one and the same through the whole Body, and in each part, immediately, at once, by itself Act all the parts in a mutual exact Correspondency to each other, like persons in a figure-Dance? All is now itself, in so many shadowy figures of more substantial and sublimer Variety, in the Unity, and Harmony of its own Essence.  
This is a clear reason for that Sympathy, by which all the parts most remote of the same Body, have a present sense of, are acted and moved together with, all the essential acts and motions of each other. They are all by one Spirit baptised into one Body. They all are comprehended together in the undivided Unity of the same Spirit. So they mutually penetrate, possess each other in One; as One in the Fountain of their Being, Life, and Motion, the same Spirit. This Spirit is each Intellectual Soul to its own Body.  
Let us sum up this whole Argument into a brief and clear conclusion.  
The Intellectual Soul, in the perfection of its natural form, understands, compares, judges, not only particular Beauties and Harmonies, but the Beauty and Harmony of the whole Universe, the Universal Truth and Goodness. All particular Beauties and Harmonies, all Agreements and Disagreements, Strifes, Friendships, all forms and parts, as they make up the Beauty of the Universe: Then all forms of things, in all their Similitudes and Differences, Conformities and Contrarieties, in all their Essences and Accidents, in all their several distinct Proportions and order, in their Beauties and Harmonies, with all the Parts and Elements which compose these, as they make up the universal Harmony and Beauty meet together, clearly, completely in the undivided Unity of the Souls Essence.  
Thus also this Soul contains within itself its own Body, its Image and Organ, in all the forms, parts, and proportions of it. Neither doth it so comprehend this alone, but the universal Body, as it relates to its own particular Body, as it stands in the senses of this Body, like Images in a Glass.  
Here, in this Unity, is the Corporeal Image, as in a Divine Mould, form in all its parts and proportions, to answer to their Original in the Soul, and to each other, for here only are they seen together, to be compared and judged, from hence they come forth, by this Unity they consist in their Union, are acted every moment unto motions corresponding with each other, and to a Sympathy; for one Spirit springs up through the whole Body, as itself descended into a shadowy figure of itself, and abiding ever with itself, within the Unity of its own Essence.  
The most eminent Character of the eternal Spirit, is its Unity. Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God. How glorious an Image of God, in this Character of the Divine Glory, is man in the perfection of his natural form? What is the amplitude, the majesty of this Divine Unity, in which the whole Creation, with all its beauties and fullness, appear together at once, in One, as upon its Throne?  
Thus, I hope, I have from common sense, and principles universally received, made plain in some imperfect degree, this indivisible Unity of the Intellectual Soul in man.  
2. Propos. The Humane Soul is an indivisible Unity, containing in itself all Variety of forms.  
The Argument before taken from the Operations of the Soul, in knowing and judging things, to explain its Unity, declares also this Variety in its Unity.  
The Soul hath naturally a desire, and power, or potentiality of knowing all things, especially the Harmony of things, which is the Intellectual Beauty. The Harmony in no part can be understood without the knowledge of the whole. If the Soul then in the primitive, and pure state of the Creation, did actually enjoy itself in the perfection of its natural form and faculties, it contained within itself, in the Unity of its Essence, all Variety of things in all their Distinctions, Differences, and Divisions, Originals, and Copies, Causes and Effects, Substances, and Circumstances, or Accidents, Essence●…, and Operations.  
The power or potentiality in the Soul of Man, is not Passive but Active. It is a pure Act, free from the passiveness, which is the consequent of corporeal or bodily matter. The Intellectual Spirit having always in itself the judgement of all things, in the potentiality or power of it, which either is its Essence, or inseparable from it, hath also all forms of things in the same Capacity, or Power, and so in its Original Act. Indeed as it subsisteth in the Body, this plenitude in the Original Act, or power of the Soul, is very much vailed by matter, or corporeity, at least under the fall.  
But I pass from this Argument, to another, drawn from the Unity of the Soul, established in the former Proposition.  
The Soul being in its Essence, by Virtue of its essential Unity altogether undivided, and so above all place or time, which consist of divided parts, is thus uncapable of Absence, Distance, or Division from any thing. All things than are ever present with it.  
There is only a twofold presence imaginable, Corporeal, and Spiritual.  
1. The Corporeal, or bodily presence is after the manner of Corporeal Substances or Bodies, with Division, a divided presence.  
This is the presence of two Bodies, one containing the other as its proper place, or of two Bodies, contained in one Body as their common place, one common space of Air, one Field, one Chamber, one Bed.  
2. The spiritual presence is a meeting in one Incorporeal Form, or in one Spirit, which is an Indivisible Unity. This the Schools express by the penetration of Spirits, which penetration, where there are no extensions or dimensions, as in Bodies, seemeth to me, uncapable of any other sense, in the strict examination of it, than their subsisting together in the same undivided Unity, and their mutual subsistencies in the undivided and essential Unities of each other.  
Harmonious with this, are those two well-grounded and unshaken Axioms in Philosophy,  
1. The Essences of things are Indivisible.  
2. The understanding alone reacheth to, and comprehendeth the Essences and Substances of things, whiles sense feeds only upon empty shadows, Airy, accidental Forms.  
Proclus thus teacheth us, That all things are in the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, according to the peculiar property and character of the Soul. In like manner the Lord Jesus saith to the unbelieving Jews, which look for signs of the Divinity, for a Pomp and Glory without, in their senses, The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.  
The Heathen Philosophers styled the Unities of things, Gods. This Unity, to which all things were present, was, with them, the Character of a God. The Scriptures upon the same ground, style all Intellectual Spirits, both Angels and Men, Gods. He calleth (saith Christ) them Gods, to whom the word of God came. That living Word, which is the Image of the invisible God, (and so containeth all Forms, the whole nature of things in itself) cometh by Nature, and by Grace, although after a divers manner, to all Intellectual Spirits. That Scripture, which our Lord Jesus relates to, seemeth peculiarly to regard Humane Souls, I have said, ye are Gods, but ye shall die like men. Ye Intellectual Spirits, which in your abstracted forms are immortal, impassable, undivided, comprehensive Unities, To which all forms of things, in their immutable Essences, are ever present by my presence with you, who am the eternal Word of the Divine Mind, the Divine and Universal Image of things, Ye being humbled beneath the Angels, into a Body of Dust, a Corporeal Form, in this, by your sympathy with this, are subject to the Government of the Elements and Celestial Bodies, of the Powers ruling in them, as Tutors over you, and so to their Laws of Time, Place, Division, and Death, until you grow up to the full Age of the Intellectual Life, by returning into the Bosom of your first Divine Ideal Unity in me.  
All diversity of Forms are in this manner present with the Intellectual Soul, meeting together, and being contained in the Unity of its Essence, as in an invisible Palace, or City, like the City of God described by the Psalmist, which is compact in itself.  
Object. Is God then, are all the Angels, is this visible World so present with the Soul, so contained in its essential Unity, as to be one Essence, one Spirit with it?  
Answ. I shall give three distinct Answers to the three parts of this Objection,  
In relation, 

1. To God.  
2. To Angels.  
3. To the visible World.    
1. Answ. This comprehensive Unity, which is the proper Character of Intellectual Spirits, is called by Philosophers, the Apex, or supreme Point, the Head of the Soul, hid in a Divine Glory, the Divine part of the Soul, in which it symbolizeth with, is capable of Commerce with the Divinity itself, and of enjoying in itself the Divine presence, as in its most proper and beloved Temple.  
I shall humbly present to the Readers Candour four Distinctions, for the unvailing of this Divine presence in the Soul.  
1. Distinction. God is not present in the Soul, as in a place Divisible, but as in an undivided Unity; for he were otherwise no more a pure, an infinite Spirit, the first, supreme, simple Spirit of Being, Beauty, of all Excellency and Virtue, a Life of Sweetness, a Light of Glory, without allay, shade, or limit: He were now Corporeal and finite.  
Of this Local Circumscription (which hath no place here) is that Rule rightly understood, The container is greater than the contained.  
2. Distinction. God by his Omnipresence, and undivided Unity, is every where, in every Creature, in every part and point of the Creation, with the fullness of his Glories and Godhead after a twofold manner,  
1. God is present to himself in every Creature, Secundum modum Dei, after the manner of a God.  
2. God is present in each Creature, to that Creature, Secundum modum Creaturae, according to the manner of the Creature.  
1. God is present to himself in every Creature, after the manner of a God.  
wherever he is present, He is entirely present with all the Joys and Glories of eternity, ever undivided, His own Heaven to himself, in the Depths of Hell beneath as in the Height of Heaven above, in the dust of the Grave, in a wave of the Sea, as in the most shining Cherubin or flaming Seraphim.  
God is not thus present to any natural Spirit, no, not in the purity ofits Creation, with his unvailed Beauties, shining forth in the brightness of his Glory, in the fullness of his Godhead. Then should he transfigure that Spirit into the same Image of one Divine Form and Glory with himself. Then would there be no difference between Adam in Paradise, the Angels in Heaven, and Jesus Christ in his Paradise and Heaven above all Heavens, the Bosom of the Father. No, after this manner God dwells in Jesus Christ alone, as he is risen from the Dead, in the eternal Spirit, in the Glory of the Father.  
2. God is in every Creature present with that Creature, according to the manner of that Creature, By the divers manners of his Appearance, as by the engraving upon the Seal, setting divers impressions upon the Creature, and giving divers forms of Being to it like the Seal in the impression upon the Wax. He thus becometh the fullness of every Creature, filling all, in all parts of it, and so Omnipresent to it.  
Therefore the Schoolmen say of the sending, giving, pouring forth, the coming of the Spirit to us, to be in us, That it is only Novus modus apparendi, A new manner of appearing. The Holy Spirit, the third Person in the Trinity, from whom the other two Persons are ever undivided, God blessed for ever, is ever in every Creature, in every Spirit. He only changeth his Appearances and Effulgencies there. By the change of his Appearance, he changeth and formeth each Creature, each Spirit in all its Changes. Thus he turneth to himself the Heavens and the Earth, as the Clay to the Seal, according to the Language in the Book of Job.  
How divinely pure and pleasant a prospect, or living Picture, is now the nature of things, while God himself, according to the distinct Idea, or eternal exemplar of each Creature, cometh forth, and appeareth together with it, as Twin-brothers, as Twin-Loves, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one the reflection of the other? while a Third Love breaks from both these, in which they are blest, and made perfect, with a mutual Union, and the fruition of each other.  
The ever-glorious, and eternally-joyous Trinity of the highest, and first Love, seems to multiply and figure itself in each Creature. All Creatures now seem to be in a lively and living Beauty, represented by the two Breasts of the heavenly Spouse, Like two Twin-Roes of a lovely kind, two Twin-Loves, the Births of their heavenly Mother, the Universal and Divine Image in the Person of Christ, feeding among the Lilies, the Ideal, eternal Lights and Beauties of her soft and shining Bosom.  
But all this is to be understood of simple Nature, abstracted from the Corruption by Sin, with which, in the midst of the pure, peaceful, pleasant Varieties, the charming Harmonies, the golden Calms and Gardens of Divine Love, cometh in a scene of War and Death, of tempestuous Seas, fields of Blood, Contrariety and Enmity, God willing to show the Power of his Wrath. That God, who is the God of Love, that Will, which is Love itself, All Love in the beloved Soul, to the beloved Soul here in its fallen state, puts on this strange person of an Enemy. Under this dark Disguise, and horrid Vizat, he hideth all his Beauties and Sweetnesses, he acts a part of Wrath. But this itself at last appears to the beloved Soul, to be a most delightful Love-part. While, by it, the Variety is made more full, being extended to the greatest Contrariety, and utmost extremes. While in the reconciling of these, the Divine Harmony is more full and ravishing, The Divine Love heightened to an excess of Sweetness, and triumphant Joys, The Wisdom of the Design more admired and adored in its rich and glorious Depths, All expectations of Men and Angels are suspended, most happily deceived, and in the end infinitely transcended.  
But how have I wandered, and delightfully lost myself, by drinking in eagerly this Wine of Angels and glorified Saints, the Sweetness of this Divine Light and Love? I will now pass from this second Distinction to the third, for the illustration of the Divine presence in the soul.  
3. Distinction. God is one with the Soul, not formally, but transcendently.  
God is not one with the Soul formally, as the formal and proper Essence of the Soul or of any created Spirit, much less as a Constitutive part of its Essence. This would make God and that Spirit essentially one. The Essence of that Spirit would reciprocally be the Essence of God. That Spirit would be essentially God. Is not this the utmost height of Ignorance, Profaneness, Impiety, Blasphemy, Giantlike, Lucifer-like to war with God, for the Throne of his Godhead?  
Besides all this evil, how great were the loss to every Spirit, of Angels and Men? Their Sun, which makes the eternal Day and Spring, were now set in an hopeless Night of Clouds and Confusions. All their Loves, Hopes, and Joys, aspiring to an infiniteness above themselves, would now all droop and die in their own Bosom. The beginning, the end of them all is taken away. That distinction of things, which is the Mother of all Lives, Loves, Beauties, and Pleasures, as Unity is the Father of them, would now sink into a rude undistinguished Darkness; the first and the fountain of all Distinctions being taken away, in taking away the Distinction of the Divine Nature from the created form of things.  
How unpleasant were it to the Eye below, to be persuaded that there were no Sun, besides itself, above itself? Now the joy in beholding the face of the Sun and of Heaven, the taking in of the sweet Light of Heaven and the Sun, the charming Delights in the Varieties of Lights and Shades, of Colours and Pictures, in the Light and the Sunshine, were no more.  
2. God is transcendently one with the Soul, as he is with all things by the transcendency of his Unity, and his Infiniteness. He comprehendeth all things in one in Himself, after a manner altogether incomprehensible. As he is the first, the Universal Cause, the most immediate, the most intimate, the inseparable, the Ideal Cause of all things, He is the Unity of every Unity, the Being of Being's, the Essence of every Essence, not formally, but transcendently, not after a finite, but an infinite manner.  
Cusanus, saith, God is the Sun in the Sun, not formally, finitely, but after a transcendent, infinite manner. He is so the Sun in the Sun, that he is all things with the fullness of the Divine Nature and eternity in that form.  
4. Distinction. God is present with, and in the natural form of the Soul, as in an earthly and shadowy Image. He is present, according to his heavenly, his eternal form in this shadow, as vailed and hidden beneath it.  
As Jesus Christ at his Incarnation, so the first man by his Creation, was made under the Law, (the Law, the Glory of the created Image improved and heightened.) The Holy Spirit saith of the Law, That it is a shadow of good things to come, not the very Image. It is commonly said, That the Law is the Gospel vailed, the Gospel, the Law unvailed.  
Jesus Christ, as he is the essential Image, the brightness of the Glory of God, is the first Adam, vailed, beneath a shadowy Image. He is there, as the Truth, the Original, the Root of this shadow, bringing it forth, bearing it in himself, comprehending it. He is in it, as the Spirit and beautiful form of a Plant in the Seed, ready to spring forth through it, to transfigure it into the similitude of its own Beauties, to fill it so transfigured with its own Divine Life, Virtues, and Fruits in the proper season.  
St. Paul makes the first man, in his pure State and in his Fall, a Type or Figure of Him, who is to come, Jesus Christ, Rom. 5.  
God in the Light of his Glory, Jesus Christ, according to his heavenly Image, hidden in God, The Soul, according to its Divine Life, in the state of Grace, are all present vailed in the natural man, as in their proper shadow.  
Some think this following sense to be intended by St. Paul in these words, [Christ is the Image of the invisible God, the firstborn of the whole Creation, or of every Creature,] Col. 1.  
God in that same second Person, which is the Godhead in its essential Image, (which in the fullness of time, took flesh of the Virgin Mary,) in the beginning of Time came forth from the secret and unaccessible Light of Eternity, in a shadowy Image. This Image was the full figure of his Person, with all its Divine Glories, according to the capacity of a shadow. This was the whole Creation complete in its first Draught. All the Glories of the Divine Nature, which are imitable, were here first distinctly figured in the primitive, and pure forms of all the Creatures. Thus was he the Image of the Invisible God, the firstborn of the whole Creation in general, and of each Creature in particular.  
Thus was He in the Language of the Jews, the great Adam, who brought forth the little Adam in his own likeness.  
Thus was Jesus Christ in Adam, at once, the life of all, in his essential Glories, the Original Copy, or first Draught of the Creature, in the whole compass of it, of each Creature in particular. All this in the Humane Soul, in Adam, as the only perfect and proper Figure of this Original.  
I understand nothing in this interpretation of St. Paul's words, contrary to the Analogy of Faith, or the Scriptures. There seemeth to be in it a complete Harmony, and order in the nature of things, according to this sense.  
1. All things stand first in an Uncreated Subsistence and Essence, Then in an Uncreated Subsistence or Person, they come forth into Created Essences or Natures, Lastly, By this medium uniting all, they pass in Created Subsistencies and Essences, into created Persons and Natures.  
2. Jesus Christ gradually descends from his essential Glories, into an Universal, Original Figure of himself, of the whole Creation, of each Creature. Through this He passeth into the particular form of fallen man, in the Womb of the Virgin. So he descends to the nethermost parts of the Earth, ascends again through all forms of things, with all, united in his own Person, above all Heavens, and fills All.  
After this manner, the Lord Jesus is the Mediator of the Creation, as well as of the Reconciliation and Regeneration. All things are made by him, and nothing that is made (or brought forth from the beginning of things to the end) comes forth without him. As according to his appearances in Grace or Glory, the Saints appear together with him; so according to his Appearances in Nature, all things appear together with him. He lives and subsists in the form of every Creature. Every Creature subsists by its transcendental Union with him in Nature.  
Thus it is most true, That we are in this World, as he is in this World. We are Sojourners together with him in his Land. He suffers in all our Sufferings, is straitened in all our straitning. He is in all things made like unto us, Sin only excepted. He carries along in every particular form the Universal Harmony, the Divine Glory, even in all the sufferings and straightenings of every Creature. The Universal Harmony and Divine Glory is to him the liberty, the joy of Paradise, Heaven, Eternity, in each straitning and suffering. Sin only is the breach of this Harmony, the violation of this Glory, not by a privation only, but a Contradiction and Enmity founded in the privation. This can bear no part in the Divine Harmony, save as it is reduced into Order, and the Harmony carried on through the Wrath and Righteousness of God, in the Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.  
But I desire to leave myself, and my Reader free in this Point.  
I have now finished, in four Distinctions, my Answer to the first part of the Objection, made against the Variety of forms in the Unity of the Soul. In this part of my Answer I have endeavoured to state the presence of God with and in the Soul of man, as perspicuously as my dark and narrow mind is capable of taking in, and expressing a Divine Mystery of so great an amplitude, and such an height of Glory.  
I pass now to the second part of my Answer, which concerns the Angels.  
2. Answer. Angels, with the whole Company of invisible substances, or separated Forms and immortal Spirits are contained in the Unity of the Soul these two ways,  
1. They are Superior and Universal Causes, subordinate to the first Cause. Thus they are most intimately, and inseparably present in the Constitution of the Soul. As Entity, or Being, and substantiality in their Superior and Universal Nature descend into incorporeal Spirits, and through these, into Corporeal Shapes and Bodies; so do all the Angels, greater in Might and Glory, cloth themselves with the Incorporeal Form of the immortal Soul, communicating all their divers Virtues, Powers, and Glories to this Form in which themselves subsist, and live together with it, being an head of Glory to it.  
2. All Angelical, Immortal Spirits, are another way in the Soul, as making up the full diversity of all Forms in it, and so composing its Essence. Thus all Angels, all Essences, all Forms of things in their immortal Substances, as Intellectual Spirits, meet in the proper Unity, under the peculiar Character and Diversity of each Intellectual Soul, as, in some obscure resemblance, Variety of colours in a particular colour, or as all the Elements in each Element, in each mixed Form, under the proper Character of the predominant Element or Form.  
3. Answer. The Intellectual Soul containeth all Corporeal Forms or Bodies in itself, two ways, 

1. Virtually.  
2. Formally.    
1. The Soul hath in itself all Bodies virtually from the Angels above it, as the shining Bosom, where the eternal Spring through Jesus Christ pours forth its living streams. Here the Soul drinketh in the Essences, and essential forms of things, in their Angelic Truth and Goodness. These feast and fill the Understanding and the Will. In the Understanding, or Angelic Light of the Soul, they shine as the Exemplars or Patterns of all below in the visible World. In the Will, as in the Angelic Love of the Soul, they lie as in the Womb, or in the seminal Virtue, or executive Power, which brings them forth.  
2. This Soul comprehends the Corporeal World in itself formally. The Essences of all Bodies, as they are Objects only of the Understanding, and not of Sense, so are they, according to the Nature and Law of all Essences, Intellectual Unities, and Forms, in the Unity or essential Form of this Intellectual Spirit. The Soul in these distinct Essences floweth forth into these shadowy forms, with which our Senses, the shadows of the Intellectual Light, are entertained.  
The Intellectual Unity diffuseth itself into the continued parts of these divisible Forms. This Unity formeth the Proportions of the parts in their mutual Correspondencies, knitteth them together unto a mutual sympathy in each natural Body. For as I have before said, a mutual correspondency of parts suited exactly each to other through the whole Corporeal Frame, a concurrence in all the parts of the sensations, mutations, or impressions seated in each distinct and divided part, seemeth altogether unimaginable, if there be not an undivided Unity, which is one and the same in all the divided parts, where all the parts meet in one, and are one. By this Unity alone can all the parts have a mutual proportion, a comprehension, penetration, sensation, or feeling of each other through out, as they have of themselves, and in the same undivided moment. This rend the sympathy true and perfect.  
The Unity then of the Intellectual Soul, as it diffuseth itself into all Bodies, in all their extended forms and divided parts, so it bindeth them all up within itself. This is the substance to these shadows, and Contextures of shadowy Forms or Accidents in which they subsist. This is the Spring out of which they rise up every moment. This is the band which joins and ties them together in one. This is the Bosom or proper place, which incompasseth, embraceth, brings forth, sustains, and cherisheth them.  
I have now answered the Objection, and so endeavoured to clear from all Clouds the beauty of the Soul, as all Varieties shine most pleasantly in the face of it, in the diversity indeed of the shadowy Image, but an Angellike Diversity, and a Godlike Image.  
Thus I have finished the two Propositions in the Description of the Souls Essence. Asserting, 1. The Unity, 2. The Variety in the Diversity.  
3. Prop. The Image of God resulting from the most harmonious Union of these two, the Unity, and the Diversity of Forms, is the proper Essence, and essential form of the Soul.  
This Harmonious Union consists in a twofold Perfection.  
1. The Unity and Variety of things under a form of Diversity, meet in the Essence of the Soul, with the Character or Propriety of the Unity and Harmony.  
When God had drawn the several parts of his Divine Image in the several Angels and Creatures, according to the Diversities of their several Characters or Properties, He now summons them, and calls them all together to meet in Man, in him to be united and completed in the entire Unity and full Harmony of the Divine Image. Thus he speaketh to himself in the Trinity, to all the Quires of Angels, to all his foregoing Works, Let us (saith He) make man in our Image, in our own likeness. The expression is doubled, to give the more force and emphasis to it. So afterward God created man in his own Image, in the Image of God created he him. The entireness, the Eminency, the Principality of the Divine Image in man is thus set forth, and therefore the Dominion is immediately added to it.  
Angels, and all other Creatures, have their distinct Ideas in the Divine Mind. But God himself in his own essential Image, in the Person of the Son, the Idea of Ideas, is the Idea of Man. This therefore alone, as it is his glorious beginning in Nature, is his Beatifical End in Grace and Glory, his Righteousness, Rest, Eternal and full Blessedness, in his full, immediate, entire Union, Conformity, Communion with it.  
The Lord Jesus is the Head, the Unity, the Harmony of the whole Creation, in this Region of Diversity. The Angels, in the heights of a Created Glory next him, are like Notes in a Musical Lesson, Diversities in the Harmony springing forth from this Unity.  
But each of these Diversities, as the top of the Beams next the Sun, standing in the highest degree of Diversity, beneath the Unity, bear in themselves the Universal Harmony, the Universal Nature of Diversity, the whole Creation, in the shadowy figure of the Godhead. Therefore are they in Scripture styled, Thrones, Principalities, Gods. They are so many Divine Unities in a shadowy Image, but under the Character and Property of so many distinct Diversities.  
Thus are they ministering Spirits; As they are shadowy Unities. They are shadowy Gods. But as they are Unities under the several Characters of Diversity, they are ministering Deities, or ministering Spirits. They are Servants to the Lord Jesus, the proper Unity and Harmony in its own full Character, and Divine Property. From him they minister the whole Creation, in the several Diversities of the Universal Forms, and undivided Essences unto man. In man they all meet, as in their proper Unity and Harmony answering exactly to the Person of the Lord Jesus. So the Sun in Heaven, by his several Beams, figureth himself into a Sun in a Cloud, by his side, or in a clear stream beneath him.  
Thus are the Angels, so many Chariots, and the whole Society of Angels one Chariot, in which Jesus Christ rides forth into the Humane Nature, unto a complete Image of himself in man.  
After this manner Angels Rule over Man, are superior to him in Glory and Might, as he is the shadowy Image, in which all the lines of Nature meet, and terminate themselves. He is now the Heir under Age, subject to Tutors and Guardians. But the spiritual man made lower than the Angels, in its shadowy Image, upon the stage of the first Creation, grown up to its Age of maturity, in the Resurrection of Christ, is now crowned with Honour and Dignity, is Heir of all things, Lord of the Angels. Together with Jesus Christ he rideth forth upon the Angels, as the Chariots and Horses, which he now governs.  
Thus in this shadowy Image, and state of Diversity, the Unity and the Variety meet in man with the most Harmonious Union, the fullest Character of the Unity in the Variety. So man becomes the principal, the complete Image of the Godhead in the whole Creation, ministered from the Lord Jesus, the Head and Harmony of the whole Diversity, by the concurrent service of all the Angels, as the whole Creation, in so many Diversities.  
2. The Harmonious Union, constituting the Divine Image in man, consists in the Unity of the Soul, in its undivided Essence, subsisting in all diversity of Forms, circling through them all, returning ever into itself. As the same spacious, and delightfully various Prospect, seen through several clear Glasses, diversely, but delicately shaded. So the Soul by the Unity of its Essence subsists, and contemplates itself within itself, in all forms of things from the highest to the lowest, according to their several Angelical Diversities, as so many pleasingly new, and richly distinct, but sweet and transparent shades. This is the Soul in the perfection of its natural Form, a Divine Cir●…le, a complete Paradise. Every where presenting the whole, the form of a man, in the Divine Image, the Beginning and the End, meeting themselves in each Point.  
The Intellectual Soul by its Unity at once subsisteth diversely in all Diversity of Forms, and circleth through them all within itself.  
The Soul by its Idea, and Divine Unity, hath its Throne in the Divine World. By its Intellectual Life, and Intuitive Light, it spreads its self in flames of heavenly Love, in beams of heavenly Beauty among the Seraphim and Cherubin. In its sensitive powers and parts, it stretcheth forth itself through those lower Worlds, the Celestial and Elementary. In its rational and discursive faculty, it makes a distinct World of its own, at once dividing and uniting the invisible and visible Worlds, filling up the internal or middle space between them.  
The Soul, from its Divine Unity, in its most immediate Union with its eternal Idea (where all Unities of things in their Godlike forms do meet together in one) descendeth into its Angelic Image, or Intellectual Form. Here all things in Angels shapes dwell together, as in a Palace of Angels. Here the Soul in her own face, as in a Glass, beholdeth all things in their universal Forms, rolling through them all, so that in each form she is Omniform, comprehending in open view all things in their universal Forms, under the Property or Character of that universal Form, in which she at present appears. From thence she passeth into her rational Form, in which she is a contexture of universal and particular Images mutually infolding each other, mutually springing up and shining forth, in a beautiful Harmony from the Crystalline Bosoms of each other. So this Spirit slides by degrees into the most divided shapes in sense, and on Earth, through these into the lowest and obscurest shades beneath the Earth.  
Again by answerable Revolutions, and in the same proportions, she gathereth herself up again into her first and supreme Unity.  
Three things make the Soul in these Circlings a most beautiful and delightful Prospect, which three Beauties and Pleasures all flow by á sweetly-natural necessity, from her Divine Unity.  
1. The Changes of the Soul through all these Diversities of forms, are all most orderly and harmonious, all together make up one most ravishing Harmony of Divine Beauty and Music. For the Unity spreadeth itself through all this diversity of Forms and Changes. The Unity preserveth itself entire in the whole composure of these Changes, and in each part, in each turn of the whole. Upon this account hath the Soul been defined to be Harmony and a selfmoving Number, or a numerous Motion, a numerous spring of Motion. Harmony consisteth in, is measured, and expressed by Numbers: Inasmuch as Number is Unity diffusing itself, Unity going forth from itself, in a just order, by Multiplication or Division of itself returning again into itself, and all this within itself.  
2. The Soul, through the whole Circle of its Descent and Return, carrieth along with it all diversity of Forms into every Change. For the Unity of the Soul is herself every where inseparable from the Soul, and indivisible in itself. This is clearly signified in that Maxim concerning the Soul, universally taught in the Schools; That the Soul is divisible and mutable in her Operation, that is, in respect to her Change into diversity of forms; but through all this mutability of Operations, and Changes, indivisible and immutable in her Essence.  
Thus is the Essence of the Soul, as a Crystalline Heaven, or as a Palace composed all of purest and firmest Looking-Glass, after such a manner, that all the parts of the wonderful structure, all the persons in all the Apartments, all the Changes and Motions, are seen at once, in every point of the Divine Building. All the Glories, all the Inhabitants of this Heaven in all shapes, in all postures of Light and Life, meet the Eye every where, not only by a most clear transparency, but by the Spring, or Fountain of Light and Life, which in winding streams floweth through the whole, openeth itself, with all its various streams, and all their curious windings in its Bosom every where.  
3. The Soul rouleth through all these Changes, circling from the highest Lights above, to the most shady depths below, and through those shades into the brightnesses above within herself. Her own Essence is within itself, the Spring, the Centre, the Seat, the Circle of all those mysterious and harmonious Revolutions. For this is the Essence of the Soul, An Unity containing in itself all diversity of Forms.  
This is the Soul in its Essence, in the perfection of its natural form, the Universe within itself, like God comprehending, conversing with all things, within its self alone. All this indeed was in a shadowy figure; yet such, as the Life itself, brought forth, supported, filled, illustrated, and acted. But alas! now by the Fall, this great and glorious Spirit contracted, obscured in death, wandreth within itself as a Ghost, or shade of itself, among the Dead. It looketh up, it beholdeth itself, all things round about it, and wondereth at their strange shapes, as the shades of the Dead. It understandeth, knoweth nothing of itself, or them; not so much, as that it is dead. It calleth this state of Death, Life, This the World, which is itself become its own Tomb.  
Perhaps this Picture which I have drawn of the Soul, in her proper Essence, or Nature, in her true and essential form, may seem rather a fancy, than any thing taken from the Life. I shall therefore attempt to touch it over again, that I may give more lustre and life to it, that I may at once make it more clear, and confirm it. I shall to this end make use of two Authorities: The one Humane, the other Divine. I shall begin with Humane Authority, that I may prepare the way to, and close all with the Divine Authority, as the seal of Truth.  
The Humane Authority is taken from a Person eminent, as a Philosopher and Divine, for a profound Knowledge in all manner of Learning, for a height of Beauty in his Life, the suitable Birth and Image of that Divine Light in his Mind, for a Death, which was an ascent to the eternal Mansions in a flame of Martyrdom and Divine Love, agreeable to both the Light of his Knowledge, and the Beauty of his Life. His Writings are universally esteemed. His Testimony universally received, and often cited as Authentic, by the greatest Persons through many Ages. He hath the stamp of Antiquity upon him.  
Boetius, that great Roman, is the Person of whom I speak. The Authority I cite from him, is the Meeter in the Book of the Consolation of Philosophy. It is a part of this Meeter, which describes the nature of the Soul. But the whole seems to me so pertinent to the general Subject of my Discourse, so excellent in itself, drawn forth from the inmost Treasuries of the Platonical, Pythagorean, Mosaical, Christian Philosophy and Divinity, that I thought I should oblige the Reader to set it down entire. I have therefore first transcribed it in Latin, for the sake of the learned Reader: and then rendered it into English for the benefit of all, that shall take any pleasure in those sacred Mysteries of Truth presented in her richest Robes, at the whitest height of her never fading Beauty and Majesty.  

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

The English.  
O thou, who by the golden linked Chain  
Of reason's Music, with an even strain  
Conductest all from thy bright Throne on high,  
Father of shady Earth, and shining Sky.  
By undiscovered Tracts, Time's stream and spring,  
Thou from Eternity's vast Sea dost bring.  
Motion, and change ever unknown to thee,  
From thee derived, and by thee guided be.  
This work of floating matter, which we see,  
By inbred form of good, from envy free,  
By sweetest force of Native Love's rich seeds,  
Without external cause from thee proceeds.  
In Love's eternal Garden, as its flowers,  
Flourish in their first forms, and fullest powers  
All Beauties. These are the life, the living Law,  
From which thou dost all forms of Being draw.  
As light to dazzled eyes, all things below  
From these pure Suns, in fading circles flow.  
A World all fair, from thee supremely fair,  
Shines in thy mind, above control or care.  
In an harmonious Image thou the same,  
By perfect parts dost to perfection frame.  
By potent Charms of sacred numbers bound,  
The waving Elements keep their set round.  
Fire, Aire, Earth, Water in mysterious Dances  
Move to thy Music through all times and chances.  
Mixed into various figures with sweet grace,  
In each form undivided they embrace.  
Earth sinks not, nor doth fire to Heaven fly,  
Frosts, Flames, Droughts, Floods, meet in an Unity.  
The threefold Nature's golden Knot, mid-band,  
The Soul thou tiest in one, by Love's bright hand.  
Then it by thee, unloosened, spread doth lie  
In Limbs well suited to a sympathy  
Of motion, and distinct melody,  
Diffused through things below, or those on high.  
This is the Spring, and Circle ampler far,  
And purer, than the Crystal Heavens are;  
The universal Beauty's charming face,  
Where sweetly spring and dance each lovely grace.  
Within itself divided this great Soul  
Into a double Globe itself doth roll.  
One hidden from us by excess of light,  
One with shades sweetly tempered to our sight.  
As through these it moves, it still returns  
Into itself, still with Love's fire it burns.  
By force of this it still doth circle round  
Th' eternal minds great deep. Heaven thus doth found,  
And in like figure of those unseen Lights,  
Doth turn about these Glories in our sights.  
Brought forth from causes like Souls, and less lives,  
Thy will aloft in airy Chariots drives,  
And sows in Heaven, in Earth, which by Love's Law  
Turned back to thee, thou to thyself dost draw  
By the innate returning flame.  
Grant Father, to our minds thy glorious Mount  
To climb, to view of good the sacred Fount:  
In thine own Light, which doth within us shine,  
To fix the clear eyes of our Souls on thine.  
Cast down the mists, and weight of earthly mould.  
The joyous splendours of thy face unfold.  
Thou art to holy minds the golden Calm,  
The sweet repose, the grief appeasing Balm.  
To see Thee our Beginning, is our End,  
Guide, Chariot, Way, our Home, to which we tend.   
I mean to take no notice of any thing in this Poem, besides that alone, which immediately concerns the Soul. In that part I shall, after the manner of a brief Commentary, present the Reader with some few Notes upon the several Passages, for the illustration and confirmation of my foregoing Discourse upon the Nature of the Humane, or Intellectual Soul.  
1. Passage. The threefold Nature's golden knot, Mid-band: The Soul. Thou tiest in one. Triplicis. Naturae mediam Connectens Animam.   
1. Note. The three Natures here are manifestly, The Invisible, Incorporeal Nature, Immortal Spirits: The Visible, Corporeal Nature, Bodies, Mortal, or Immortal: The Soul, the middle between both these.  
2. Note. The Soul is a middle-nature between both these, not by Abnegation or Separation, but by Participation and Connection. So that word imports, Connectens, the Golden Knot lying all in one. The Soul is a middle-nature three ways,  
1. The Soul extendeth herself through both Natures, to their utmost heights above, and Depths beneath, by her Idea, which is her Golden Head, by her Angel, which is her Arms and Breast of her Silver, her immediate Image and Birth, as she springs forth from her Idea, her incorruptible Essence, above all motion, the first seat of her Life, Understanding, Virtue, Power, as they flow from her Ideal Spring. Thus Plotinus believed the Soul herself, in her Essence, in her Intellectual Form, at its first abstracted height and purity to be her own good Angel. But the Soul dissuseth herself also by her Celestial Garment or Body, through the wide-spread Heavens. These are her Belly and Thighs of Brass, the Springs of Generation, the first seat of Motion, Division, and successive Forms. By her Elemental Body, she swims in this uncertain Sea of Generation and Corruption. The Elements in their Orbs, compose her Legs and Feet of Iron. Here is the lowest Region of Division, Motion, and Change. Here is the scene of Corruption, here is the Soul most obscured. In the lowest parts of this Earth is she resolved into a shade.  
2. The Soul is a Nature distinct from the other two. Angelical Spirits are Omniforme, or Universal. Bodies are extended into divisible parts. The Intellectual is composed of both universal and particular Forms, all which it contains in an indivisible Unity. The Soul circles through all forms of things, universal and particular, as they subsist apart, or united, appearing mutually, infolding each other within the undivided Unity of its own Essence, whilst, in the Unity and Majesty of its undivided Essence, it rolls through all forms and parts of itself, as the Sun through the whole compass of the Heavens. In this is a more glorious Sun and Heaven, that it is in each point of itself, at once, as a distinct Sun in its full glory, and every Sun, a spacious, transparent Glass, in which the whole Heaven of its Essence, with all its harmonious Motions, and most regular diversity of Forms, appear together by virtue of the Unity every where indivisible.  
3. Within the Unity of the Soul lie both the other Natures in a way proper to the nature of the Soul. The Angelical, the Divine Natures above are there, with contracted and dimmer Glories, appearing through Images of less brightness, and less Majesty. All Corporeal Natures are there exalted into Spirits, in their Intellectual Patterns and Powers, in their rational Forms and Virtues, in their Imaginative figures and force, in their seminal Reasons, and plastical or formative Power.  
That mystical Picture which the Prophet Esay draws of the Seraphim, from the Life itself, when he saw them, will serve in its proportion for the figure of the Intellectual Soul. They had each six wings, with two they covered their Face, with two their Feet, with two they flew. Spirits are described by Wings. The Images of things, springing up within them, are their Wings, not by change of place without them, but by these inward Images are they present with things, and in each place. By these they work after the way of a Natural, or rather Angelical Magic. By raising and converting themselves to Images in their minds, they bring forth new forms without, as the Offspring or Emanations from those Images, like shadows from Bodies. Upon this account Angels are said to work Cognoscendo, by the force of figures in their minds.  
Each Soul hath, like a Seraphim, six wings. The face of the Soul is his Divine, his Angelical Idea, in which the face of God, and the face of the Angel, in their proper forms, are seen. The two uppermost wings, with which the Soul covers her Angelical Face, and within that her Divine Face, is the Divine Image shining in the Angelical Image. These wings are full of eyes within and without. As by the eyes without, they see the Images of Angelical and Divine Glories. So by the eyes within, they see the Faces of Angels and of God, and in them their own faces, vailed beneath these Images, full of eyes.  
These Eyes are the living Light, the reflection of the Angelical and Divine Glory, of which these Images are composed, and by virtue of which they, according to their pure Natures, stand in a mutual, inseparable Union with the Angels, and in the Angels with the Divine Glory. By virtue of this Union, they at once look inward to their Ideal Beauties, and outward to the Images of these Beauties.  
The two lowest wings are the Images of all Corporeal Natures, of all Bodies which cover these, as the feet of the Soul. Nymphs, which are Souls, according to Porphyrius, are described in Poets with silver feet. Bodily Natures, in their extended and divisible parts, are the feet of the Soul, its lowest descent, the lowest and shadowest forms figured upon it. These in the Soul itself, which is an Unity, appear only in their seminal Unities and Beauties, as Spirits in the Harmony of this Universal Spirit. For this cause are they represented by silver feet, shining, and incorruptible; for the same reason are they said to be covered with wings, which are those Spirits, the lowermost forms of things in the Soul, the seminal Unity and Harmonies, out of which Bodies immediately flow, and in which they are seen, as in a mystical Glass.  
The middle-wings of the Soul are the proper Image of the Soul itself, by which it performs its own proper Motions and Operations, flying between those Angelical, those Divine Images above, and the shady forms of Bodies below.  
The Images, or Natures of Spirits are expressed by pairs of wings, not only for congruity, and the decency of the Parable, but from the Truth of the mystery; for in Spirits, each Image distinguisheth itself by a most substantial Variety into its own Original and Image, by that selfreflection, or spiritual Generation, which is the essential Act of each Understanding, of each Intellectual Nature, of each Spirit.  
Thus much of this first passage, the threefold Nature united in the Soul.  
2. Passage. 
Then it by thee unloosened, spread doth lie,  
Through Limbs well suited to a sympathy.  
— Per Consona membra resoluis.   
Note. How elegantly doth this Divine Philosopher, and Poet, at once, paint out to us the Soul extended into Corporeal Forms, in divisible parts; languishing, obscure, with a faint, and fading light; weak, with a feeble and dying force; as also present in its Divine Unity, the spring of Light, of Life, through the whole extent of these Bodies, and binding them up into an indivisible Unity. This Unity every where present with all the parts of the wholly Body, This Unity comprehending them all in one, making them all one by a mutual comprehension of each other in itself, is the only ground of the Consonancy, the Harmony and Sympathy. The Unity of the same Spirit answering to itself every where, presenting all the parts in an Unity in itself, is every where in all Corporeal Forms, the Beauty, the Music, the Harmony.  
3. Passage. 
Of motion and divinest Melody,  
Diffused through things below, or those on high.  
This is the Spring and Circle.  
Cuncta moventem.   
1. Note. The difficulties in Motion, are inexplicable, if Motion have not for its Spring and Seat an essential, substantial Unity, which contains at once in itself the terms of the Motion, its Beginning and End; the Way; the Forms or Parts of that which is moved. Without this, how shall the Motion be directed? How shall the Forms or parts of that which is moved, give place to, or pass into the place of each other? How shall the Impression, or force of Motion be communicated? But now all things move by a divinely natural Magic; that is, by the force of Harmony, in the Unity of the same Soul or Spirit inhabiting and acting all, presenting itself in every form, part, and motion. Now all motions present themselves to our eyes, as exact and Divine Dances of persons to a Divine Music, from unseen Musicians sounding entirely, and distinctly in the ear of each person, to which they all at once, in their order, move most agreeably.  
2. Note. Immutablity; Mutation, or Change; Motion, differ after the same manner with Eternity, Aeviternity, Time. This is best explained by the threefold Unity, the Divine, the Angelical Unity, the Unity of the Soul.  
1. The Divine Unity is alone a true and perfect Unity, substantial, supreme, unbounded. This hath a perfect boundless Variety in it, with an Uniformity. All forms of things here, as they are most perfectly distinct, by the perfection of the Variety; so are they most perfectly one, by the perfection of the Unity. This is the Divine World, containing innumerable Divine Worlds within itself, of which every one is infinitely new, and various from all the rest; yet entirely one with all the Rest, including at once innumerable Divine Worlds, all new, and all the same. As the Variety there, comprehends all distinctions below it, and infinitely transcends them; So each, the minutest, the least distinction here, being a Variety there, is a new Divine World, having all the other Varieties complete in itself, as so many Divine Worlds, all new. This is Eternity above all change.  
2. The Angelical Unity follows. Here the Divine Unity descends into a shadow, beneath which it shades itself. This is a shadowy Unity, the first and most perfect of all shadowy Unities. The shade here bounds, and diversifieth the Unity. But the Light, and the Unity in the shadow, predominate over the Darkness and Diversity. The Divine Variety is here contracted and obscured in a diversity of Forms. But in this diversity of Forms, is an Omniformity. Each Form is Universal and Omniform. Each Form hath this Angelical Unity in it, where all diversity of Forms meet to compose it, and shine together in it, according to the diversity and property of that Form. Thus every Form of things here is an Angel, every Angel is the whole World in himself; the whole World, and a new World of Angels.  
In this World is motion, not properly or simply, but with a predominancy of station, over the motion: for, as the Unity is continually rolling through diversity of Forms, so it is Omniform, Universal, clothed with, possessing, and enjoying in itself, all diversity of Forms, and so the full compass of the whole Angelical Harmony in each Form. This is Aeviternity, where mutability or change begins.  
3. The Unity of the Soul is the last, this is mixed of Eviternity and Time; Of Change, where station predominates over motion, and motion single in its own kingdom. The Soul in its superior part is in the form of an Angel; In its Angelical Unity it comprehends and rolls through all diversity of Forms, in their Universality and Omniformity, carrying the whole pomp and full splendour of all universal Forms, of all Angelical Beauties along with it, in the face of it, into each divers Form.  
Thus it is all Forms in every Form.  
In its inferior part, the Soul descends into all particular Forms, where the Unity in its Angelic majesty and lustre, in its universal Form and Glory, is gradually contracted and obscured by the increasing shade. The Soul now becomes each particular Form.  
Here, in this inferior part of the Soul, Motion and Time have their first birth and seat. Time is defined to be the number of Motion, in an orderly Priority and Posteriority. Accordingly the Soul in respect to its inferior part, most properly is described to be a selfmoving number. As numbers, by a just order, spring up one out of the other, the succeeding numbers, being ever less universal, removed further from the Unity, and multiplied more into particular Unities, than the foregoing numbers. So doth the Soul after the manner of number, which is the measure of all proportion and order from its supreme and universal Unity, descend and re-ascend through all particular Forms, in the most just order, and most exact proportions.  
The Soul, being the first seat of Motion and Time, is also the first seat of Music, which is a motion, measured by Time, and by the order of Ascents or Descents. It is therefore defined by an Harmony. There is a threefold Harmony in the motions of the Soul,  
1. All the motions of the Soul, through all particular Forms, lie together after a most agreeable and harmonious manner in the supreme Unity of the Soul, in its universal Form, which is its Essence. By the Harmony here are measured all the motions of the Soul, in its passage through inferior Forms, and so all Time.  
2. The Soul in its Unity diffuseth itself through all its particular Forms and Motions, dwelleth as an hidden seed of Harmony in each of them, figureth itself upon each particular, and upon the whole, uniteth and bindeth up all by itself in itself into one entire piece, into one universal Harmony, which includes all particular Harmonies, all sorts of Music in itself.  
3. The Soul by virtue of its Unity, and universal' Form, within the embraces and incompassing of that, descends most regularly to the lowest Forms. Then ascends again, ending in that Point, that Unity, where it first begun. So it finisheth in itself the Divine Circle of Music or Harmony, within which lies all Harmony and Music in all its most delightful diversity of Modes or Figures.  
Thus the Soul in itself, as it spreads itself through time and motion, the first, the universal Music, the measure, the Spirit of all Music, all time and motion here, make up the universal Music. Again, as all universal and particular Forms, all motion and time appear at once, in one view, in the Unity of the Souls Essence, and universal Form; so is the Soul, the first, the universal Beauty, the Measure, the Spirit of all Beauty, Forms, and Harmony. This is spoken of the Soul in comparison with the Corporeal Beauties, Music, and Harmony, Celestial or Terrestrial. But the Harmony of the Angelic Nature transcends this of the Soul. That also is infinitely surmo●…nted by those unexpressible, incomprehensible Harmonies of the Divine Effence, which it is not possible for any created sense to take in.  
4. Passage. 
— It still returns.  
Into itself—  
It still doth circle round.  
The eternal minds great deep, Heaven thus doth found.  
And in like figure of those unseen Lights,  
Doth turn about these Glories in our sights.  
In semel reditura meat, mentemque profundam.  
Circuit, & simili convertit imagine Caelum.   
1. Note. How the Soul in all her motions returns into herself? you see in the Harmony of the Soul described, in the last Note, upon the foregoing Passage. I will here only add this, The Soul is an indivisible Unity, yet spacious, enriched with a Variety of Powers and Forms, far beyond the compass or glory of this visible World, with all its Starry, Crystalline, or Empyrean Heavens. This Soul, from itself, within itself, circles through vast and various Forms of richest Lights, deepest Shades, with all their mixtures in a most exact and ravishing order, making all one Piece, one Structure, one Palace, one Person, one Face of Beauty, most divinely beautiful, where all forms of Beauty meet in one. As it is thus from itself within itself, circles through all forms; so in each form it springs up, and brings forth itself entire in the Unity of its Essence. Thus in every Point, the beginning and the end meet; the circle of the Souls Essence, and of all Beauties; the Divine Piece, the Divine Palace, with all its bright Inhabitants, and shining Furniture; the Divine Person, the Face of Beauty, is all finished and complete, with all the sweet and beautiful Varieties in every part, in every point. Thus the Soul in all its motions, by virtue of the most charming Harmony, and transporting Unity, every where entire and undivided, is ever returning into itself.  
2. Note. The Souls Original, the manner of its Divine Procession, from its eternal King, is with an admirable brevity, perspicuity, and depth represented to us, in the Souls circling round, the Minds great deep. The Platonists distinguish all invisible Being into three ranks; The Unity, which is God, the Mind, the Soul. The Mind they call the Son, the World of God, the first seat of all Ideas. But with us Christians, this Mind is the Angelical Nature, the chief of those ministering Spirits, to which we in the Language of the Scripture, give the Name of Angels, The Son of God, the World of God, in the first and most proper sense, is the Uncreated Mind and Wisdom, the Lord Jesus, who, as he is the second person in the Trinity, is the supreme Unity, the one only true God. The Godhead in its essential Image, where first are seated, and shine all forms of things in their Original Glories, in their eternal Patterns, as they are the Variety in the Divine Unity, every one God entirely in itself, in all the full Glories of the Godhead, and all one God, ever undivided, indivisible.  
Plutarch calleth Life, a Depth; This Mind is expressed by a Deep, inasmuch as it is Life itself, the first unbounded Life, which hath no ground, no limit, the fountain of Life, where endlessly spring up in an unconfined Circle, in a bottomless Depth, forms of Glory innumerable, one within another. Thus St. Paul speaketh, That the Spirit of God, in the Spirit of a Saint, is a Spirit of Revelation, which takes the covering off from this Deep of Light and Glories in the Soul, searching out the Depth of God.  
The Soul circleth round this Deep of the Divine Mind, not after a Corporeal, or Local manner, but as one Spirit encompasseth another without Circumscription extension or distance.  
1. The Soul without consinement or adaequation, contains in its Unity and Centre this glorious Deep of the Divine Mind through the Angelical Mind, as the Unity of its Unity, the Centre in its Centre.  
2. The Soul springs forth by a continual emanation, a continual irradiation or process from this Divine Mind, into an entire Image of it. As it ●…ees the various Glories in the circle of this Deep. So doth it spring up within itself, into the similitude and forms of the same Glories, in the same Order and Harmony, to the filling up and completing of the same circle within itself. The Lord Jesus in the Gospel, at his Transfiguration, appeared as the Sun in its strength, and his Garments as the Light. Thus the same Jesus, the Divine Mind is here a Circle, a Depth of substantial Light and Glories, filling the Light with all Variety of forms. The Soul springs forth from him, all round about him, as a Garment of Light, a Circle of Beams, all wrought with the beautiful Figures of those Glories.  
Plato saith, That there are three Kings, round whose Thrones all things dance; God, the Mind, the Soul; this continual procession of the Soul from the Divine Mind, through the Angelical Mind, in the entire Image of it, with all its Divine Forms, and their Order, their Harmony, their Unity in the whole compass of their Variety, is the mystical Dance of the Soul round the Throne of her King, her Bridegroom, by which at once she contemplates, enjoys, springs up into his Divine Form in all its Beauties, and is filled with him. He in like manner hath her ever before him, as the Looking-Glass of his own Beauty, lying and playing in himself, as the Image of a Flower, or Tree in the water, every way circled in by him, as she is centred in him.  
As the Divine Mind, through the Angelical is in the Soul, so are the Divine, the Angelical Mind through the Soul in this visible World centring it in themselves, riding forth upon the Circuit of the Heaven and the Earth, as the lowest figure of themselves, at once standing up out of them, and standing in them.  
The Soul, as the Exemplar Form, as the Unity, the inmost centre, the outmost Circle, sendeth forth this Corporeal Image, as a figure of itself, formeth, moveth, acteth it throughout, sustaineth it in itself, filleth it with itself, every way boundeth and containeth it within itself.  
The vast all-containing Unity of the Soul figureth itself, the circular, globous, round form of the Heavens and the Earth, in the Union and Harmony of all the parts, suffering no where any discontinuity, or vacuity, nor any deformity or discord in the whole.  
From the variety of invisible Forms within itself, the Soul springeth up into all the innumerable Army of heavenly Bodies in the Celestial Orbs, into all the diversity of Elementary shapes and figures in the Regions below. The Harmony and Order of the Soul in all its forms and motions through them floweth forth, figureth itself, as a Light of Beauty shineth, as a Divine Music soundeth through all the parts and changes of the Celestial, the Elementary Spheres, charming those Souls that have awakened and purified senses to take them in.  
As the Soul within itself springeth up into each form, in its proper Order, bringing forth itself at once with the entire Unity of its whole undivided Essence anew, in that distinct form; so doth the Soul from that Original, in the likeness of the same Image, each new moment, spring forth anew according to the innate Law of the universal Order and Harmony into the whole Heavens and Earth, in a new posture and figure. Thus after the similitude of its own circlings through all forms within itself, the Soul incessantly turneth round the Heavens, and the Elementary Orbs, which by their perpetual circling through each other, turn about by day and by night the restless wheel of Generation and Corruption, as of all change. Thus as the Soul danceth round the Throne of the Divine and the Angelic King, these Heavens and the Elements dance round the Throne of their King the Soul.  
Before I pass from the Authority and Testimony of this great Philosopher, concerning the nature of the Soul, give me leave to direct this Arrow, to the white, and mark, which I aim at through this whole Discourse.  
According to this Doctrine, the Divine, the Angelic Mind, the Soul, the Celestial and Elementary Orbs, through all their powers, parts, forms, and motions, meet in, make up one Universal and Divine Harmony, one Beauty, one Music. All exactly in the lowest, the least, the weakest stroke, touch, or shade, in most exact measure and proportion, answer one another; As the Face in the water answers the living Face: So doth every lower Orb or Circle of things answer the superior. As the reflection of itself, in its own water or lustre, shining forth from it, and abiding in it; like the water of a precious stone. Each Orb or Circle of things is filled with, knit together by, bounded in its own Unity, which floweth through all, as the Spirit, the Life of Order and Harmony, disposing all the parts and motions in a most just measure to preserve itself, and its figure entire in the whole. The supreme, the Divine Unity sits upon every one of these subordinate Unities, rideth forth in them, uniteth, filleth, bindeth up, boundeth in itself all the Orbs and Circles, all in them all. This shines through them, runs with its beams, playing over every form, as one universal Beauty, one sparkling Image of the supreme, universal Good, in the whole face of things. This is a Music, sounding through all, where each various form, the obscurest, the most minute, is a string upon the golden Lute, of the whole Image of things. Each motion a touch of the chief, the invisible Musician. The Spirit of the whole, the Spirit of Unity and Harmony; each touch a part of the Music, exactly answering in all Musical proportions to every other part, and to the whole, making perfect the Divine Consort, in which all the Angels, all the Ideal, the first Glories in the Divine Mind bear a part with every Worm and Dust on the Earth, every Wave and Drop in the Sea, every Dragon and Owl in the Desert, every flake of Snow in the Air.  
How beautiful now is the Work of God in all! how worthy of a God As his Glory is above all Heavens, the highest and purest forms of Light; so is his Name, which is that Glory, in the full expression, and fair Images of it, excellent through all the Earth, to the lowest shades.  
Plato saith, That there is that, which is the least of all things, which cometh between the lowest Divisions, the least parts of things, which uniteth all one to another. Ficinus in his Comment teacheth us, That this, in the sense of Plato, is God, who by the absoluteness and simplicity of his Unity, is at once, the Greatest and the Least, the Highest and the Lowest, the Outmost and the Inmost of all things, the Band of all, that can no where be excluded.  
If this be true, where, now through the whole Universe of things, is there found a place for that Liberty, which breaketh the Band of the Divine Unity and Harmony, which discontinueth the Links in this Golden Chain by uncertain, arbitrary, independent motions and forms arising from those motions? What jarring Motion or Division springeth up without its Divine Ground, without its orderly Connexion, without its Patterns, and Spring above, to which it answers, without its fellow Notes, round about it, to which it is tuned? Where is this motion which thus jarreth with, disturbeth and spoileth the universal Music? Certainly, it lies without the supreme, the all-comprehending Unity, It excludes from itself that Divine Unity, which filleth all, which bindeth all up into one.  
Aristotle expresseth the Soul, by a word, which seems to have a full and deep sense to this present purpose. Those, that followed him have with great labour and pains digged in it, with their sharpest wits, as in a Mine, from which they expected much fine Gold of Divine Wisdom and Truth. It is reported of one, That he raised a Spirit to intepret this word to him. It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which seemeth most properly and clearly to express that Divine Unity of the Soul, replenished with all Variety Forms in the most beautiful Order, as we have described the nature of it. It is that which hath its perfection, its end, and so its beginning, and so its whole way in itself.  
This Perfection of the Intellectual Soul, is the comprehension of all Truth in its Understanding, the fruition of all good in the Will. The universal Truth and Good are then the beginning of the Soul, its Original, all forms of things in the Beauties of their clearest and fullest Truth, which is the eternal Light of their Ideal Glories, smiling in the face of them, all forms of things in the sweetness, delightfulness, joy, in the unexpressibleness of Good, the true Good, all Good, which is the eternal Life. The eternal Love of those Original Beauties in their sacred Spring rising up fresh in the bosom of each Form; this is the end, this is the perfection of the Soul. Thus all things were made for Christ, in him, by him, who is the universal Truth and Good. How? St. Paul explains it, All things are yours, and you are Christ's. All forms of things meet and unite in the Humane Soul, as their Perfection, their Beginning, their End. Jesus Christ, as he is the first, the fairest, the fullest Image of all Forms in one, in their most exact Order and Harmony, is the Father, the Brother, the Bridegroom of the Soul, her beginning, her exemplar Form or Perfection, her End.  
That Definition of the Soul, the Act of an Organical Body, contains the same Doctrine of the Soul in it. An Organical Body, is a Corporeal, or visible Image, composed of various members, various parts and forms, to be instruments and expressions of the various Beauties, Powers, and Virtues of the Soul, by which they propagate themselves in an inferior Birth, and figure themselves in a new, but narrower Orb, in a new, but obscurer light of sense. Thus the whole visible World, is one Organical Body, of which all particular Bodies are so many Organical parts.  
Beauty is described to be the predominancy of the form over the matter. A substantial or essential Act is all form, a pure form separated from every thing of Corporeal matter. The Soul then, as it is an Act, is all Beauty, Beauty abstracted from matter, a pure Light of Beauty, the Essence, the substance of Beauty, and so of Harmony, of Order.  
It is a Maxim in Nature, That the last, the lowest, the least in a superior Order, or rank of things, every way excels the first, the highest, the greatest, in a lower rank and order. According to this Rule, every Soul in the excellency, beauty, virtue, compass of its Being, transcends this whole Corporeal World in the widest Circuit of its Form, and largest extent of its Duration.  
Thus the Intellectual Soul is the Act of this Universe of Sense, the whole Corporeal World. The Intellectual Soul is all this World, with all Forms of things contained in it, with all their courses and changes, according to their Connexion and Order from the beginning to the end, in one essential, substantial, undivided Act; One pure Act of transparent Beauty and Order, which is the Souls Unity and Essence. By this, the whole Celestial, and Elementary World, in the emanation and springing up of all forms of things, in all their motions and orders, are uncessantly acted; In this they subsist as shadows, which have no ground of substance in themselves. In this they actually are that which they are; As Mathematical figures in the mind, the Soul itself alone, filling those figures, being all the Essence, Substance, Power, Virtue, and Form in them. Like shadows they vanish, as they go forth from this Bosom, where alone their Essences, which are so many distinct, substantial Acts and Unities, shine and move together in a most beautiful Harmony, as fixed incorporeal Stars in their proper Heaven.  
Thus is each man a complete world in himself. Thus doth each Soul clothe itself with an Aethereal, Aerial Robe, on which it puts on this earthy Garment; Like the Tabernacle of white Linen, wrought with all fine and rich Colours, with the figures of Cherubims, which had three Cover, one over another upon it, of Goatshair, of Ram-skins died red, of Badgers-skins.  
Thus the Soul rides forth in her threefold Chariot, Heavenly, Airy, Earthly, upon the Circuit of the Heavens, the purest Air, and the Earth, the true Venus? the true Queen of Love and Beauty, by which all things spring, shine, live, and love, through her Marriage-Union with her Lord and King, the true Adonis, or Adonai, the Lord Jesus, who died, and lives again with his beloved Bride, in the secret of Paradise, in the midst of the Field of the Celestial Light, the pure Air, in the bosom and nethermost parts of the Earth. This is the Soul in its first make and proper state.  
Plotinus teacheth, That the first Soul, which is the immediate Workman of this World, in the order of its procession, from the separate Intelligences or Angels, and from God, the only supreme Father of all, hath its face ever turned to the face of God, and unmovably fixed upon it, from his Face, it continually takes in, as the Nectar of the Gods, the Divine Light, the Divine Life and Love, it continually takes in, as at an heavenly Feast, as the heavenly Ambrosia, the Ideal Beauty, the first, the Archetypal Forms in their most immediate, sweetest, freshest, fullest Effulgency or Images. This Godlike Soul thus bred, thus divinely form, thus nourished, thus impregnated, sends forth from itself this whole visible World, in the figures of those first Glories, in the similitude of their Unity, Variety, and Order, without thought, care, or trouble, without ever turning a look to this World. As a Person with his Face to the Sun, casts his shadow upon the ground behind him. There is only this difference, as this great Soul casts the shadow of this Corporeal World from itself, there is no ground for it to fall upon, besides the Soul itself.  
All these Heavens, this Earth, and Sea, with all their rollings, springings, fade, and float are then the soul itself in her lowest Form, bearing the figures of all her superior Glories most curiously and delightfully wrought in deeper shades. The Soul in this her lower form is her own living Looking-Glass of shadowy, shaded Light, in which she sees with a grateful Variety, with a pleasing Reflection of her own Divine force and fruitfulness, her own Beauties in a weaker, fainter, fading Image, maintained only by continual beams from herself.  
All Souls, as they flow in their Order, and successions from this first Soul, by virtue of the first production, bring forth to themselves, and bear within themselves the whole World in its fairest and fullest measures.  
Object. If any ask these Philosophers, what sign or appearance there is of this sublime state, this amplitude, this majesty in the soul of Man, they will give you such answers as these?  
Answ. 1. The Soul hath now lost her wings, by which she flies through the whole Heavens and Earth. She now lies languishing, contracted, clouded, divided, wounded, sick, dying, upon the ground of this earthly Body. You can take no more any measure of the true nature of the Soul, of the Soul in her own proper Divine Form and Image, by her present state, than you can of the humane Form, Spirit, and Life, by a worm grown out of the putrified body of a man dead.  
Answ. 2. As the Soul of a man sleeping, is to the Light of this World; so is the Soul in this Body to the Light of its own Intellectual, Invisible, Divine Form and Beauty. As a Prince sleeps in some private Room, with the Curtains drawn about him, within his own Palace, in the midst of all the splendours and splendid Persons of his Court, seeming to himself in his dreams, as he sleeps, to be a naked, forlorn Prisoner, at the bottom of a dark and deep Dungeon. In such a dream doth the Soul appear to herself, sleeping in this Body, in the midst of all her own Immortal Beauties, in the Palace and Court of her own Divine Unity and Essence.  
But I have now done with Humame Authority and Philosophy in its Testimony. But as I part, I will leave Philosophy with this Honourable Testimony. The only and true Philosophy is the Light of Nature, in its primitive purity, as the scattered Beams, and dispersed remainders of it in the midst of the ruins of Nature, are collected, strengthened, and reflected from the most excellent of natural, or Divine Spirits, like Sunbeams, centred in a burning-glass.   

The second Authority.  
I pass now to the Divine Authority, which is the testimony of the Holy Scriptures. I shall cite only two Scriptures, one from the first of Genesis; the other from the first of the Romans. I being with the last, which seems clearest and fullest.  
1. Scripture. The first Testimony from the Scriptures, is Rom. 1. 19, 20. From this Text to the end of the third Chapter, you have the Soul, with a profound Depth; Like a River rolling along, with all her various serpentine windings, from the Sea of Love, the Divine Bosom, till she return thither. This Divine Philosopher, after a Divine manner, sets the humane Soul before us, in the whole compass of her Essence, in all her circlings, through all forms of things, as he saw her by a Light of Revelation, in the eternal Design, in her Idea, in the heart of the Father, the Fountain; in the Bosom of the Lord Jesus, the first seat of all Divine Designs and Ideas.  
This Design is divided into three parts,  
1. The Soul in its primitive and pure state of Nature, presented to us, Chap. 1. vers. 19 & 20.  
2. The Soul in her fall, as she passeth through the shades beneath, of Sin, Suffering, Death, and Wrath, from the 21. verse of the first Chapter, to the 20. verse of the third Chapter.  
3. The Soul in its return, and re-ascent to a greater Glory, from the 22. verse of the third Chapter to the end of that Chapter.  
I shall very briefly, with all the perspicuity that I can, point out the Heads of things in these three parts of the Souls course and design in the Divine Mind.  
1. The Soul in its primitive and pure state of Nature is presented to us, Rom. 1. 19, 20. That which may be known of God, is manifest in them, for God hath manifested it to them. For the unseen things of him from the Creation of the world are seen, being understood by the things that are made, both his eternal Power and Godhead. I shall make two Notes upon the Grammar of the words,  
1. That which may be known of God, is manifest in them. This relates to the pure state of Nature, not to the Corrupt. For of that it is said, vers. 21. Their foolish heart was darkened. Things are manifest only in the Light. The expression runs in the present time, after the manner of the Divine and Prophetic stile, which sets before our eyes all forms of things, as they appear in the Divine Light, where all things are ever present, and appear at once in one. Besides this, as Paradise, so the pure Image of God in the Soul, seems to some not to be lost or destroyed, but hid beneath the ruins of the fall. Thus Knowledge springing in the Soul, seems to be a remembrance, the Life of all good, an awakening by reason of the primitive Image of pure Nature raising itself by degrees, and sparkling through the Rubbish, the confusions of the present state. Thus also hath the Sou●…n herself the measure of all Truth and Good in this pure ●…age, which hidden in the Centre of the Soul, containeth all Forms of Truth and Good in itself.  
2. That Clause in the 20. verse. From the Creation of the World, relates not to the sight, but to the invisibility of God, as appears by the place, the point, the sense. For otherwise there were a Tautology in the Creation of the World, and the things that are made. There is a Scripture like to this, Ephes. 3. The mystery of Christ is there mentioned, which is the unvailing of God, that he may be seen in the Light of his own essential and eternal Glories, in his own proper, naked, and sweet form of Love, unmixed, unlimited. Thus he appears in the Face and Person of Christ, who as he is the Godhead, in its essential and eternal Image, comes in the Spirit of the Gospel, full of Grace, or Love, and Truth; the Light, the Life of the Godhead in its unvailed Sweetnesses and Glories.  
This mystery is said to be hid in God from the foundation of the World. The Creation of the World was a Veil cast upon the Face of God, with a figure of the Godhead wrought upon this Veil, and God himself seen through it by a dim transparency; as the Sun in a morning, or Mist, is seen by a refracted Light through the thick medium of earthly Vapours.  
But I shall now attempt from the Life, in this Scripture, to draw the Picture of the Humane Soul in its natural Perfections, and paradisical Beauties. In order to this, I shall present to you three Propositions, into which this Text seems naturally to resolve itself.  
1. 1. Proposition. God is present, and shines forth in the Soul of Man, in the highest and fullest appearance, in which any created Understanding is capable of receiving him, in which he is capable of being manifested, or communicated by any Image beneath or without himself. This is the plain sense of those words, That which may be known of God, is manifested in them. Every Being, in every kind and degree, is a Beam or Emanation, and manifestation of the first, the supreme Being, which is God.  
The whole Creation then, all the Creatures in it, with all their Essences, Substances, Accidents, in all their Orders, Places, Postures, Motions, with every Circumstance of Being, are as real, in their full proportion, as much according to the life in the Humane Soul, as in themselves. They all, as so many lines and features, drawn from the Face of God, form the Essence of the Soul, by forming it into a living Image of God.  
God himself, as he is the Author of Nature, is as a Sun with all the Creatures, as a Ring of Beams round about him, which at once hide him and discover him. So the Sun, the Figure, with a Veil of Beams, hides from every eye the too bright Glories of that naked Body of Light: But by the same Beams is himself seen in a most beautiful, though shadowy Image.  
Thus this eternal Sun, surrounded with this Ring of Beams, forms a Pare●…s, t●… similitude of himself by himself in the Soul of Man. In the mean time God himself, as he is before this similitude of himself, shining upon it, is also within it, the vital Centre in the midst of it, the Root, the Truth, the Life of it. Thus are these two Suns, two Eyes, full set each with other, as they look forth through this Image, this Veil of Beams.  
The Soul by its senses takes in only the accidental forms of each Creature, the shadow of the shadow. The Understanding takes hold of, takes the essential Form, the Substance. The whole visible World is the World of sense, the Object of sense. The Invisible, the Angelical World is the Intellectual World, the proper Object of the Understanding.  
If that, which may be known of God, be manifested in the Soul, if every distinct degree of Being be a distinct manifestation of God, a distinct mode or form of the Divine appearance, then doth the Humane Soul contain the whole World, visible, invisible with itself, in its full greatness and glory, in all its most exact Distinctions and Varieties. It penetrates it, it fills it all within and without with its Intellectual Light; In its Unity, as the Divine Centre, it sits, and unites all. In its Variety, as in the full majesty of its Divine Essence, it spreads itself into all Forms, and so many Divine Figures, in a most beautiful and Divine Order.  
All Being in its whole compass, is Intelligible, the adoequate Object of the Understanding. The Understanding is all in potentiality in its natural capacity, tendency, and desire. These are the Doctrines of the Schools. The Understanding then in Act, in the perfection of its primitive state, is actually, perfectly all. It is married by an Angelical marriage, as in the Marriage of Spirits into a most intimate Union of Essences, into a most essential Unity with the whole Creation, as it is one Divine Figure of the Divine Beauty; and so through this figure, with Jesus Christ, with God, who lives and appears in it.  
2. Proposition. All these forms of things spring up to the Soul, from within itself, from its own Fountain, from God the Fountain of the Soul, in the Centre of it, the Fountain of all in the Soul to the Soul. That which may be known of God, is manifest in them, for God hath manifested it to them, vers. 19 The last Clause, well observed, in the force of the words, and the Connexion, will appear to every judicious eye, as I humbly conceive, to have no common or vulgar sense. They seem to contain in them this twofold mystery,  
1. God, the proper Idea of the Humane Soul, that is, it's most inward inseparable Principle, which hath in itself the Pattern, the exemplar form of the Soul, sends it forth from itself, forms it, furnisheth, filleth it with all forms of things.  
He also comprehends, and conserveses it, in himself, as its own proper place and habitation, as a Light sprung from him, and abiding in him, the Father of Lights. He fashioneth it into an Understanding, as an Intellectual, Angelical, Divine Sun. This is the greatest Light in the Soul, its utmost Centre, and outmost Circle, encompassing the whole Essence of the Soul, the whole nature of things, in all their Forms, Operations, and Motions. This shines in the day of the invisible World. This, as the Region of Angels, contains the Essences and Intellectual Forms of all things in itself, as so many Angels, or Angelical Spirits, each of which is a distinct Sun, a distinct world of Angels, of all Angelical Spirits, and Intellectual Forms.  
In the next place, God figures this Light, which is the substance of the Soul, into the inward, the common sense, the fancy or imagination; Now it is as a full Moon in the night of this visible and Corporeal World. It is replenished with all the shady Forms of this night, which shine in the face of it, as in a Glass, where they all meet and make one pleasant Night-piece.  
Last of all, The eternal Spirit, the inward former and workman of the Soul, contracts it, and divides it into the outward senses, into innumerable particular Forms. These are as so many living Stars, or Starlike eyes, sparkling and dancing round about the Queen of this Night, the Moon, the common sense or imagination.  
Through these Stars, and this Moon, in the Night-piece of these shady and Corporeal Forms is seen, as in a Perspective, as at a great distance, the Intellectual and the Ideal Land of Angelical, of Divine Glory, which seem to cast forth these less and contracted Lights, as faint-glimpses of themselves, or like small sparks, the seeds of the great flames.  
As the Soul accompanied with her Original Pattern and Principle, by its force thus descends: so doth it, by the same force, in like manner ascend. All the particular Forms of the outward senses, the Beauties of the Eye, the Music of the Ear, all Perfumes and delightful Odours, the various Delicacies of the Taste; the softnesses, firmnesses, the agreeable rests, motions, aequalities, inaequalities in the Touch. All meet more pure and heightened in the common sense, in the inward senses, as in that Moon, which is described to be an heavenly Earth, or an earthly Heaven. From thence they raise themselves, resining themselves, as they rise, to the Intellectual Region. As some believe the Sun, to be the Habitation of the Blessed, and to have the Blessed Fields Paradise in it: So here in this Intellectual Sun, all shady forms break up out of the mists of matter, and corporeity, into clear Suns, into Angelical Essences and Spirits.  
From hence the Soul, as a bright Sky, set with innumerable Suns of sweetest Light, and most temperate, pleasant, vital warmth, or as an Heaven replenished with Angels, entertaining each other in a Divine Consort, with Dances and Songs, returns into its first Nest, and its final Rest; the Bosom of its Idea, the Bosom of Christ in God. In this Bosom, of a truth, hath it ever abode, hath it circled round, descending and ascending without going forth from it. Thus hath God manifested himself in all possible Forms, to the Soul, according to the first part of the Apostles sense.  
2. God, as the Souls proper Idea, or exemplar Form, every where present with it, in every Form, sets himself as a seal upon each form, and upon the Soúl in that form. So he is to the Soul the Impression, the Evidence of the truth of each appearance by himself, and of himself, in each appearance. Thus it is said of the Lord Jesus, as he is the eternal word, the Idea of all Ideas, the proper Idea of man, In him was life, and that life was the light of men, Joh. 1. The first life, as it is in its Ideal Spring, in the Person of the Lord Jesus, the first, the essential Image of God, (and so the Fountain of all Images) shines forth into a Light, of which is framed the Substance and Essence of the Soul. Then it figureth this Light with its own Glories, in their Divine Harmony and Order.  
This Light, these Figures, are in themselves empty without force or efficacy. All fullness dwells in Christ, the Ideal Life in him forms and fills them. This is the face of Beauty, that looks forth through these Lattices. This is the never-fading Flower in the heavenly Paradise, which springs and puts forth itself through these Windows. This rides forth upon every form into the bosom of the Soul, and gives itself reception in the Soul.  
As this first life in Christ is the Divine Seal upon every Form, upon the Soul, through every Form, so is it the Divine ground in the Soul, which receives and sustains this Seal, which dissuseth in its Divine force and impression through the Soul, by virtue of its Ideal Unity and Omnipresence.  
The Original and Exemplar Life in Christ is the light of man, objectively and formally; It is the light in the Object which sheds itself on the Humane Spirit. It is the light in man, the form of his form, the eye in his eye, the power in his powers, which taketh it in. All sense is founded in a suitableness between the Object and the Faculty, all suitableness in an Unity.  
3. Proposition. God cloaths every created form, in the eye of the Soul, with an Intellectual or Angelical Image of himself. By the things that are made, are seen, (being understood) the invisible things of God, his eternal Power and Godhead, saith our Evangelical Philosopher, that word [understood] is carefully chosen, and emphatically brought in.  
The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the peculiar and proper word, by which the most Divine among the Philosophers in St. Paul's time expressed the Angels or Angelical Minds.  
These Spirits were the chief Springs, Powers, Glories of the whole World, in the number of the Creatures. They were the Gods of this Creation, and had the name of Gods given to them in the Holy Scriptures. The Presence, the Power, the Authority, the Glory of the Godhead, next to Jesus Christ, resided in them. Jesus Christ, the Lord and King of all, reigned, acted, and appeared in these Angels of Might and Glory, as the highest Representation of himself in his Divine Form and Majesty. All this was not for their own sakes, but for man, as they were Guardians and Tutors to this Heir, the Lord of all.  
Each Angel was a divers Figure of a distinct Variety in the eternal Glory, in that diversity the full Glory in its Universal Image rested upon every Angel, as a ministering Spirit, to minister to man, the full Glory. He was the Heir of God, the perfect Harmony, the Unity, in the which the whole Variety was most perfectly one, married together, with the Unity, into the most perfect Beauty and Melody of the Universal Image of the whole Creation, most exactly, with the most charming agreeableness, answering the Beauty, the Melody of the Divine Nature, as the Face in the Glass, the living Face, the liveliest Echo, the living Voice.  
Each Creature hath (as it's Ideal Glory, in the Divine World, so) its Angel in the World of Angels. In the pure state of things, every inferior Creature had its Angel visibly, sensibly present with it. It's Angel form it a Figure of itself in the diversity of its own proper Essence. It's Angel clothed it with an Intellectual, Angelical Image of the Supreme, the Universal, the Divine Beauty. It's Angel dwelled constantly within this Image, and shined through it.  
After the same manner the Ideal Life and Glory in Christ made the Angel its Tabernacle in the Heavens, and through the Angel each Creature below on Earth. Every Angel, every Creature, was a Garment of Light, sweetly shaded in different degrees and manners of divers Fashions, but all Divine, in which Jesus Christ, the essential full Image of the Godhead, walked in the midst of Paradise. Thus in all the Creatures, as in divers Figures of his distinct Glories, he walked forth, conversing with himself, and entertaining himself in the compleatness of his Divine Person through all.  
Thus as all things were made by Christ and for him, so nothing was made without him, apart from him, until Sin made the wound, which let out the Divine Life of all Beauty, Love and Joy, to let in Death with its deformity and horrors. The Divine Unity was entire every where. All things stood together in Christ.  
Christ with all his Glories in every Angel, with all the Angels in every Creature, road forth as in his Chariot. The whole Creation was as a Contexture of Angels; As the Chariots of the Lord, thousands and ten thousands. All were every where composed into one Chariot. All were as wings of pure Light, and perfumed Air, on which God flies through all, spreading and scattering abroad the ravishing Glances, the Divine Impressions of his Beauties and Sweetnesses, as he flies.  
What a Paradise, transcending all Description, by any words, the richest Image in any fancy, was the whole World now in its primitive state? What a Paradise was the Humane Soul, when it comprehended, when it enjoyed this Paradise with its full and distinct Glories within itself? Now the Soul within itself saw within itself the eternal Power and Godhead, with all their invisible Glories in an Angelical Light and Form, together with all the Angels in every thing that was made.  
4. Proposition. The Soul, seeth within herself, God in his own distinct and Divine Form shining forth through the Intellectual, Angelical Image, in the universal Composure, in the full Harmony of all created Forms, and through the particlar Angel, or Intellectual Image in every divers Form. Those are the words of the Apostle, By the things that are made, are seen, (being understood) the invisible things of God, his eternal Power and Godhead. This is brought in as an Argument, to illustrate and confirm the foregoing assertion; That which may be known of God is manifest in them.  
Those two words have an aspect of deep Wisdom, of a lively sweetness upon each other, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Things not seen, or uncapable of being seen, are seen. The word (seen) importeth a twofold sense,  
1. A distinct discerning sight.  
2. The sight of an Object, through a divers intervening form. God is seen through the form of the Creature in his own Form, infinitely distinct from it, and transcendent to it.  
In that Character of the Fall, [They glorisied him not as God.] It is clearly employed, that man in the pure state of nature glorified him as God, which could ●…ot be, if he saw not his Glory, as the Glory of God, in its distinction from all the Creatures, from all Similitudes, and Representations in his supreme Unity and Infiniteness. This is that which is clearly presented to us in those full expressions, His eternal Power and Godhead. Power, saith Proclus, is an Unity, which like a spring comprehendeth in itself variety of Forms, sendeth them forth from itself, appeareth in them, without, as it pleaseth. An eternal Power, which is not lessened by any Acts or exertions of its self, is an infinite Power, never to be exhausted, ever fresh, full, and flourishing. This is an absolute, unlimited Unity, spreading itself within itself, after a Divine manner, distinctly, without any Division or Diversity, into the glorious and majestic amplitude of an unbounded, equally-beautiful, ravishingly-harmonious-variety. This is the eternity, as it is the infiniteness of the Divine Nature. These two, Eternity and Infiniteness, being the measures of the Essence, and the Existence or Duration of the Godhead; are both one in this Unity, inasmuch as the Essence, and the Existence, or Duration, are here the same. This Unity, in which both these meet, is also the Godhead itself, which describeth itself to us by no Character like to that; The Lord thy God is one God. These expressions [His eternal Power and Godhead. Eternity, Power, (in its absoluteness and infiniteness) the Godhead] are exegetical explications of each other. All these are names of one thing, the supreme and sovereign Unity. God in the High and Holy Place of his own proper Form, set infinitely above the Head and Eye of every Creature, in its most exalted Glories.  
Object. How is the Soul capable of the sight of God, or any Intellectual Image of transmitting his Divine Form. All Sense, Understanding, Commerce is founded in suitableness and similitude. The ground of this, is an Unity, a meeting in some one thing. God is infinite, every Creature is finite. Between infinite and finite there can be no proportion?  
This Objection lies so plain before every common Eye, that it is not easy to miss it. I wish the Answer were as near, or capable of being made as clear, to the Understanding of every Reader. I hope, and shall use my best skill, that every Understanding may see some light breaking through this obscurity, which may be at once sweet, and in some degree satisfactory.  
Answ. 1. I shall first give a general Answer, which I shall afterwards make more plain in two particular Answers.  
We are taught by our Masters in Divinity, That God is the subject, of no Relation to the Creature: For than he were compounded, and not a simple, unmixed Unity; yet doth he terminate in himself Relations to the Creature. Upon the same ground it is unsafe and unsound to say, That God is like to man. It is very sound, and very safe to say, That man was made in the Image and Similitude of God. A finite Creature may bear a similitude, and so a proportion to the infinite God, although there be no mutual proportion or likeness between them.  
God in himself converseth with nothing without himself. All things to him are himself, a pure, undivided Unity. God in the Creature cloaths himself, as the Scriptures and the Jewish Rabbins speak, with Garments of Light and Darkness, Similitude and Dissimilitude, Unity and Contrariety. He turns the Heavens and the Earth as the Clay to the Sea. He first himself putteth on every form, so he formeth every Creature, as the reflection, or shadow of himself, upon himself.  
The sight of the eternal Power and Godhead in the Soul, is the work of that eternal Power and Godhead. God in the Creature beareth a proportion to himself, and hath an Unity with himself, as he is above the Creature. By the same absolute Unity and Infiniteness, by which he is present with each single dust in the fullness of his undivided Glories and Godhead, doth he also appear in the Soul. His presence is suitable, and suitably virtual to each degree of Being, whither it be essential, in mere Being, Vital, Intellectual, or Superintellectual, more than Intellectual. All things according to their several Natures, have their Being, their Life, their Motions, or Operations in him, as their proper Element, their Root, their Exemplar Form, their terminating Object and End. As he is the term from which all their motions flow: So is he both the medium or way, and the term, the bound, to which they tend, in which they end. By him, their radical principle, in the power and virtue of which Act the exemplar form of their Essence and Actions are they suited, and proportioned to him, as the Object, End, Fruit, and Perfection of their Operations. God in every Form is like Adam in Paradise, the Father, the Brother, and the Bridegroom. Each Creature is like Eve, the Daughter, Sister, and Bride, from her Bridegroom. This Bride flows, to him she turns in all her motions, in him alone she terminates, in her production, progress, end; all along this Bridegroom and Bride are joined by an inseparable Marriage-Union, their Faces ever turned to each other.  
As God by his absolute Unity and Infiniteness comprehends all forms of things within himself, in a most simple and undivided Unity. So by the same transcendent Unity and Infiniteness, doth he in this undivided Unity accompany all forms of things in their procession from himself, turning them to himself, essentially, vitally, intellectually, or super-intellectually, in a manner more than Intellectual.  
This Unity fills all, is all in all, the Eye, the Light, the Glass, the Object, or Image, the Union, the Light. This Unity is the power of sight in the eye, of shining, of uniting the Eye and the Object in the light, of receiving and transmitting Images in the Glass, of being and appearing in the Object. The Union of all these, and the Act, in the Act of vision or sight. This Unity is the first principle of seeing, and the last, the terminating bound of sight.  
This is the general Answer. Now follow the two particular Answers, which are more distinct applications and explanations of this general one.  
Answ. 2. The Humane Soul, according to Philosophers, they say, rouleth itself into a fourfold Orb, or Globe; The Sensitive, Rational, Intellectual, or Angelical, its Divine Unity.  
1. The first, the lowest Orb of the Soul, is the Sensitive. The Soul in this part is all set and adorned with the sensitive and shadowy forms of things, as a Meadow with the Trees, and Flowers by a Riverside, are seen, by their shadowy Figures, playing in the water. So this visible World, with all its Parts and Ornaments in their Order, as the sh●…dows of invisible and immortal Forms inhabit this obscurest and most shady Region of the Intellectual Spirit.  
2. The rational Orb is the second, a more ample and more Lucid. Yet here the Angelical Forms and Essences of things are seen through the grosser and cloudy medium, through the material and corporeal shades of sensitive Images. This is as the Face of Heaven, or the Trees and Flowers of the Neighbouring fields seen from beneath the water of an adjoining River.  
3. The Intellectual part of the Soul, is the Orb or Sphere of Angels. This is the Souls Angelical part. Here the Soul's abstract, and separate from the Body, (which is called the Divine Death of the Soul) beholds the Intellectual Forms of things, the immortal Essences and Substances, the Angels in their own bright and universal Glories, in their own Intellectual Air and Light, which is the Air and Light of Paradise. As a man sees the pleasant Plants of a flourishing Land, walking upon the Land in the midst of them. At the same time, while the Soul thus walks in this paradisical Land, she enjoyeth the pleasure of seeing the River, as a shady lustre or water cast from herself, within herself, the shadowy figures of this Paradise, with her own reflection playing in these waters, and herself from beneath them, with the same Land of Gardens and of Angels, answering exactly, looking to herself above them.  
Give me leave to interpose one word in this place, for the sake of the more learned Reader; This is the Intellectus Agens, or the Actual, and Active Understanding of the Schools. The Soul in its Intellectual part above the River. This is the Passive Understanding. The Soul in its Intellectual part beneath the River. As that above, like the living Face before the Glass, appears at the brink of the waters, upon the shore, with all its Angelical Glories round about it, in their Paradisical Region, which lies within the Soul itself. So the Soul beneath appears, looking up from its pearly Cave, at the bottom of the River, like the God of the River, answering and meeting itself above.  
4. The last, and Divine Orb, the highest Point, and amplest Circuit of the Soul, is its Unity. In this it hath the most immediate resemblance to, and Conjunction with the supreme Unity, the Divine Nature.  
The Soul according to this its Divinest part, its Unity in birth, in similitude, in place, if I may so speak, in order of approximation is nearest, most immediately joined to the Divine Essence in the absoluteness, the incomprehensibleness of its most secret, most sacred Unity.  
Here the Soul, as by a Divine Contract or Touch, takes hold of God, takes in the sense of him, in his Divine Form, after a Divine manner, far transcending all Sense, Understanding, or Expression.  
Here the Soul, in its Divine Unity, seeth, feeleth, enjoyeth God in his Unity, which is his proper Essence, in which he is most himself transcending all similitudes, all commerce, all bounds, by a Divine sympathy, the sweetness, the reality, the divinity of which no Humane, no Angelical Understanding can form to itself any Image of, or raise itself to any sense of.  
This Unity of the Soul is the most immediate reflection of the Divine Unity without itself, and so at once a Divine Looking-Glass, in which it most immediately contemplates itself, and a Divine Eye, which it feasts with itself, setting itself fully in it.  
All this while, this still is to be understood that there is a threefold Immediateness, 1. Of Persons. 2. Of Power or Virtue. 3. Of Form or Appearance. St. Paul teacheth us, That the invisible things of God are seen, being understood by the things that are made.  
God and the Soul in their Unities, which are their Essences, at their utmost height, in their highest Glories, meet immediately in a sight of each other, above all sight or understanding. This immediateness in the Perfection of Nature, is an immediateness, not of virtue only and power, but of person; yet is it mediate in respect to the Form or Appearance. These Unities which penetrate and fill all in all their several Orbs, with their immediate virtue, person, and essential presence, see not each other in the Air, and light of their own naked, eternal Beauties; But through that Garment of Light, the Intellectual, Angelical Image, which they put on, as they come forth into this Creation.  
Some imperfect figure of this you have in two Swimmers, seeing and embracing each other beneath the waters; or in the Beams of the Sun, passing through a coloured Glass, and so uniting itself to the Eye: Or in a Royal Bridegroom, which, in the habit of a Shepherd, presents and marrieth himself to the beloved Maid in the midst of the Woods.  
Answ. 3. The Soul acts, as it is, not in itself, nor by itself, nor according to itself; the Idea, the first eternal Pattern and Principle of the Soul in God, is the Root, all the force, the only measure of the Soul in its Being, and in its Operations.  
St. Paul saith, I live not, but Christ liveth in me; This was spoken of the New-Creature, and so hath its peculiar sense. It is as true proportionably of every Creature, especially of the Soul in primitive and pure nature. I have said before, that Christ is the Idea of Ideas, and so the proper Idea of the Humane Soul or Person. Upon this ground, He affirmeth of himself, I am the Truth and the Life.  
The Idea is the truth of each thing. Nothing is that, which it is, but in its Idea, by its Idea penetrating and filling it in every the least part. The Conformity to the Idea, is in the Schools, defined to be the first, the most proper truth of each thing. This Conformity is imperfect, where there is any Diversity. A perfect Unity alone makes a perfect Conformity.  
The Idea is the only Unity of each Person, Essence, or Form. The Soul is one in all its parts, is one with itself, in all the parts of its duration, only by the Unity of its Idea. The Soul (as every Creature) is a perpetual Emanation, flowing fresh every moment from God, as a Beam from the Sun, as the stream of waters from its Fountain. If it subsisted one moment in itself, it might subsist eternally so, and have a Godhead in itself, by having in itself the first Principle and Fountain of Being. The Soul like a Beam, or Stream, flows forth from its Spring, in Diversity of parts. If it were a pure Unity, it had a Divinity in its own Nature.  
The Soul then, as every Creature, is one in itself, one with itself, the same in each part of its Being and Duration, in all the parts of Life, in Death, in the Resurrection, only by the Unity of its Idea, which alone is absolutely indivisible, unchangeable.  
Accordingly the Soul lives and moves in its Sensitive, Rational, Angelical, and Divine Life, by the force of its Idea, containing it in itself, and communicating itself to it.  
The Idea, contains the Soul, communicates itself to the Soul, not mediately or partially. The Idea is the Truth, the Unity of the Soul; therefore are they most intimate, most immediate, most intimately, most immediately united to each other. The Idea is a simple Unity, indivisible, unchangeable, uncapable of being communicated in part.  
The Idea is not received, or participated by any thing, as without itself, for than it were both divisible and changeable.  
The Idea than communicateth itself to the Soul, immediately in its entire Unity, as by a Divine, unexpressible Generation or Propagation within itself.  
Thus the Soul subsisteth and operateth in its Idea, by the force, and according to the measure of its Idea in itself. This is that seed of infiniteness in the Soul, and in all its Operations, from which they receive touches, glimpses of Infiniteness, Eternity; of infinite eternal Joys and Glories, which are altogether invisible to every Eye, uncapable of being represented by any Image sensible or Intellectual. This is that seed of Infiniteness and Eternity, which by an irresistible instinct inclines the Soul so evidently, so forceably in all its Desires, in all its Operations to immortality, and to an unbounded good, nor suffers it to rest in any the softest or dearest Bosom on this side these. This is that Seed, the Idea of the Soul in its entire Unity, which is in itself Infiniteness, Eternity, the purest unmixed good, every where full of itself, every way uncompounded, undivided, and so necessarily unconfined.  
This Idea, as it is the root, the force, the measure of the Soul, so is it also its ripe fruit; When gathering up all the parts of the Soul into its Divine Part, unto its highest Point, its Unity, it at once heightneth that to the most perfect Image of itself, and bringeth forth itself into it, filleth it with itself, taketh it into its own embraces, in its purest Form, by a most perfect Union, as an heavenly Marriage, eternally established in its own unconfined Unity.  
But I will now conclude this Point. Thus the Soul, by the force of its Idea, which hath an infiniteness in it, is capable of taking in that which transcends all Capacities, of seeing that which is invisible to every eye of Men or Angels, the eternal Power and Godhead.  
Behold! What a Divine spectacle of Beauty and Delight in Paradise, in the primitive state of things? What an Universal Paradise Nature is? the Soul is? as it is in itself, the whole nature of things, from the head of Nature, crowned with Intellectual, Angelical Light in the invisible World, to its feet upon the ground of the lowest shades in corporeity and matter. Jesus, the first, the full, the essential Image of the Godhead, and so the Idea of Ideas; the Soul, the first, the fairest Reflection, and the dearest Offspring of this Jesus, and so the Divine Image of Images. These two, as Bridegroom and Bride, by an Union transcending all Unions, Natural or Moral, among Angels or Men; Yet being of all most natural, the Fountain of Nature, lie inseparably shining and smiling in the embraces of each other; They perpetually seek and find, see and enjoy themselves in the Face and Bosom of each other; They perpetually seek and find, see and enjoy each other within themselves, in their own Face and Bosom: They spring up together in all forms of things, in an Angelical Image within themselves. The Angelical Image is as their Chariot, in which they ride forth together into all forms of things within themselves. They present themselves unitedly in the whole nature of things, in each distinct form of Nature, with continual changes, clothing all, themselves in all, with the Angelical Image, in a new Light and Glory; That their Loves and Beauties may be ever fresh and full, ever a fresh and full entertainment to each other in new and varied shapes of Delight.  
Judicious Reader, be pleased to Contemplate awhile the Unity and Harmony of the Soul in this its pure, its primitive state. See how the Idea of the Soul, and the Soul; See how all the Orbs, all the parts of the Soul, are knit together into a Divine Harmony, a Divine Unity, by which it becomes an Universal Beauty, an Universal Music. See how the Idea and the Soul, the superior parts of the Soul answer one another, lie enfolded each in other, the inferior in the superior, as the Copy in the Original, the Plant in the Spirit of the Plant, in its seminal power and form; The superior in the inferior, as the Original in the Copy, as the Spirit of a Flower, its seminal power and form in the Flower, where it appears, as a Flower from beneath the water of a pleasant stream.  
Judicious Reader, can a place be found or imagined here for any Arbitrary Liberty, for any extravagant Liberty, for any Liberty, besides that only true, only desirable, only agreeable Liberty, the Liberty of the Harmony and Unity? Is there any Liberty besides this, the Liberty of the part, in the Harmony of the whole, keeping its proper place, order, course in the whole, with all most pl●…asing, most charming agreeableness to itself, to the whole, to every part; and the Liberty of the whole in the part, freely, fully, pos●…essed, enjoyed in each part, by the virtue of the Unity in the Harmony?  
Object. But you will say if there were not in the primitive state of the Soul another Liberty, a Liberty of Discord, a Liberty of breaking the Unity and the Harmony. How was the Harmony ever changed into Enmity? How fell the Soul from the Heaven of this Harmony, from the heavenly Throne of this Divine Unity, in which it reigned over all, through all, with such a full Joy and Glory to itself to all?  
Answ. I shall attempt the removal of this Difficulty, in my Discourse upon the Soul in her second state. I hope there to represent the Fall springing from the Divine Harmony and Unity in the Essence of the Soul, contained in it, and a part of it.  
2. The second state, into which the Soul passeth, is the Fall. This is the second Scene, which openeth itself in the Soul, a Scene of Trouble and Tumult, of Darkness and Storms, of Witchcrafts, Devils, Death, and Wrath; of Privations and Contrarieties, which make the Variety more full, which heighten, set off, enlarge the Harmony and the Unity. In this Scene all this World riseth up, and appears.  
This the Holy Spirit, with Divine skill, clearly and fully openeth to us, in this Scripture, which is the ground of this part of my Discourse, Rom. 1. 21. Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, etc.  
I will only touch the Heads of things, lightly passing over them. I shall comprise that which I have to say of the Fall in these four Propositions,  
1. Proposition. The first change at the Fall of Man, was in his Understanding. All the expressions in this, and the two following verses, plainly and alone describe the Disorders in the Understanding, as we shall clearly see.  
The first Instance in the Fall, is the not glorifying God as God. T●…lly affirmeth, Glory to be, as it were, the Echo of Virtue. Glory is the Image of some excellent Object, shining forth from it, reflecting upon it, and upon all things round about it. Thus Christ is the Glory of God, a Saint is the Glory of Christ. Man glorifieth God as God, when the true and proper Image of God, in the Excellencies and Perfections of the Divine Nature, shineth in his Understanding, from thence reflecteth and multiplieth itself in its be●…ms, in its continual shinings upon God himself, upon all Understandings, all Spirits round about it. Contraries are seated in the same subject. The glorifying of God, is the Act of the Understanding. Accordingly the not glorifying of God, is a defect in the Understanding, the want of the Divine Image, and its reflections there.  
The holy Apostle, in the following words, sets forth the Fall, by fuller expressions of that Defect, which is opposite to the glorifying of God; But they became vain in their imaginations, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, properly reasonings, their foolish heart was darkened.  
Every word here points to the Understanding, as the seat of the first, the principal, the leading change in the Fall of Man.  
They became vain in their reasonings. Vanity is an emptiness. It is the same with falsehood, in the Language of the Scripture, an empty, false show, without the substance, the truth. Reason is the Divine Image, which is the only Light of all Truth springing and shining in the Understanding, or the Understanding itself.  
The reasonings of man in his primitive state, were the several Parts, the several Truths in this Image, calling to, answering one another by virtue of the Sympathy and Unity, comparing themselves in that Unity with each other. This Image in the Fall vanisheth into a counterfeit Image, breaking itself into innumerable false Images full of disorder, confusion, and contradictions, ever fight with each other.  
The foolish heart in the Text, as the Greek word imports, is the Heart without Understanding, deprived of the Divine Image, which is the Light. Upon this immediately follows Darkness, which is the privation or absence of Light. Thus their foolish hearts were darkened.  
The Concomitant and formal effect of this Darkness, or rather the proper Form of this Darkness, is further amplified by a twofold Illustration, if we may attribute forms or effects to privations.  
When they professed themselves to be wise, they became Fools, vers. 22. How manifestly is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil here figured with man eating of it. The Divine Image withdrawn, the false Image, composed of darkness, is embraced in the Soul, as the true Light, the true Image, the true Wisdom, in which Man now seems to himself, to have the power and the perfection of his own Being in himself. Now the false show of a counterfeit Liberty in the Will, springs up through this Darkness. Thus is the Wisdom of Man become Foolishness, verse 22. They turned the Glory of the Incorruptible God into the similitude of the Image of a corruptible Man, of Birds, etc. verse 25. They turned the truth of God into a lie. Man was made a total, but a shadowy Image of God. The rest of the Creatures were as several parts of this Image, partial Representations of that Glory, each a differing Figure from the other, in which something of the Glory was seen, which appeared not in the other. The Divine presence in its own proper and eternal Image, stood in this shadowy Image, filled it, shined through it, was the Light and Truth of it; As a Sunbeam penetrates, fills, enlightens, appears through a shady coloured Glass, so was the Divine Form in the Form of Man. The Truth in its shadow.  
When the Divine presence in its own Divine Form withdrew itself into itself, the ensuing Darkness fills the shadowy Image. As he, that looks through the clear glass in a Window, sees the face of Heaven. When he, who casts his eye upon a Looking-Glass, beholds only his own face, the shadow on the backside of the Glass, terminating the beams and the sight upon the Glass. So the Darkness, in the Fall, terminates the eye of the Soul upon the shadowy Image, the shadowy Figures of the Divine Glory, as the true Glory, the true God.  
Yet these Forms, which now appeared, were not the true shadows, the true Figures of the Divine Glory, nor the true Forms of Man, or of any Creature. These disappeared, together with the Divine presence, and the Glory. The darkness, now in the place of these, form itself into false, deformed, monstrous Images in man, in every Creature, which had indeed some resemblance of the true and primitive Images, which were in Paradise. As a Monkey hath the similitude of man, but in proportion, height, beauty, life, greatness, power, majesty, differed from them, as a lie from the truth. The expressions of the Holy Ghost seem skilfully chosen, to declare this change to us, verse 23. He saith, They turned the Glory of God, not into the Image, but the similitude of the Image of Man; verse 25. They turned the truth, not into the Image or shadow, but into a lie.  
These false Images of the Night, and the blackness of Darkness, were inhabited and acted by so many Devils, so many dark Spirits, the first Springs and Seats of this Darkness. As an Angel filled each Form in Paradise, figuring itself upon it, so were all forms in the Fall filled and figured by Devils. Thus they became Idols, of which St. Paul saith, They that worship Idols, worship Devils. Angels in Paradise were pure and sweet Lights springing freshly forth from the Divine Glory, rendering every Creature pure and transparent, with a Light of Glory shining in it, as clear Crystal, all over replenished, enriched, and heightened with the Sunbeams. This Light every where transmitted the eye, and the glory through each Creature, to each other, married them one to another, in each Creature. This was a Paradise indeed of Divine Plants, full of Divine Beauties, Fragrances, Virtues, and Fruits.  
The Devils, as Clouds of Night and Darkness, resting on each Creature, suffer not the Light from above, nor the sight from below, to pass through them. They at once exclude the brightness of the Divine Glory, and draw the eye to themselves in each Form, to rest in themselves. This is the Head, the Wellspring, the Mystery of all Idolatry, whether it be of the grosser or finer sort.  
But I pass now from the first, to the second Proposition.  
2. Proposition. The immediate cause of the first change made in the Understanding at the Fall, was the Divine Glory withdrawing or withholding itself. The immediate, the proper cause of the deformity and disorder in the change, was the defectibility, the nothingness of the Creature, of itself, sinking down to nothing, as the Glory removes itself from it, or the Variety of the Divine fullness, the Order in the Divine Wisdom, the Harmony of the Divine Beauties, by the power of which the Unity descending to its lowest state, to a shadow of itself in Paradise, and having there acted all the parts proper to that shadowy scene or state, having carried it to the utmost, now passeth from that shadowy Unity into a new Scene, or state properly arising out of the darkness of the shadow, and the lowest degree of Unity, which is that of Contrariety. As the Unity is the scene of Light, Life, Love, Harmony, Beauty, Joy, all Good; So is this of Darkness, Enmit, Death, Deformity, Disorder, all Evil.  
But I touch this transiently here, and return.  
The Perfection of the Understanding is Light or Truth. The Corruption of the Understanding is darkness or falsehood. That which makes manifest, is Light, saith St. Paul. Every Image then, so far as it is an Image, is Light. Each Image is a composure of Beams, sent forth from every part of the Object, represented by the Image. The first Light, is the first Image, the Image of God, the brightness of the Glory of God. As colours, which are shaded Lights, are constituted by this Light, and actuated in their appearance to the eye; so is every other Light, Light only by, and in this Light, as a shadow of it.  
Darknese is the absence or privation of Light. Privations have no proper, but accidental causes only. Thus the Divine Glory, retiring from the Understanding, or ceasing to shine in it, is by accident the cause of the Darkness there; As the setting or departing of the Sun is the cause of Night, which is not a blemish to the Sun, but its Glory; that in its presence are all the Beauties and Joys of Light, in its absence all the Disagreeablenesses and Melancholies of night and darkness.  
But, if at the ebbing of the Tide, when the Sea sucks into itself again the streams of water; which at the Flood it poured forth from itself in the River Tagus, or Pactolus, a beautiful Form of golden sand present itself to our eyes, in other Rivers a black ill-sented Mud offend our senses. The emptiness of the Channel, the absence from the Waters is indeed from the Sea; But the pleasing or displeasing Forms appearing in the absence of the waters, are from the Rivers themselves. In like manner, all Defects have deficient Causes. The change in the Fall, is from the Divine Glory drawing into itself that stream and tide of Beauties, which it poured forth upon the understanding of man. The Darkness, Deformity, Disorder in this change, proceeds from the nature of the Creature, from its natural tendency to that nothingness, which alone is its own, and its native Element, as it is in itself. This nothingness hath the same relation to the beautiful Essences, the essential Beauties of all Forms of things, of all Creatures, while they stand in the Divine Image, as the Contrariety hath to the Divine Unity.  
A Cloud looseth all its lustre in a blackness and darkness; a cold of Earth hath no more any sweet light to entertain the eye, when the Sun takes his golden beams off from them. But the Stars and Diamonds sparkle and shine in the absence of the Sun, in the depth of night. The reason of the difference, is the opacity or shadiness in the nature of the Cloud and clod of Earth, the native light in the Diamond and the Stars. Thus the Creature being nothing in itself, tends to nothing, as the eternal Sun goeth down upon it. This tendency to nothing is the proper, the formal cause of all Deformities and Disorders, as the springing of the Light in the Morning is of all those lovely colours, which then adorn the Sky.  
But thus much for this second Proposition.  
3. Proposition. The change in the Will and Affections followeth the change in the Understanding, as its immediate and proper Cause. This lies plain in the Text, verse 22. They turned the Glory of God to the similitude of a man, etc. verse 24. Wherefore also God gave them up to their hearts lusts, to all uncleanness, etc. verse 25. Which turned the truth of God unto a lie: verse 26. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections. But you have this most fully asserted and amplified, verse 28, 29, 30, 31. As they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, God also gave them up to a Reprobate mind, to do things not convenient; being filled with all Unrighteousness, Fornication, Wickedness. So he goes on enumerating in the three following verses, all the Evils of Sin in the Will of Man from thence breaking forth in his life.  
As Nature is distinguished in Natura, Naturans, and Naturata; that is, Nature in the Fountain, God, the Divine Nature; Nature in the stream, the Copy to that Original: So the Scripture attributeth that to God, which he in the natural order of things hath connected and linked, as in a Chain, for its proper cause. Thus God is said to give up men to all disorders in their Will, for the darkness in their Minds.  
The phrase hath also this depth of sense in it, That God, as the first cause, is every where in the whole Chain of Causes most intimately present, and immediately operative in every effect. He is the Spirit, the Beauty of the Order in the whole. He is the band in every step or joint of the whole Order, tying each Link to the other, each Effect to its Cause, each Cause to its effect. He is the sole force in every Cause, the sole Cause of every Effect in particular.  
Thus God gave them up to vile affections, who had changed the truth unto a lie. All Imagery is the furniture of the Mind. All Images are form there. The motions of the Will are raised and governed by the Images in the Understanding, as their formal Cause, from whose impressions they flow as their final Cause, to which they tend, in which they end.  
The Understanding is a Power in the Soul of generating Images of good within itself, which Images are the only Truth, the only Beauty of it. The Will is the Spring and Seat of a mutual Love-Union and Love-Communion, which the Soul hath with itself in these Images, infusing, and taking in a mutual Sweetness, Complacency, and Joy. They the Images in the mind are the Objective Cause of all the motions of the Will, raising and laying them, as the Winds do the Waters.  
So God gave them over to vile Affections. This manner of speaking hath a clear signification of that principal mystery in Divinity, so sweet, so sure, so deep. All good is from the presence of God, the shine, the smiles of his unvailed Face, the Reflections of him, as he appears in his own Likeness, in his proper Form. This makes all Light, Beauty, Joy. All Evil is from the absence of God, from his Backparts, from the Clouds and Disguise upon his Person, without the Veil.  
I cannot well proceed any further, until I have cleared my way, by removing an Objection or two, which may be made against the Interpretations, which I have made of these Scriptures, and the Propositions drawn from them.  
Object. 1. The Apostle seemeth to make this the ground of the inexcusableness of men in their sins, that they knew God, yet sinned in the Face of that Light. Upon this ground sin seemeth to arise first in the Will, rather than in the Understanding.  
This Objection is confirmed by the Apostles attributing this knowledge of God to man in his fallen Estate. To the Heathen, as he seemeth clearly to do.  
Answ. 1. If man hath this knowledge of God in his fallen state, yet was that Perfection, in which we have described it only in Paradise.  
Answ. 2. The Holy Spirit seemeth expressly to place the Knowledge of God antecedent to the first Sin; the not glorifying him as God, for this was either the same, or Concomitant with, or resulting from the vanity of the reasonings in man, the want of Understanding, the darkening of his Heart.  
Answ. 3. There is indeed a constant Glory from the Face of God shining in man through all changes and states. A Light, which can never be extinguished by any storms. But this Light of Divine Glory shineth in the midst of the Darkness, which arose upon it, within which it withdrew itself in the first moment of the Fall, and hath ever since dwelled. This Darkness comprehendeth not the Light, receiveth it not, rejecteth it, as a Reprobate, a false Light, so casts it down from the Throne in the dominion of the Soul, and reigneth itself in the place of it.  
This truth is with Divine Authority affirmed, with a Divine clearness and elegancy illustrated, in those words, As they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a Reprobate mind, to do things not convenient. What a manifest Connexion of these four things have you in this Scripture?  
1. A Knowledge of God in the Mind.  
2. A Rejection or Reprobation of that Knowledge.  
3. A Reprobation or Corruption of the Mind, in the Rejection of this Light of Glory.  
4. All Evil generally mentioned under the Character of Inconveniency or Uncomeliness, in the end of this verse, particularly and distinctly recited in three following verses, flowing all from this Reprobate or Corrupt Mind.  
But we shall more evidently, more delightfully behold this mystery of the Fall, this Mixture, this War of Darkness, with the Divine Light, its triumph over it; the presence of the Divine Light, in the midst of this Darkness, maintaining its Glory unshaken, unstained in a constant opposition to the darkness in the mind of fallen man, if we observe and unfold the elegancy of the Holy Ghost in these words.  
Those words, [They liked not to retain.] A Reprobate Mind,] are in Greek the same in their Root and Essence. They manifestly allude to each other with a great power and pleasantness of sense.  
The Original word primarily and properly signifieth the trying the truth of any thing, as the Gold is tried by the Touchstone, or by the Fire.  
God, in the presence of his Glory, resides in every Creature, beneath the form of that Creature, as a Veil wrought with a Figure of himself. Thus he constantly resides in each Creature, as the Root, and Being of its Being; In the pure nature of man, he shines through the Veil of the Angelical or Intellectual Image, as a transparent Veil of finest Lawn, or sweetest Light, sprung from his own Face.  
In the Fall, God drawing in the Beams of his Glory, by the mysterious Operations of the Divine Wisdom, in the place of this pure and pleasant Light, thick Darkness fills the Angelical Image of God in man.  
The Divine Presence and Glory stands in this Image, presenting the Light of its unchangeable Beauties to the eye of the Soul, in the midst of this darkness.  
The Understanding now taking in the Divine Glory through this dark medium, through the darkness, takes in a dark and false Image of it. It trieth and toucheth the Glory in this false Image upon itself, now darkened and depraved. It receives the Image as a true Image, but rejects the Glory, rejects God, as reprobate Gold, as a false counterfeit Divinity and Glory.  
God, in like manner, by the presence of his Glory, toucheth and trieth the Understanding, rejecteth that, as a Reprobate Mind. This Reprobate Mind he leaveth to itself, and man to this Reprobate Mind; from this source issues forth all the Evils of Sin and of Sufferings.  
Object. 2. How in this order of things is man rendered inexcusable, which seems to be a principal Care and Work of the Holy Spirit in this Scripture?  
Answ. An excuse is the removal of just blame, by the removal of the cause. As Praise and Glory are the Echo or Reflection of Virtue, of some good; so Blame and Shame are the Echo, the Reflection of some Fault or Evil.  
The fault in man is the deficiency, which ariseth from the defectibility or nothingness inseparable from the nature of the Creature in its shadowy state, in the purity of its first Creation.  
This defectibility and deficiency, this nothingness and tendency to nothing in the Creature, is evidently discovered, past all denial or excuse. For when God hath clothed the Creature with the Glory of his own Image, in all Knowledge, Righteousness, and Blessedness. The Creature hath no power in itself to retain or maintain this Glory, or the least glimpse, the least stricture of Light from it one moment. In the same moment that God withholds his Beams and Influences, the Soul sinks into the depth of darkness, in which darkness it springs up the same moment into all the evils of Sin, Deformity, Death, Wrath, Torment. Thus man in his best state is Vanity, a shadow, which hath nothing of its own, but nothingness, a tendency to nothing. Thus being in Honour, he continueth not, but sinketh into his own nothingness, when once he is left to himself.  
This nothingness, in the nature of the Creature, is not to be understood a mere simple nothing; for this hath no existence, no expression, no attribute, no effect, nothing can be said or thought of it.  
This nothingness, of which we speak, or Not-Being, is a contrariety to Being; so to all the Beauty, the Blessedness of Being. This is the Contrariety itself, which is a part of the Variety of things in the Unity of the whole. This taken apart in itself, is the breach of the Unity and the Harmony, the first and blackest ground of all Discord, Division, Darkness, Enmity, Death, of all the evils of sin and sufferings.  
Object. 3. How is God inexcusable, who frames a Creature with this defectibility, this Contrariety, this Necessity of all Evil in its nature, then leaves it to itself to fall inevetiably into all Sin; then condemns it, and casts it into all manner of Torments, into all the Evils of suffering for Sin?  
Answ. Sufferings are the immediate, inseparable Companions of Sin. The Contrariety, when once it hath broken the Harmony of the shadowy Image of God in the Paradise of pure Nature, by the withdrawing of the Divine Unity, which by its presence tuned it to, and bound it up in a Divine Harmony, now breaks forth, overruns all with all manner of Evils of Sin, of Shame, of Sufferings of all kinds.  
But that, which seemeth to me alone, to justify God, is the design in the whole. My desire is here, with all humility and submission, to conceive and express so high mysteries, the way, and the Glory of God in so great and Divine deeps.  
The design, which with all humility I conceive not to clear God, but to represent him through all his way most glorious in the Beauties of Holiness, in the most spotless, the exactest Justice, in the richest lustre, the highest sweetness, the most exalted Grace of all Goodness and Love, hath several steps or parts.  
1. The first step is, the Discovery of man, and the Creature in its primitive nature, in all its good and glories to be shadowy, an earthly and shadowy Image, in an earthly, a shadowy Paradise.  
2. The second step is, the Declaration of God to be the only fountain and fullness of all good, in whose Face and Presence alone are the Beauties and Pleasantnesses of all good, whose absence makes the Night of all trouble and evil.  
3. The opening of new, fuller, higher Glories in God, then did shine forth in the first Creation, in the most exalted Natures of all the Creatures, of Men or Angels.  
These new Glories of the Godhead open themselves in the last step, the full, harmonious, triumphant close of the whole design, after this manner.  
1. The height of the Contrariety between the good in God, and the evil of Sin, between the purity, the beauty of Holiness in the Divine Nature, the filth, the deformity of sin, display the Beauties in the Face of God with a new heightening, a new lustre, infinitely more sweet and ravishing.  
2. The Power of the Divine Wrath brings forth a new Scene, a new World, full of new Forms of things; New Wonders in Heaven, and eternity, in the Divine Nature, the Divine Wisdom and Work.  
3. What is the Glory in the force and riches of the Divine Unity, spreading itself into so vast a Variety? unto so remote a distance from itself, to such Contrarieties, to such Extremities, comprehending them all in itself, gathering them up, tuning them all, and binding them up into a Divine, most agreeable, eternal Harmony of all most ravishing, most pure, most perfect Beauties and Sweetnesses in itself; discovering them all to be most melodious, musical parts of the Divine Variety and Harmony, eternal Varieties of Beauty and Sweetness in the Divine Unity?  
4. Lastly, The shadowy happiness of the Creature is changed into a substantial one. There is wrought out by these changes a far more exceedingly exceeding weight of Glory in Man, a Glory infinitely transcending that of the first Paradise. Now open themselves all these newer, fuller, higher Glories of the Godhead to man in man: Now is man form to a Divine Image, infinitely newer, fuller, higher, in the most immediate similitude and fruition of these highest Glories. Now is man brought from the shadowy Union with God, in the shadow of the Angelical Image, through the dissolution of that Union and Image, to the most intimate, immediate, inseparable Union, the most perfect Union with God, in the utmost Perfection of all his Excellencies, wholly unvailed, in the purest Essence of all his Glories, in the eternal Spirit, the Spirit of all the Divine Beauties, Loves, and Joys; in the most heightened Unity, in the most ample and unconfined Variety of the Divine Nature; in the highest and sweetest Union of both these.  
Now man sees, enjoys God, as he is, in his own Likeness, perfectly without, transcendently above all Vails, all Clouds, all Shadows, all Mixtures, or Mutability. Now is man, as he is in the same Likeness together with him; without, above all Vails, Clouds, Shadows, Mixture, or Mutability▪ Now God and Man awakened together, as out of a sleep, and the dreams in the sleep, into the same Righteousness, are satisfied with the same likeness in each other, reflected from man as the Son, the Image of God, the Father of Lights, the Original Glory.  
But I now am sliding into my last Proposition, and have indeed, in a great degree, prevented myself in it.  
4. Proposition. The change in Man at the Fall, did fall from the Divine Harmony, in the Universal Design; was comprehended in it, and part of it. I shall add to that which I have already written above, only one Scripture, with a short gloss upon it, for the establishing of this Proposition.  
St. Paul thus discourseth, Rom. 8. 19, 20, 21, 22. For the earnest expectation of the Creature, waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God. For the Creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but for him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the Creature itself shall also be delivered from the bondage of Corruption, into the glorious liberty of the Children of God. For we know that the whole Creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together, until now.  
Observe here, that Creature and Creation are both the same word in Greek. Where you read the Creature in the 19, 20, 21. verses, you may as well read it, the Creation, that which you read the whole Creation, verse 22. is as properly every Creature.  
There are two Questions which here naturally arise, and are absolutely waved by me, as having no necessary Connexion with my present purpose.  
Quest. 1. The first Question is this, In what sense the Creature or Creation is understood by the holy Apostle. Is the whole Creation one entire, living, sensible Image of the Divine Nature, in which every Creature, as a part of this Divine Image, partakes of the same life, according to the Doctrine of Campanella? Shall we say with Plato, Every thing that is, is an Act of Life, and so nothing of Being without life?  
Or may it seem agreeable to the Scriptures, that all the Creatures stood together at first, before the breach, made by the Fall, in the Unity of the Spirit, in Christ, the Head of the Creation; without whom, or apart from whom, nothing was made that was made, as St. John teacheth us? Did every Creature stand now in Union, with its proper Angel, through its Angel with its proper Idea in Christ, the Divine Mind, and the Universal Idea? Was every Creature thus clothed with the Angelical Image, partaker of the Angelical Life? Did it through these receive the Divine Image, the Divine Life of its own Idea? That the whole Creation might seem a Contexture of Angels, filled with Ideal Lights, all meeting together in one chief Angel, and one Universal Idea, which is the Lord Jesus? Had every Creature thus a sight and sense of the Divine Design in the Fall? was it thus capable of a willingness and an unwillingness in its submission to it, as it considered that particular state, or the general design with the Divine end of all; As it considered itself in this dark part, to be acted by it, or the eternal Spirit in its universa●…●…ontrivance, and the Mark, the height of Glory, to which it directed all? Do the Creatures still, though bound in Chains of Darkness, retain so much of this Angelical Ideal Light, and Life, as to hope, to groan for a return from their Captivity, into these Angelical, Ideal Forms, and so into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God, whom St. James saith, to be the First-fruits of the Creation?  
Whether this be so, or all these terms of Will, of Hope, of Groans, be by a figure attributed to Subjects without life or sense; or some other sense be righter than either of these, I consider not now, as being unconcerned?  
Quest. 2. The second Question is, whether the individual Creatures did all pre-exist, being together in Paradise, before the Fall, in their Angelical Spirits and Forms? Was among these Mankind, with all individual Persons, not only in a Representative, but a Collective Adam; unto whom Adam in his own distinct Person was the Head, and the first born? Did those thus, who now groan under the ruins of the Fall, then foresee it, in the Divine Design, having an aversion to it in itself, yet subjecting themseluns to it for God? Are these, who now through all Generations groan and travel in pangs, for the delivery of the Divine seed in them, unto the Birth of a new Glory, the same who then had this Divine Seed of a sure Hope sown in them for their return? And not for their return only, but for their Resurrection, unto a sight of the Face of God with a new and fuller Glory, shining forth without any shadow or Veil, purely, and immediately upon them all, through them, taking them up into itself, as a new, Super-Coelestial eternal Paradise, as far excelling their first Paradise, as the Heavens are above the Earth, as Eternity transcends Time?  
But these then, where have they been since the Fall? Were they thrust down to the nethermost parts of the Earth, imprisoned in the deep shades of the Earth below, and bound there in Chains of Darkness? Are they there reserved in the silence and sleep of that Death which came upon all by the Fall, until, as Seed buried in the ground, they, according to their several seasons, spring up into Corruptible Forms, and a wretched Life, for a moment upon the stage of this World to act new parts, in order to a refining, through a Baptism with Christ in the fire of his Sufferings, of his Death, and the making of all new by this refining, in the Glory of his Resurrection?  
Dear Reader! these Questions may be thought by some curious and difficult, without use, fruit, or ground in the Word of God. To others, perhaps they may seem of great moment to open the mystery of God, to unveil his Glory in the wonder of his Works, which are sought out by all those who love him. Some may esteem them of great advantage, to enlighten the Daknesses, and make easy the Difficulties about Principal Doctrines of the Christian Religion, as that fundamental Truth of Original Sin, that most sweet and sacred Mystery, which is the Antitype to this Type. Our justification by Jesus Christ, the Return of all to life in the last Adam, as all died in the first. Others may believe, that as God sheds abroad richer Anointings of the Light of his Spirit, we shall see lying fair before us greater and stranger things than these, which now like fresh colours in a beautiful Object, appear not at all, for the want of light in the Air, in our Spirits. As the eternal Sun shineth, as the Heavens in the Scriptures, and the Spirit shall open themselves; they expect to see the Angels of Glory, and of God, the Divine Glories descending and ascending upon the Son of Man, the Person of the Lord Jesus, as a mystical Ladder, reaching through the whole Creation, from the top to the bottom, where each rank of Creatures is a step in this Ladder, a Divine Glory, in the Angelical Form, upon the Wings of its proper Angel, descending and ascending.  
But I leave these things to the freedom of every Spirit, as bringing no weight to my present purpose, begging thy pardon, Christian Reader, for this mention of them, as being fairly led to by the present Scripture, and willing to take the occasion of diverting thyself and me, as I hope, not without some spiritual pleasure and profit, through the candour of thy Mind.  
I shall take hold of that alone, which seems to lie clear in the words of the Text, and gives a full confirmation to my Proposition, which is this,  
That the Fall springs from the Harmony of the eternal Design in the Divine Mind, being comprehended in it, as a part of it.  
I shall proceed by a few short steps,  
1. The Intellectual soul, in the first Man, is manifestly, eminently comprehended in this Scripture, by a Reason from the stronger. This not only is a principal part of the Creation, but contains in itself, according to its primitive state, the whole nature of things, together with the complete Image of God in Nature. This is the Essence of the Intellectual Soul.  
2. This Soul, in this Image, and so in its own Essence, as in a Glass, beholdeth the Harmony of the Divine Work, as it hath the Harmony of the Divine Nature figured upon it in its Perfection, from the beginning to the end. Through this Image, as a finely-shadowed Vail, it hath a view of God himself in the invisibility of his Power and Godhead. In the same view it taketh in the Universal Harmony of the Divine Work and Design, as it lieth in its first ground, in his invisible Power and Godhead; Invisible to the purest eye of Nature in their own naked Glories, but visible through the Divine Cloud or Sky of the Natural, the Angelical Image of God in Man.  
3. In this Image, light and view of the Godhead. The Soul now seeth the Fall in the Divine Harmony, in the Harmony of the Divine Image, and its own Essence; it seeth this, as the next Scene, ready to open itself, as the next state into which it is immediately to pass, by the force of the Divine Harmony.  
The Soul seeth this state, in this Glass, apart by itself, as a state of highest Contrariety to the Purity, the Light, the Peace, the Calm, the Incorruption, the Virtues, the Joys, the Harmony, the Life, the Love, the Divinity of its present state. It hath a Prospect of it, as a Scene of monstrous Defilements, Shames, Confusions, Troubles, Darknesses, Tempests, Horrors, Enmities, Deaths, where there is no Light, no Rest. Thus the Soul hath the highest aversion to this state.  
But at the same time, the Soul hath a view of this Scene, as it stands in the Universal Harmony, so it sees shadowed out to it through the natural Image, in this shady light of Nature, a Glory of the Godhead springing up through it, by the Power of the Divine Harmony incomprehensible to the Soul in its purest Light, infinitely transcending all those Divine Glories which have hitherto appeared to it in the Godhead, and all those which it is by any means capable of figuring to itself.  
It became him, (saith the Author to the Hebrews) being to bring many Sons to Glory, to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through Sufferings. Thus the Soul in Paradise beholding (in the Glass of its own Essence) this state of Sufferings to rise up out of the unsearchable depths of the incomprehensibly ravishing, and transcendently perfect Harmony in the Divine Essence, understanding also the Harmony to be made perfect, and the Glory of the Godhead raised to its utmost, its purest height, and beyond the reach of every Intellectual or Angelical Eye, by this Variety in its proper place, Now, for God, is subject to this bondage of Vanity and Corruption.  
This Soul in like manner sees in that same Glass an Hope that cannot fail, set before it. The Seed of a Divine Hope, Jesus the Hope of Glory, the force and power of the Universal Harmony sown in it. A sure Hope that shall accompany it through this Wilderness of Wastness, Tempests, and Horrors, where no water is, no Light 〈◊〉 Life, no Truth of any good, but empty and black shades in a dark and dreadful Night. In this Hope it sees the assurance of a passage out of this Wilderness into a good Land, a Land flowing with Milk and Honey, a Land flowing with Rivers of Waters, and full of Springs, A Land of Rest and Bliss.  
4. The Soul thus, by this prospect in Paradise, is submitted and subjected to its change and fall, with an unwilling willingness. God now according to the Law of the Divine Harmony in his own Image, and in the Essence of the Soul, withdraws the Light of his Presence, within a dark Cloud from this Cloud, falls a deep sleep, the sleep of Death, a death to the only true, the Divine Life upon Man. The Soul now like Abraham falls into a terrible dream, a blackness of darkness, full of horror passeth over. It seeth itself, the whole nature of things, visible, invisible, within itself, dead, divided, dissolved, all broken and scattered into pieces. A burning Lamp, the burning Torches of Lust, Rage, Divine Wrath, pass between these mangled pieces.  
Thus the Soul lies in this sleep and dream, with hope only, as a gleam of heavenly Light, now and then breaking upon it, through these melancholy shades, until Christ, the Seed of Hope, revive in it. When he awakens himself in the Soul, he awakens the Soul by his Voice, sounding through it; Awake thou that sleepest, stand up from the dead, and Christ shall give thee Light. At the awakening of the Soul, the dream flies away, as if it never had been. The Soul now sees her lost Paradise, her lost Purity, her lost Peace, her lost Love and Joy, her lost self, with the whole nature of things in its Virgin-Image present with her, as if they had never departed from her. All past seems as the dream of a moment, while she slept upon a Bed of Spices in Paradise, in the Bosom of her Beloved.  
But her Beauties and Paradise are not now as before. They are no more shadowy Images, shady Lights, and Mediums, or means, through which her God appears to her, which his Glories dimmed, and refracted by the Vails, through which they pass. No, being now awakened into the Resurrection of Christ, God himself in his naked Beauties, in the purest and sweetest Light of his Divine Essence, appears to her as to himself. He in the Light of his unvailed Glories, is both her beloved Object, and the blissful Medium or means through which she sees him. The Soul now is in the Light, as He is in the Light, his Face shining like the Sun of Eternity in the strength of all its Glories, the Glories of his supreme loveliness, and Loves, is the Glass in which she sees herself, her lost Purity and Paradise, the whole nature of things within herself, as they all lie in the Harmony of the Divine Nature. In this Glass she sees and enjoys her Fall itself, as a part, and the perfecting of this heavenly Harmony. All the storms and darknesses in that Scene have now their Vizors taken off, and appear to be living Glories, glorious Spirits, glorious Varieties in the Unity of the eternal Spirit. Thus the Soul enjoys herself with all past, present, or to come, as eternally present with Christ in God.  
Now this Bride reputes not of her subjection to the Fall, by which she hath passed into this last state more excellent than the first, which indeed is the first. Now she seeth that all her changes were but circlings through the various parts of the Divine Harmony within herself, within the heavenly compass of her own Divine Essence. While all that while, she with her beautiful Essence and Form lies in the embraces of the Divine Essence itself. There completing in herself the circle of the Universal and Eternal Harmony returning thither, as into the Bosom of her Beloved Bridegroom, from whence she first came forth, as from her everlasting Father, and first Cause.  
Thus I have endeavoured to bring to the Eye, the Ear of our Understanding, the Beauty, the Music of the Divine Harmony in the discords of Humane Nature, in the Fall of Man; which excludes all undetermined Liberty in the Will, as altogether inconsistent with this Harmony, and the Divine Unity, the band of this Harmony.  
I pass now to the Essence of the Soul, in the third Scene, into which it opens itself, or that third state into which it rolls itself within itself. My design is the same here, to show how the sacred and irresistible force of the Divine Harmony restores the Soul, without any thing of freewill in the sense, in which we have stated it, intermingling itself in this Work.  
3. State. This third state of the Soul is its return or restitution. This is clearly and completely described by St. Paul, after the lively Picture which he hath given us, of the storm in the Fall; But now the Righteousness of God is made manifest without the Law, being witnessed to by the Law and the Prophets, Rom. 3. 21. Even the Righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ on all that believe, verse 22. Being justified freely by his Grace, through the Redemption which is in Jesus Christ, verse 24. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his own Righteousness for the remission of Sins, verse 25. To declare, I say, at this time his own Righteousness: that he (by his, his own Righteousness, or Justice,) might be just, and by the same his, his own Righteousness) the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus, vers. 26.  
Take here four brief Notes upon the words,  
1. The Righteousness of God is with great care and skill distinguished here, and specificated in its distinction from the Righteousness of Man under the Law, in the state of Innocency. You have this distinction emphatically set out and sealed with a deep impression four times over. The Right eousness of God without the Law, vers. 21. Even the Righteousness of God, vers. 22. God to declare his own Righteousness, vers. 25. To declare, I say, his own Righteousness, or Justice; That he may be just or righteous, and the Justifier, or the Maker righteous, by his own Righteousness. This is the Righteousness of the Gospel, by which we have the pardon of Sins, and are justified. This the Law, the Prophets, Nature in its Purity, in all its natural Improvements point out to us, in shadows and pictures; But cannot set before us, nor give to us no more than the Picture can give a sight or fruition of the Life, the living Beauty.  
2. Grace, free Love alone, without the Conjunction of freewill, discovers and brings in this Righteousness. This Righteousness is the Beauty of the Divine Harmony; Grace or Love is the sweetness, the sweet force of this Harmony, or the Unity in this Harmony, which alone carries it on through all things, and makes all things perfect in it.  
3. Jesus Christ with his Blood, and Faith in him, are means to this end, the declaration of the Righteousness of God. This Divine Harmony, which is the Beauty and the Righteousness of the Divine Nature, as the last end, is the first Mover, carries on itself by its own sweet, most agreeable and irresistible force, which is the Grace and Love in the Godhead. This forms and fashions all its own means, brings forth Jesus Christ to die for us, to live in us by Faith, and itself in this Jesus, through the death and the life of this Jesus.  
4. The essential Righteousness of God, as it brings forth itself through Jesus Christ, is that in which we have the pardon of Sin, and Justification. It is his own Righteousness, or Justice, by which God is just himself, and maketh us just. In Greek the words are all the same, his Righteousness, that he may be just, and the Justisier. You will understand this, and the elegant force of this Scripture, which is very much lost in English by the change of the word in the Translation from Righteousness, to Just and Justifier; When you know, that in Greek, Righteousness and Justice are both one word; as in the sense, and in nature, they are both one thing.  
This essential Righteousness of God alone, hath an infiniteness of value and virtue in it, to be a satisfaction for the infinite Demerit and Gild in Sin; to make a Saint infinitely amiable and lovely, that it may be proportioned to the Eye and infinite Love of an infinite Spirit.  
We say, our Jesus was Man, that he might Suffer; God, that he might Merit by suffering. We are rightly taught, That it is the Person in Christ which gives the value to his Active and Passive Obedience; That gives the value and virtue to the whole work of his Mediation. The Person in Christ is God, the second Person in the Trinity, the essential Image of the Godhead, eternal, unchangeable, infinite. It is then the essential, eternal, infinite Beauty, Value, Virtue, Righteousness of this Person, which declares itself through the Humane Nature of Christ in the Humiliations, the Exaltations of that, unto the Remission of Sins, unto Justification, to make us infinitely amiable in the eye of an infinite God, the worthy Objects of an infinite Love, the worthy Subjects of an infinite Glory and Blessedness, in the eternal, unlimited, free, and full fruition of an infinite Object, infinite in Loveliness and Delights.  
But let us endeavour, according to the meanness of our capacity, in taking in so great Glory, to give some Light to this so sweet, and so high a mystery.  
Righteousness and Justice in Greek are the same.  
Justice is defined, that which giveth every one it's own. That is, to every thing it's own, due, and proper to it, which makes up the Harmony and Unity of the whole in that part. The Harmony and Unity of the whole is the perfection of the whole, and of each part. Every part is in order to the whole, as its end. As it is perfection, which is due to each thing: So the end of each thing is its perfection. Thus Justice consists in the Harmony and Unity of things.  
Righteousness is that by which we are right, and do right. Right is a conformity to its rule. The first in every kind is the measure and rule of all the rest. God is absolutely, universally the first of all things: so is He the absolute measure and rule of all.  
The Righteousness of God than is the conformity of the Divine Nature to itself, in its Essence and Operations, in its self, and in all its works. Thus is Righteousness also as Justice, the Harmony and Unity of things. The Divine Righteousness is the Divine Harmony and Unity diffusing itself through all things, and knitting all things together, as Links in one Golden Chain.  
The perfection of Harmony is the Unity in Variety. The Harmony is perfect, when the Unity is entire, and the Variety full. A full Variety is that, in which nothing of Variety is wanting. A principal part in the Variety, extending it to a greater amplitude, is the Contrariety. This then is the Divine pleasure and glory in the Harmony; when the Unity by its Divine fruitfulness and force brings forth itself through all degrees of Variety, into the remotest forms, the most opposite Contrarieties and Extremes: When it brings forth itself through these into itself again, and reigns triumphantly at once, as over the whole, so over each part of the Variety; residing on the whole, as one Throne, one Kingdom, and on each part, as a distinct Throne, a distinct Kingdom, equal with the whole.  
The Divine Harmony is threefold.  
1. The first Harmony is that of the Godhead, of the Divine Essence in itself. This is the essential Righteousness of God. As it is the Righteousness, so is it the Love, the Joy, the Loveliness, the Wisdom, Power, Glory of God. All the Excellencies of God in one, one and entire in every Excellency by the Unity. Yet in every Excellency most highly distinct by the Variety in the Harmony. The Harmony of the Divine Essence is that sacred and adorable mystery of the Trinity, the mystery of God.  
2. The second Harmony is the Harmony of the Divine Nature, as the Original; And the Harmony in the Nature of the Creature, as the figure, married together into one Divine Harmony, by a mutual and mysterious Union. By this Union these two mutually subsist in each other, shine upon, shine in and through each other. The Original Harmony is the Principle, of subsisting and shining. This is the Head, the Person which gives Being, Beauty, Subsistency, Lustre to its own Figure in the created Harmony, shining upon itself in and through it.  
This is the Mediatory Righteousness, or the Righteousness of God in Christ, the Righteousness of the Gospel, of our Justification, Sanctification, Glorification.  
This Righteousness in Christ, as our Head, comprehending us in itself, by virtue of the mutual Union clothing us, filling us, overflowing us, is our Justification, the Beauty of our Persons shining in the Glory of our Head, entire from the first moment, and unchangeable.  
This Righteousness, by virtue of our mutual Union, with our Jesus in the Unity of the Spirit, as our Root, springs forth in us, transforms us into its own heavenly Image, carries us up into a Communion with itself, in its own Divine Life, Beauties and Joys. Thus by the gradual growths of this Righteousness in us, are we gradually sanctified; through all changes of life, doth this Plant grow in us, by Night and by Day; In Death it arrives at its perfect growth. Our Sanctification thus in Death made perfect, is the glorification of our Persons.  
In one moment doth this Divine Righteousness, this heavenly Harmony take us up into itself, unto the justification of our Persons in its spotless, eternal, universal Beauties, to the filling of us with the unexpressible Peace and Joys of its most sweet, eternal, universal Music, and in the same moment it springs up in us unto our Sanctification, to the framing of us by degrees unto the same Beauty, and the tuning of us to the same Music in ourselves. This is the moment of our New-Birth, our Marriage-Union with our Jesus, our believing.  
This is the second Righteousness.  
3. The third Righteousness, is that of the shadowy Image in the primitive state of the Creation. This is the Righteousness of Man, a shadowy Righteousness, the shadow of the eternal Harmony. This is the essential Form of Man in pure nature. This is the Reason of Man, the shadow of the eternal Reason, the Word, the essential Harmony in the Divine Mind.  
The Lord Jesus being the first, the supreme, the essential Image of God, is also the first, the supreme, the essential Harmony, the Essence of Harmony in its eternal Spirit, the essential Harmony, the essential Righteousness of the Divine Nature.  
The Lord Jesus is the Original, the Universal Image, the Image of Images, the Idea of Ideas, the Spring, the Seat, the Truth, the first of all Ideas. He is the Idea of the Godhead, of the whole Creation, of Man, of every Creature. Thus is he the Root, the Rule, the Harmony, the Righteousness of the whole Creation, of Man, of every Creature.  
Having laid these grounds, for the illustrating of the Doctrine of St. Paul, I will now from St. Paul, and upon these grounds, sum up into a close, this part of my Discourse, concerning the nature of the Humane Soul, or Man.  
The Essence of the Soul containeth the fullness of all thing in it, in one substantial, indivisible Act. The Soul opens itself into this fullness of things, by a three fold Revolution within itself, within the spacious Palace of its own glorious Essence.  
1. From the Bosom or Womb of its own Ideal Glories, which are the Original, the Measure, the Bound of the Souls Essence and Perfection; the Soul descendeth into a shadowy Image. Thus it first appears upon the beautiful Stage of this World in its first Creation.  
God himself in his invisible Glories with eternity, in his eternal Power and Godhead is now in the Soul, is seen by the Soul, but shadowed by this shadowy and vailing Image within which he resides. Thus hath the Soul within herself her Idea in Christ, in God, in Eternity, as her Fountain in Eden, which flowing forth all through the Soul in this shadowy Image, makes it all a sweetly-shadowed Paradise. This is the first Revolution.  
2. As in the Harmony of this shadowy Image lies the Contrariety, a part of the Variety in the Harmony. So from the Divine force of this Harmony, acted by the Ideal Harmony lying hid in it, the Soul rouleth itself out of the lowest and remotest degree of the Unity into the Contrariety, as a Note in a Musical Lesson upon the Lute, struck and sounding in its proper time.  
Now is the Beauty, the Integrity, the Sweetness of this shadowy Image, in Deformity, in Ruins, in Bitterness and Enmity, Sin and Death swallow up all.  
The Soul stands in a Contrariety to the Divine Purity, Love, Light, Immortality. In the place of Purity, is Filth; of Light, Darkness; of Love, Enmity; of Immortality, Death.  
God now being the Supreme Unity and Harmony, opposeth himself, as most directly, most highly, most irreconcilably contrary to this Contrariety, to the breach of the Unity, to the discord in the Harmony, that he may subdue it, and reduce it unto an Unity, for the making up of the Harmony, and so making it more full by the Contrariety, more sweet by the Enmity.  
Thus the Divine Love in the shadowy Image, having lost itself in the enmity at the Fall. The Divine Love itself in its eternal Image disguiseth itself in a form of wrath, flaming forth with unquenchable burnings, until it have devoured the Enmity, and the shadowy Image itself in the Enmity, unto the discovery of the eternal Love, vailed beneath its shadow, and buried in the Enmity. All thus consumed meet again in the triumphant and pure flame, in which the Divine Love meets with and embraceth itself.  
But thus much of the second Revolution.  
3. Now the Soul with the whole nature of things in the shadowy Image, the shadowy Harmony, the shadowy Righteousness of its first Creation is lost, by the dissolution of the Unity in discord and Deformity, Sin, Death, and the Divine Wrath.  
Now G●… in the essential Image, the essential Harmony, the essential Right●…usness, which is Love itself, loveliness itself, Power, Wisdom, the Essence of God, declares himself our Jesus, our Saviour. He declares himself, without the Law or the Prophets, not from any Merit or Power in the Creature, but of mere Grace, from the sweet innate force of the Divine Harmony in himself, by the beauties of which he is powerfully attracted and acted, to the Music of which he moves in all his actings with highest pleasure.  
This essential Image and Harmony, from the beginning lies hid beneath the shadowy Image, at the bottom of it, as the substance to the shadow, which hath no possibility of subsisting in any point or degree of Being without it. St. Paul calls this, The mystery hid in God from the foundation of the World; that is, hid beneath the foundation of the World, which was a Veil cast over the eternal Glories, while they figured themselves in Divine shadows upon this Veil.  
But now our Jesus, the second Person in the Trinity, the essential Image, the essential Harmony, the Righteousness of God, becomes a Creature, springs up from beneath the foundations of the Creation into an Humane Soul and Body in the midst of it ruins.  
This Jesus is the Original Image of the Creation, of Man, of every Creature, the Root, the Rule, the Actor of all, who virtually, eminently comprehends all in their distinct Ideal Forms within himself, as so many eternal Beauties in his own eternal Beauty, who bringeth them forth from himself, beareth them in himself, as Flowers in their Garden-beds, who figureth himself in the riches of his glorious Varieties upon them, to make of the whole one beautiful Figure of his own Beauties, a Daughter, Sister, and Bride to himself.  
He therefore now, the Seed of Hope, of Promise sown in the Soul, dying together with the Soul in the Fall, now comes up through this death in the form of a man, fallen man, the Image of the whole, which contains the whole in itself.  
Thus he reduceth the Contrariety to the Unity. He restores the Harmony, he atones and reconciles all, all manner of ways,  
1. He bringeth all the Contrariety into the Harmony, by bearing the Fall, Gild, Shame, all Deformities, all Deaths, the Divine Wrath, the ruins of the Fall in himself, who is the eternal, universal Harmony and Righteousness. Thus eternal Life dies without Death, giving an eternal Life and Glory to Death in his Person. Thus the Righteousness of God is made Sin for us without Sin. He is altogether lovely; every thing of him is not only lovely, but loveliness itself. Yea more loveliness, a knot, a spring of loveliness. So sings the spiritual Bride of her Beloved in that Song of Loves, The bushes of his Hair black as a Raven, (the Bird of Death) in their order and place springing forth from his head of finest Gold (the purest light of Glory) encompassing it with their deep shade, and setting it off, are Divine Beauties.  
2. This Person, the eternal, the universal Image and Harmony of the Godhead, of all Glories, of all things gives hims●… in the extremities of all Sufferings unto Death, to be a Sacrifice to the Holiness, Justice, Wrath and Glory of God. He is a Sacrifice of infinite value and force, a Sin-Offering, expiating all Sin, with a transcendency of Merit. A Peace-Offering, which charms the most offended spirits, which changeth into a Golden Calm of Divine Love and Joy, the most raging tempests of wrath, raised through the whole nature of things, from the breast of the eternal Spirit.  
3. He bears in his own Person the whole Contrariety, the Contrariety of evil in the enmity of Sin, to the Divine Good in its Love and Glory: The Contrariety of the Divine Good in its Love and Glory to the evil in the deformity and enmity of Sin. All the fiery darts of both these Contrarieties, in their utmost force and fury, meet in his Bosom, the Bosom of Div●…e Beauty and Love, exposed nakedly to them both. Thus he fills up the design of his Father, to make known the power of his Wrath. Thus he draws forth to its largest compass, and heightens to its utmost point, this Scene of wrath, to make the Variety full, and the Harmony absolute.  
4. Jesus, the supreme Harmony, the everlasting Righteousness, by dying, carries the descent of things to the lowest point. He makes an end of Sin, Sufferings, Death and Wrath for ever, by the dissolution and end of the seat, the subject of all these, the shadowy Image, the Creation of Nature in his own person. The death of Jesus Christ is as the midnight of things. The Sun of the eternal Image and Glory, having by its course, in the shadowy Image, touched the utmost bound of distance from itself, now begins its return to itself again.  
5. This Jesus by his Resurrection carries up with him, in his own Person, all things, the whole Creation, the shadowy Image, with its Primitive Purity and Paradise, the shadowy Image, with its fall, ruins, and deaths into the Glory of the eternal Image, unto an Union with it, immediate, naked, entire, eternal, in one Light, in one Spirit. Where there is now no more any vail or shadow. Now all appear Beauties and Glories, divinely-harmonious, being seen in their proper place and order in the Divine, the Eternal, the Universal Harmony.  
6. Lastly, The Lord Jesus now, in an humane Soul and Body, being risen from the Dead, and ascended up on high, comprehends, reconciles, fills all things, shining through all, assimilating all to himself in the spiritual Glory of his own essential, eternal Image in his own Person, the most glorious, unbounded Head of all. Now according to the fullness, the fruitfulness, the Divine Order of the Ideas; the Original Images of all things, in the most ample and blissful Harmony in his Person; He comes up, he springs forth in his Spirit; in the Spirit of this Divine Image, this Harmony and Glory, with the fullness of his Person, of this Divine Image, Harmony and Glory in the Soul of Man.  
As he springs up, he rends the Veil, behind which he ever resided, he reveals himself to the Soul in the Universal Harmony of his Person; and his whole work, from the beginning to the end. He presents himself to the Soul, as its Idea, its Original Image, its beginning; its way, and itsend; in whose bosom the Soul hath always lain; there meeting with every change, every scene of things springing up within it in that bosom, while the same Jesus hath lain in its bosom, as the seed of its Being, and of every Change. This is the Souls Father, Brother, Bridegroom and Perfection.  
As Jesus Christ thus appears and unvails himself within the Soul, he at once gathers up the Soul into the most intimate, the most entire Union with itself. He transforms it into the likeness of the same Image with himself, in the full Glory of the Divine, the Universal, the eternal Harmony, in the Unity of the same Spirit, the Spirit of this Harmony and Glory.  
The Lord Jesus, as he is the universal, the eternal Image and Harmony of the Divine Nature, of all Variety in the Divine Nature, as he is the Idea of Ideas, thus is he the Original Image, the Idea of the Intellectual Soul, or of Man. As then he forms himself in this Soul; he also formeth all things in it, that man comes forth from the bosom of his Idea, replenished with the Ideas of all things. He is now the whole Creation, the universal Nature within himself.  
This Jesus then, being risen, springs up into Man in the virtue of his Resurrection, and together becomes the Resurrection of all things in man to man. In like manner through man; as the head of all, he riseth again in all the particular Forms of things, as they stand without man in themselves in their own proper Existencies.  
In the Lord Jesus, God, through Christ, the universal Image inhabiteth in the proper Ideas of each Creature, with the fullness of his Divine Glories, in the Unity of the blessed Spirit. According to this Original, Jesus Christ, the Universal Harmony through the humane Nature, his immediate, his full Image, his complete Birth and Bride, rests entirely and distinctly upon each form of things; as the Divine Race of this heavenly Marriagebed in the Resurrection. As all together make up the Universal Harmony in the Soul, in Christ the end of them all: So each one enjoyeth the whole Harmony in itself, being upon its own proper Form, clothed with the Universal Form, the Form of the heavenly Man, and of Christ in Glory. So all dwell together in the Unity of the same Divine Spirit, the Spirit of a Saint and of Christ. In the Unity of this Spirit, all mutually are Divine Palaces each to other, clearly, completely comprehending, and comprehended by each other, eternally feasting upon the heavenly Beauties and Virtues, drinking in the Sweetnesses, the Lives, the Spirits of each other; And of Jesus Christ, of God, the Unity, and the Variety in all.  
This is the Kingdom of God, which is Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ, the essential Image of God, the Divine and eternal Harmony, is the Righteousness, the mutual Peace and Joy of this Kingdom.  
In this Kingdom Jesus Christ cometh with his own Glory, the Glory of his Father, and of all his holy Angels united in one, in each form of things. The lowest form of things here is an Angel, an Angel made new in the Resurrection of Christ, where each Angel being only a distinct part of the Harmony, yet hath the Universal Harmony resting upon that part.  
This is that new Jerusalem, where the street, the lowest form of things, is as Gold and Glass. The pure Glory of the eternal Spirit, as the finest Gold, shineth in each Creature, like the Cherubin, or the Angels standing up out of the Mercy-Seat, made of the same piece of massy Gold together with it. The lowest Creature here is an Angel of Glory, the street that sustains us is composed of Angels, Angelical Glories. In every Angel as a particular Glory, all the Angels with their several Varieties of Glory; the Glory of Christ, and all the Saints, which is the full, the Universal Glories of the Divine and Humane Nature, the Original, and its best beloved Image in Union. The Glory of God, as the Father, in its simplicity, in its paternity and transcendency over all; meet all in one. This Unity of the Spirit in each Creature renders it divinely transparent, like the finest glass. In the beauty of every Face, we have the prospect of Eternity. We see in each single Face fresh Beauties, all Beauties, with an endless Variety opening themselves one within another, one beyond another, all equally clear, present, and pleasant in every one.  
Thus Jesus Christ becomes, according to St. Paul, the firstborn from the dead, and the firstborn among his Brethren the Saints. The Saints in the Language of St. James, are the first-fruits of the Creation, which is brought forth in its proper time and order, into the liberty of the Glory of the Sons of God.  
Thus is our Jesus the great Jubilee, where all Debts are remitted, all Servants go free, all persons return to their Inheritances, to the free Possession, the full fruition of themselves and them. In the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, from him, as the Root springing up into the Body of the Saints, through them into the rest of the Creatures as Branches of the same Tree. All Sins are pardoned, the whole Creation is set free from its bondage to Vanity and Corruption. All things return to a free fruition of themselves, of all Beauties and Joys in their native Inheritance, their Original Images, their proper Ideas in Christ; first Christ, than the Saints through them, Heaven and Earth, and the Seas, with all things in them, are made new, by being married anew, by being newly reinvested with the Glories of their Original.  
The Reader is again desired to take Notice, That neither the remainder of this Fourth Argument, nor any thing upon his Fifth could be found amongst the Author's Papers.     

A DISCOURSE OF THE Freedom of the Will. The SECOND PART.  
Wherein the Arguments for it are considered and answered.  
HAving finished those Arguments ranked under their several Heads, in opposition to that Liberty of the Will, which is placed in the determining of its power, received from the first cause, unto a Contrariety or Contradiction in its actings, with an independency upon the first cause, the order and connexion of Causes, and the Understanding,  
We pass now to a consideration of the Reasons, upon which that Opinion of this Freedom is established. These Reasons are taken,  

1. From the Will itself.  
2. From the nature of Sin, and the Divine Justice.  
3. The Language of the Scripture.  
4. From the end of Laws.  
5. From the order and nature of things.   
1. Reason. The Prerogative and Excellency of the Will consisteth in this Liberty.  
1. How otherwise doth man excel bruit Creatures and natural Agents?  
2. How otherwise is man free, and not necessitated in all his Actions? To that I shall give two several Answers.  
1. Answ. This Freedom of the Will, of which we speak, and which is opposed to necessity, is no perfection.  
I shall make way for the explanation and confirmation of this by distinguishing necessity into a 

1. Necessity of Coaction.  
2. Necessity of Nature.    
1. A necessity of Coaction is from an outward power, restraining the subject from acting according to the principles of its nature, or constraining it to Actions besides, or against its nature. This necessity is indeed contrary to true freedom. A freedom from this necessity, or from a capacity of being thus necessitated is the perfection or excellency of man.  
2. The necessity of nature is that, which is founded in, and flows from the Essence itself, the essential and internal principles of each nature. This necessity is so far from being inconsistent with Liberty, that it is the establishment and firmness of the subject in its proper freedom. The demonstration of this is clear in the Divine Nature; for as God alone is Ens perfectè liberum, A Being most perfectly free; so is he according to the Doctrine of all the Schools, alone, Ens absolutè necessarium, A Being absolutely necessary. And as is his Being, such is his Understanding, such is his Will, such are all his Acts, necessary and necessarily good, as they are most perfectly free. For his Being in the absoluteness, and simplicity of it, is his Understanding, his Will, one pure, simple, and eternal Act, goodness itself.  
The learned Prideaux, in the Chair at Oxford, rightly teacheth us this, That God in those his first Acts of Election, although he be not moved by any Causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; that is, any cause from without, giving occasion for these distinguishing Acts; is yet determined to them by a Causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. A reason from within, from the glorious secret of his own Essence which hath so much the more of a Divine force in it, by how much the more it is incomprehensible to us.  
2. Answ. The freedom of the Will, if it be rightly understood and stated, will, as I humbly conceive, appear far more beautiful, glorious and divine in these three Circumstances.  
1. The Liberty of the Will is truly Divine in the amplitude of its Object, which is goodness in its utmost latitude, and fullness, in its utmost height and glory. The Will of Man is not determined or confined to a particular good, or an inferior good, to that of mere nature or of sense. It hath its freedom to range through the flowery and spacious Field of all good, in its richest Variety; yea to soar up to that blissful Paradise of the supreme good itself in the third and highest Heavens, there to spread itself, and roll itself in the midst of all the Treasures, of all the distinct Beauties and Joys of every good, as all meet here with the highest lustre, with the purest and most perfect sweetness in the bosom of this first and chief good.  
2. The Will of man is in this, divinely free, that it always acts after an irresistible manner, according to its own proper Nature, so that nothing can move it, but per modum interni principii, and secundum morem objecti propositi, after the manner of the inward Principles, of its own Essence, and the proposal of its Object. As the Divine Will is goodness itself, in its greatest amplitude and perfection: so is the Will of Man, which is the Birth and Image of the Divine Will, goodness in the seed, which as the Divine Goodness is presented in various appearances, so it can by no means, by no power, beneath a power of creating, and annihilating be restrained from springing up and flourishing, and flying into the bosom of that appearance, to become perfectly one with it, as a most chaste and affectionate Bride, with her most beautiful and beloved Bridegroom. If this Bride, the Will of Man, embrace a Stranger, or an Enemy in the place of her own Beloved, it is by being first deceived, by his coming and presenting himself to her in the appearance of her Bridegroom. The woman being deceived, was first in the Transgression. Sin deceived me, and so slew me, saith St. Paul. Thus is the Will of Man not like to that figure in the Poet, Monstrum inform, cui lumen ademptum. A rude, unformed power, acted without Light, without Order, without Principle or End, by a rash uncertainty, in an unformed darkness. This were no liberty, but the greatest servitude of a Spirit, bound in Chains of Darkness, and hurried by the Power of Darkness it knows not how, nor why, nor whither. No, the Will of Man is in its own uncorrupt state a beautiful Virgin, with fair eyes like Doves, washed in Milk by a Divine Love, carried in a Divine Light to the Arms of her Beloved, the Divine Beauty and Goodness.  
In its fallen Estate, while in the midst of false Lights, and false appearances, raised by that great Enchanter, the Prince of Darkness, it is held in the Serpentine embrances of false Lovers, as in nets and bands; yet is it its own Beloved and Bridegroom, which she loves and seeks in all these.  
It is also its essential inclination and love to the Divinity of the true loveliness, the true good, which is abused, and by which advantage is taken for itself, to be abused by all these Impostures and false loves. Good is that which all things desire, saith the Philosopher. That God whom ye ignorantly worship, that God preach I (saith St. Paul) to the Athenians. The highest piece of Worship is the inclination and motion of the Will, our Love.  
Object. But you will say, What pre-eminence hath man by his freedom? the inclination and sensitive Appetite of bruit Creatures may be alured, but cannot be forced no more than the Will of Man?  
Answ. I give two Answers to this,  
1. The Civil Law saith, That he is free, who is sui juris, in his own power; the freedom of each thing is a power of acting, according to the Principles of Nature, and the Law of its own Essence. As then the excellency and pre-eminence of each Essence, or Nature is, such is the dignity of the freedom or liberty of working, according to that nature. As Reason, the essential form of man, which is the Universal Harmony of all good, transcends the life of sense confined to the inferior and shadowy Image of good in its immortal substance: So doth the rational Appetite in its freedom, which is as ample, as reason itself, and diffuseth itself at liberty upon the blissful Bosom of the Universal Good, excel the sensitive Appetite, tied up to the narrow and fading Objects of sense.  
2. The Will of Man is a rational inclination to the rational, intellectual, eternal, and supreme good. This is the Celestial Love, which is born up upon its two wings of Rational; that is, Celestial delight and desire. While it continues in its naked state of Innocency and true Freedom, it hath a liberty and power in itself, in despite of all impressions of outward force, to fly above them all, upon these golden wings, into the Bosom of the Divine Will, which is the universal and supreme good; there cleaving to, and becoming one with that blessed and triumphant Will, it hath no more any sense of opposition or force; all things now round about it make a pleasant Music to it in the Harmony of the Divine Will, and shine upon it with a most ravishing and heavenly lustre, as they lie together in the Divinely-beautiful Form of the first and universal good.  
This is that true Liberty of the Will of Man, in which he transcends all other Creatures here below, by which he triumphs over all Chances and Changes, over all Confinements and Com●…lsions, over all the extremities of Force and Fury, while it keeps these wings unlimed, uncloged, unclipt by the filth or guilt of fleshly lusts, while it preserves itself from the Chains of Vice.  
3. I come now to the third Circumstance of the Liberty of the Will.  
Man is to be considered in three states, 

1. Of pure Nature.  
2. Of the Fall.  
3. Of the restitution by Christ.    
1. Man in the state of pure Nature, is an Image of God, an earthly Image, Gen. 1. God said, let us make man in our own likeness, after our own Image let us make him. Some interpret this of God, in the three Persons; others of God, Cum indumentis suis, as the Jews speak, of God in his holy Angels: Both together make a proper and full sense. God in the holy Trinity, God in all the various Virtues of the Divine Nature, spread first through the innumerable company of Angels, and by them through the whole Creation, sets himself as a seal upon man, in whom, as the Consummation and Crown of his whole Work, by this impression, he unites all into one Nature and Essence, which is a complete Image of himself, and a comprehension of the whole Creation.  
Thus now the Essence, the Faculties, the Operations of Man, are a shadowy similitude and figure of the Divine Essence, the Divine Virtues, and the Operations of the Divine Nature. Thus the Will of Man is a shadowy figure of the Divine Will; and its freedom, a shadowy resemblance of the Divine Liberty, like the colours of a Rainbow in the Cloud, which are so many reflections of the light of the Sun.  
That which we say in natural Philosophy, Exiisdem nutrimur, ex quibus gignimur; We are bred and nourished, composed and continued by the same things, is most true in its application to the first or universal cause, with its effects. As the Sun is the formal, efficient cause of its beams, which are its shadowy Image in the air, and as the living face is the formal efficient cause of the face in the Glass, so is God to man, his Image and shadow. The continued outshinings and Operations of the Sun, make, maintain, and act anew its beams every moment. The continued stream of Species, or beams from the living Face, every moment, form anew the Face in the Glass, with all its mien and motions. So doth the Divine Essence, the Divive Understanding and Will every moment, by the continual influences of each moment, compose and conduct their Image, the Essence, the Understanding, the Will of Man, as the Face in the Glass, in their whole make, manner, and motions.  
This is not a diminution, but the perfection of Liberty in the Will of Man; For God in his holy Angels, as superior and universal Causes, works upon the Will of Man, or rather in it, after the manner of an internal Principle. So that well known Maxim of the first Philosophy assures us, That the first and universal Cause, is of all Causes most intimate, with every effect. As in logical Definitions, the summum genus, or the highest nature, enters into the Definition, and so into the Essence of the lowest Species, or kind of things, inasmuch as it enters into, and constitutes the next genus, or nature, together with all the intermediate natures. For example's sake, Substance, and so Being itself, in its highest and most absolute form, is comprehended in, and constitutes the nature of man, descending into it, by the intermediate steps of Corporiety and Animality; that is, becoming first a Corporeal Substance, than a living Corporeal Substance, lastly, a rational, and so a man.  
In like manner, so is the first and universal Cause the most internal and essential Principle of every effect, of all humane Operations, of all the acts of the Will. For it is the Essence of every Essence, the Being of every Being, the Act of every Act, the first, the formal Cause, the most immediate, the most intimate Cause of every Effect.  
Let me add to this, for a Conclusion, as the Crown upon the liberty of man in pure nature, that his conformity to God, as an Image to his Original, is his Perfection; in this doth his Will become a most beautiful figure of the ever-glorious life, the Divine Will, that its Liberty is the free-springing, flourishing, and fruitfulness of it in all good, through the whole Latitude and Amplitude of the most spacious and blissful sphere of good; and so that a most pleasing and agreeable necessity of being good is inseparable from this sweet and ample freedom, while it continues in the state of a Divine Image and Figure.  
2. In the Fall of Man we read, according to the Language of the Scripture, of his being deceived, being brought into servitude, being a Captive, in bondage to Vanity and Corruption, and of being dead. While they boast of Liberty, saith St. Peter, they themselves are servants to sin. For to that, of which a man is overcome, he is a servant. It is the Observation of Plato, That the names importing any thing of good, natively, signify a freedom of motion, as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, good, from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to run swiftly. On the otherside, the names of evil, express a restraint from motion, as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, malice, from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to lie down upon the ground. In like manner, the Hebrew word for Darkness signifieth restraint, and confinement by force. All Liberty being an enlargement of Being, is comprehended in the nature of good alone. Neither is there any thing so inconsistent with Liberty, as evil, which is a privation of Being. Plato therefore rightly expresseth the Soul in her fallen state, by the loss of both her wings, which are an Intellectual Light, and an Intellectual Love; or the Light of Reason in the Mind, spreading itself with a clear brightness, as one of the golden wings; and the force or freedom of the rational Appetite to good in the Will, extending itself in a pure flame, as the other of the golden wings.  
To this I might add the testimony, which the Scripture gives of another seed, that of the Serpents springing up in the Soul unto its fall, in its fall, and through its fall; of the Soul being now the Child of the Devil, being implanted into the Powers of Darkness, of being acted by the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Spirit, which is now become its Root, its Head, its inward Principle.  
3. The Soul of man in its Restitution by Christ, hath Jesus Christ as a quickening Spirit in him, as the principle of its Life, as its life itself. I (saith Christ) am the Resurrection and the Life. I (saith St. Paul) by the Law am dead to the Law. I am crucified with Christ, and now I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. He (saith St. Paul) that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. Man is now become the heavenly Image of God, and one Spirit with Jesus Christ in Glory. As he hath now the Understanding of Christ, according to St. Paul; so hath he also the Will of Christ. This heavenly Bridegroom and heavenly Bride are one Divine Spirit, bear one Divine Image, have one Life, one Righteousness, one Glory, one Understanding, one Will, and dwell together in one Light, as God is Light, in one Love, as God is Love, in one immortal Joy, unspeakable and glorious.  
The Soul now is a chaste and spotless Bride, which bringeth forth all the rich and heavenly fruits of her Spirit, her Understanding, her Will, her whole Life, inward and outward, by her own heavenly Husband alone, by the sweet force of her Union with him, and the Divine Virtue of his embraces, that they may be fruits to God; that is, Divine Fruits, having the life, virtue, and sweetness of the Divine Nature in them, the form, and beauty of the Divine Nature upon them for a feast of Joys and Glory to God himself, to feast both his Eyes and his Heart.  
If then the Soul restored be one Spirit with Christ, as in the Spirit of Christ, so in the Spirit of a Saint, the most pleasant liberty, and most potent necessity meet in one. The Divine Harmony of the supreme and universal good is at once the spacious and blissful Field of this Paradisical freedom, and the golden Chain of this most grateful and most glorious necessity.  
The Spirit of Christ is eternity itself, which as it spreads itself beyond and above all consinements to a Variety, endlessly fresh and flourishing, is the sweetest Liberty: As it comprehends all things in a most entire undivided Unity, the supreme Crown and Circle of all true Life and Glory, is the highest necessity. Eternity hath nothing past, or to come, in respect to itself, being far above all Changes, all Beginnings and Ends of things. It is the supreme Power, which rules them all, and the supreme Wisdom which measures them.  
The Soul then now become one Spirit with Christ, is in that Spirit, together with Christ, seated upon the Throne of Eternity; by its Union with this Spirit, it reigns upon this Throne over all things; by having this Spirit in itself, by being one Spirit with this Spirit, it hath in itself that sovereign Power and supreme Wisdom, it is one with that sovereign Power and supreme Wisdom which rules and measures all things.  
Thus the glorious Bride of Eternity, having her heavenly Bridegroom in her embraces, clothed and crowned with the same heavenly Image, being now in the true state of her own proper person, in her sirst and last state, in her own proper unvailed Substance, and Original here with her Bridegroom, is her own rule and measure in this heavenly Image, which is her true substantial self, her Eternity. She is also a rule and measure to herself in the earthly and shadowy Image, and in all her Pilgrimage, through the Regions of time below, whether they be the sweeter shadows of the Light above, or the melancholy shades of a deeper Darkness.  
This is the true Liberty of Man, and the freedom of his Will, which is as the liberty and freedom of the true eternal good, diffusing itself into all the unsearchable riches of its manifoldly various Varieties, varying, setting off, sweetening and heightening itself by all the ravishing excesses of Harmony, of Light, of Love, by all the extremes of Darkness, Discord, Contrariety, and hate, reducing, and binding up these also into a most ravishing Harmony, by the excesses; by the victories and triumphs of the Divine Light and Love: So keeping together with this sportful Liberty, the golden, the firm Adamantine necessity of being itself still through all, that is good, the true and eternal good.  
This Divine Liberty of the spiritual Bride, which is her Kingdom in herself over all, is divinely expressed by the blessed Bridegroom himself, in that most mysterious Song of himself, and his Love composed by himself in the Person of Solomon. He there in one place chargeth the Daughters of Jerusalem; that is, all the holy Angels and spotless Spirits, by which the affairs of the whole Creation are administered. By the Roes and Hinds of the field; that is, by all those Pleasures, Loves, and Lovelinesses with which he sport's himself in the midst of them, in the Paradise above, who alone is the lovely Roe, and the lovely Hind, That they awake not, nor stir up his Love until he please, Cant. 2. 7. Thus it is manifestly in the Hebrew, although our Translators have changed the Feminine into the Masculine, and set the Bridegroom in the place of the Bride. But the sense which the words grammatically import is this; That, as the heavenly Bride is one Spirit with her Bridegroom, she sits above together with him upon his Throne in eternity from thence together with him, gives to all the heavenly Ministers their Commissions, that nothing moves in her own person, or round about her here below, as she is in her shadowy disguise and pilgrimage, but as it is ordered by herself above in the bosom of her Bridegroom. And according to that order executed by the heavenly attendance, which wait continually round about the Throne of her Bridegroom.  
2. Reason. If the Will of Man be not free, and do not freely determine itself in all moral Actions, being undetermined in its own Principles, or by any superior Causes, what entrance doth sin find? How doth any thing of a stain or guilt lie upon the Soul? How is God just in the effects of his Wrath upon those that sin, if they sin by an inevitable necessity of Nature, and a predetermination by the connexion of Causes, or by the immediate and intimate operation of the first and universal Cause?  
I shall give my Answer by several steps.  
1. Sin hath no positive being; if it hath, God, who is the first and universal Being, the Fountain of Being, is directly, by himself, and not by accident only the Author of Sin, in its formality, as Sin. Otherwise we must with Manes set two Gods upon two distinct Thrones; one of Light or Good, the other of Darkness or Evil. Or we shall be forced with some Heathen Philosophers to establish two first Being's equally Uncreated, and eternal; One, God the Agent; The other, Matter the Patient. So where the Agent subdues the matter to itself, all Forms of Goodness, Beauty, Life, and Joy spring forth: where the matter invincibly resisteth the power of the Agent, there are the Regions of all Evil, Darkness, Death and Hell.  
But this Heathenism and Manicheism are exploded, as by the universal consent of all sober Christians; so by the voice of reason itself. For if there be two first Being's, these agree in Being, they differ in being two. Being itself, as it is One, making both these one in its self, as it is pure, is before and above that state, in which it is allayed and abased, by being mixed and compounded with those differences which make it two. This then alone is the first and supreme Being, the eternal One, the only true God.  
2. If God then be not properly and directly the Author of Sin, Sin is no positive Being, but a privation only. So the Scriptures express it, which call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an irregularity, a falling short of the Glory of God, a missing of the mark, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Divines generally teach us, That the Sin consisteth not in any Act, but in the Deordination, in the privation, a want of the due order, appertaining to the Act.  
Sin then being nothing positive, but a mere privation, can have no efficient, but a deficient Cause only. This deficient Cause is that defectibility, which is inseparable from every created Nature. Darkness is the privation, or absence of Light, which naturally and necessarily accompanieth obscure and opact Bodies, as the Air, the Water, and the Earth. While the Sun shines upon them, this deficiency, or want of Light, discovereth not itself. All things are illuminated, and the natural obscurity of these Bodies illustrated by the Sunbeams; when these beams are withdrawn, or intercepted, than the defect of Light natural to these substances appeareth, and so the darkness is predominant. Thus every Creature hath in itself a tendency to annihilation; being of itself like the Earth before the beautiful work of the first day, which was light, void, and without form. Thus the Soul of Man in its Understanding, and in its Will, hath naturally of itself a tendency to unreasonableness, which is a degree of Annihilation, the privation of that twosold Beauty; Truth in the Understanding, and goodness in the Will. While the Face of God shines upon the face of the Soul, by a continued irradiation, as in the first moment of the Creation, these Intellectual Forms of Divine Beauty, Truth, and Goodness flourish in the Soul, binding up the natural defectibility both of the Understanding and the Will, in the golden Chains of an heavenly Light, and heavenly Love; but in that moment, in which God turns away his Face, withdraws his beams, in the same moment the Soul of Man is left naked, its natural defectibility prevails; the privation, or absence of Truth, is now the darkness, the deformity of folly and falsehood. The privation or absence of Goodness, is now the evil, and the disorder, into which, as a bottomless pit, the Understanding, and the Will, and the whole Soul with these miserably, endlessly sinks.  
This is that horrible pit, out of which sin ariseth, the defectibility or nothingness of the Creature in itself. This is the way by which it ariseth upon the Soul, overspreading it, and carrying it back into that pit of horror, the deflectibility or nothingness of the Creature, prevailing in the absence of the Divine beams. The Royal Prophet divinely sings the penury of the Creature, and the Praises of the great Creator in this Mystery, Psal. 104. 29. Thou hidest thy Face, they are troubled, thou takest away their Breath or Spirit, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the Earth.  
It is a truth, asserted by all Philosophers and Divines, That the Understanding acteth necessarily, being infallibly and irresistably reduced into act by its Object duly presented. The Scripture manifestly teacheth us, that sin entereth into the Soul by the Understanding. Those two places which I have cited above, are clear. The woman being deceived, was first in the Transgression. Sin deceived me, and so slew me. St. Paul speaketh in both these places of the first entrance of sin into the World, in the person of the first Woman, and in his own person, set, as a figure of all Mankind, as it was collectively and representatively in the first Adam.  
Musaeus joins these together, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The Light going out, and Leander perishing. Man is deceived, and so slain by sin. As the Light of Truth goes out in the Understanding, the Life of Goodness dies in the Will. As the sight and light of the eye from the natural composition of the eye faileth, as the irradiations from the Sun, which it enjoyeth, either mediately, or immediately from the body of the Sun itself, or from other luminous bodies depending upon the Sun are obscured: So is the Souls eye the Understanding obscured, according to the proportion, in which the Divine illuminations in the way of Grace or Nature cease.  
In these two first steps, I have endeavoured to make clear the nature of Sin, and the way of its entrance into the World, in which we see a most genuine conformity to the dependence of the Will, and of the whole Soul in all its changes and motions upon the first Cause, as a link in the mystical Chain of the order of Causes. The beauty and goodness of the Soul in its Understanding and its Will, flow in the golden Pipe of the order of Causes, as golden Oil from the first cause, as the Olive-Tree flourishing upon the Mount of Eternity. As this golden stream from its Wellhead fails, beauty and goodness are no more in the Soul. The deficiency or privation of these, is the evil of Darkness, Deformity, Sin and Death, to this intellectual and immortal Spirit.  
But the knot seems to be tied stronger: by this discourse man sins inevitably by the necessity of his nature. The first and free withdrawings of the Divine influence give way for the deflectibility of the Creature, to spring up into those defects, which are properly and formally the evils of Sin, the first and greatest evils, the fountains of all evils. How then doth shame or guilt lie upon the Creature? Why is God yet angry? How is he just in punishing? Is not the evil of sin from these grounds clearly cast upon God, as the Author of it? I shall endeavour to answer these Objections, and to remove these Difficulties in the three following steps.  
3. I shall endeavour here to bring in some clear light into the obscure shades of this doubt, how shame and guilt lie upon the Soul, when it falls inevitably from the necessity of its nature.  
Shame is a fear of Infamy, from a sense of Deformity. Deformity is the absence of the Divine Form originally present, and so proper to the subject. The subject of the form or beauty, while it is present, is also in its absence the subject of the privation and deformity. To the deformity is annexed the reproach or disesteem.  
Esteem or disesteem is a right judgement, and so a value of each thing according to its proper state or nature. Where the sense of deformity is, there will also be the fear of infamy, and so the shame.  
When Venus and Mars were discovered in Vulcan's Net, an immortal laughter arose among all the Gods, who were Spectators, as we read in Homer. When the Soul once, in its first Creation, clothed with a Divine Beauty, and so placed in the Paradise of a Divine Light and Joy, seeth itself despoiled of this heavenly Robe, in the nakedness of those deformities, of the darkness into which, as hidden in the depth of its own nature, it sinks, when the Divine beams, that raised it out of that dark Deep, and enriched it with its heavenly Ornaments are retired, can it be without a sense of this deformed nakedness? without shame, without impressions made upon it, by the apprehension of that state, in which the innumerable company of heavenly Spectators now behold it, with a disesteem and aversion suitable to that state?  
Neither is the justness of the aversion and disesteem in all the heavenly Spirits, or of the shame in this fallen Spirit lessened, but rather increased and heightened by this, that the deformity springeth up with an inevitable necessity from its own proper nature; for the discovery of that, which this fallen Soul is in itself, together with every Creature; and the distinction now manifested between that, which is of God, as the Fountain in Eden, whence alone all Paradisical Beauties and Joys flow in the Creature, and that which is of the Creature itself, which is in itself a dark, horrid, and bottomless pit, where all wastness, woe, disorder, deformity, confusion, desolation, Deaths and Hells dwell together, and whence in swarms they break forth, as from a cursed womb, like the smoke and the locusts from the bottomless pit in the Revelation; the discovery of this, in the fallen Spirits, makes their shame and abhorrency of themselves more just and high, as also the Songs of Praise which the heavenly Spirits day and night sing to their Creator and Preserver, as more highly just, so more highly sweet and glorious.  
Thus much for the shame, let us now pass to the guilt. Gild is the obligation of the Sinner to the Justice of God. Justice, and so most eminently the Divine Justice, which is the measure of all Justice, is that which giveth to every thing its due, that which is proper to it, it's own. That is due to every thing, which is proper and suitable to it according to its place in the whole, for the preservation, restrauration, or perfection of the Order in the whole. When a Spirit, by the abstraction of the Divine Beauty and Virtue, is now sunk into its natural weakness and deformity; nothing now is any longer its own, nothing now is suitable to it, but that power of darkness, that principle of waste emptiness, of even dreaded and hateful nothings. Now the path in which the supreme Justice, presiding over the Universal Order and Harmony of things, acts most pertinently towards it, is to abandon it to those powers of darkness, which rise up from its own proper Root, to display themselves more fully upon it in their ugly and hateful shapes, in their tormenting horrors, in their horrid torments, the dissolutions of the blissful Unity, in distracting divisions and confusions; the extinguishing of the sweet and beautiful Light in affrightful shades of amazing darkness.  
The chief skill in Pictures consisteth in the evenness and justness of placing the shades, that according to the degrees of the declining Light, the shades may gradually increase, until they sink into the deepest obscurity, or be bounded by a new light springing up out of these shades: Such is the Law of the Divine Justice, which is the great and wise Spirit of the Universal Harmony, in this Divine Poem or Picture, the work of the Creation, as the heavenly form of goodness or beauty in the best and most beautiful season which draws itself from any part of this work. Privation, the principle and form of all evil, spreads its black-wings over it, increasing its hellish shades and darknesses upon it, in the bosom of which it hatcheth all the ugly Births of deformity, woe and horror, with an amazing interminating infiniteness, until the sacred Light of the Divine goodness and beauty arising upon it, bound those unformed shades, reducing all to, and binding up all with the Adamantine Chains of a triumphant Harmony in the Glory of God.  
In this third step we have endeavoured to fix the shame and guilt of sin upon the Sinner, but glory upon the Divine Justice in the sufferings which come by sin.  
4. Step. We are in our next step to give an answer for God to those, who in their Expostulations ask, why he is yet angry? The solution of this doubt is obvious and common. Anger resteth in the bosom of Fools. Fury is not in him, who worketh all things according to the counsel of his Will. His Wisdom and his Will are both one. His Justice and his Power are both one, and one with the other two, his Wisdom and his Will. As he is one pure Act of Omnipotency, of Beauty, of Love, of Joy, of all Excellencies, at their greatest height, and in one, so is he Wisdom, Will, Justice, Power, all in one. He is Power, as he is a pure Act of Almightiness. He is Wisdom, as he is a pure Act of highest and most Universal Harmony. He is Justice, as he is a pure Act of entire and most perfect Order. He is Will, as he is a pure Act of highest and most diffusive goodness, of the richest, sweetest, and fullest loveliness, which are the proper Objects, and so perfections of the Will. He is Will, as he is a pure Act of most heightened and comprehensive Love, Joy, Complacency, which are the most proper and perfect Operations of the Will. Fury then is not in him, who thus worketh all things according to the counsel of his Will, where Justice, Power, Wisdom and Will meet in one, at their purest heights, in their greatest freedoms, in their most proper and perfect Operations. Anger is then attributed to God, per Anthropopathiam, while by the suiting of the Language to the capacity of the Hearers; God is represented to us in the form, and in the fashion of a man. It is also a metonymical way of speaking, which expresseth the effect by the cause. So the Scripture speaking with the Tongue of a Man, as the Jews express it, representeth those effects of the Divine Providence, by the names of the anger of God, the wrath of God, which answer to those effects that commonly proceed from anger and wrath in men. Job faith in one place, When the scourge falleth alike upon the innocent and the wicked, God laugheth at it. When wicked men suffer for their sins, when innocent persons are refined by their sufferings; the Eye of God is fixed upon his own Divine Loveliness and Glory alike in both. The purest and most perfect Love acteth him toward this most pure and perfect Loveliness and Glory alike in both, from the meeting and blissful embraces of these two; this Love and Loveliness in the Divine Nature, his Joy and Complacency is alike in both, equally full, equally at the height. A Divine Philosopher, with a pleasant and beautiful Allegory, teacheth us, That the expansion of Light, in the heavenly Bodies, which is the Act of the Angelical World, in this their most beautiful Figure, is Risus Coelorum, the laughter of the Heavens. God maketh every thing beautiful in its proper place and time, to kill, as to make alive, unformed, deformed privations, as the fairest and most flourishing forms. In every Act of Providence, in every accident from the beginning to the end of things, he equally preserveth and perfecteth the Divine Order and Harmony. This golden Harmony, extended like the sweet Light of Heaven over all things, is as a Divine laughter, the complacency of the Divine Nature in its Work, in its Image, in itself.  
I have yet one thing more to say, before I take my other step. We learn from Philosophers, That heat and cold, which continually fight in the Elements below, are in the heavenly Bodies, but after so eminent a manner, that there they meet and enfold each other with a most harmonious agreeableness. By the Laws of Divinity we are answerably taught, That Anger and Love, as all forms of things, most discordant in the Creatures, are first in the Divine Nature. But they are there with an eminency, with a transcendency, in which they are refined and heightened far above all imperfections. Here they all meet, as most grateful and most agreeable Varieties in the entire and undivided Unity of the same eternal Light, of the same eternal Love, of the same eternal God. As from this height of a most perfect Unity, these Divine Varieties bring forth their various effects in shadowy resemblances here below, they make the figure of the whole divinely one, and divinely beautiful. As Divine Seals, they likewise impress the figure of their own Divine Unity upon each single effect.  
Thus the whole work in general, each single effect in particular, is a divinely beautiful figure of the Divine Beauty shining with delightful beams upon those Eyes and Spirits, which anointed with a Divine Knowledge, see the golden and secret Seal, this glorious and sacred impression of the Divine Unity upon it.  
Thus we have spoken of the shame and guilt of Sin, as also of Anger, and in part of the Justice of God; concerning which there remaineth more to be said.  
5. Step. We have yet before us that great Deep, which swalloweth up all Understandings, the face of which seemeth covered with a thick and impenetrable darkness. Let us pray to the Father of Lights for irradiations from his eye, that so this unfathomable Deep may discover itself to us, as a blissful Deep of purest, clearest, and sweetest Glory.  
If God first from the counsel of his own Will alone withdraw those beams, which are all our Light and Beauty, and we then by the inevitable necessity of our Natures wander as deformed shades in a wild darkness, through the Regions of Sin, Death and Hell: Is not God, now in a moral sense clearly and fully, the sole Author of Sin and Evil? This is the knot which indeed standeth in need of the Rosy Fingers of the heavenly Morning, the beams of the eternal Day to untie it. How shall we in this place vindicate the Justice and Goodness of God? I have here three things to propound.  
1. Let us impartially and ingeniously consider whether the freedom of the Will, to determine itself absolutely in all its Acts, reflect a greater Glory upon the Justice and Goodness of God, than the Will predetermined in its Essence, in its superior Causes, in the first and universal Cause. That we may make a clearer judgement in this case, let us compare these two different states of the Will, together with several Antecedents and Consequencies, by placing them both in our view, one by another, as plainly, within as narrow a compass as we can.  
Let us set that freewill in our eye after this manner. God brings forth an Intellectual Spirit, with a Divine Light of Truth in its heavenly Beauties, shining upon its Understanding, with a Divine Love of the true Good, with all its heavenly Sweetnesses springing in its William. He now sets down the will of this Spirit upon such a ground of indifferency and absoluteness in itself, that being undetermined into any forms of good or evil, the most heavenly, or the most hellish, it is equally free for it in the face of all this blessed Light shining in the Understanding, in the midst of all the heavenly sweetnesses flowing from the bosom of the true Good, through the Will itself, to cast itself forth from the bosom of the eternal Good. Appearing thus in its own naked and Divine Form, and to cast itself into the embraces of the foulest evil, the fountain of all evil; presenting itself, as evil, in its own most direful and haggish shapes. A great part of Intellectual Spirits, far the greatest part of humane Spirits, placed by the Divine Providence in this state, refuse the good, choose the evil, so render themselves obnoxious to the Divine Justice, and become by the pursuits and inflictions of that Avenger, the lost Subjects of all horror and woes without end.  
Let us now in the like manner cast our eye upon the Will, predetermined in its Causes. God brings forth an Intellectual Spirit compounded, Ex aliquo Dei, & ex aliquo sui; With something of God, something of its own. That of God in it, is all the good of it, the clear Face of the eternal Truth shining in its Understanding, as in a Crystal Mirror, the sweet flame of pure Goodness, and as pure a love to this Goodness, burning in its Will, as upon the golden Altar in the Temple of God, the beams of this Beauty, and the flames of this Love unitedly spreading, varying, and forming themselves through the whole Person and Life of this Spirit, into all Divine Virtues and Joys, by which it becomes as God himself descended into a Godlike Image of God himself. This is that of God in the Creature.  
That, which is ofits own in this Intellectual Spirit, is beneath all this heavenly beauty and goodness, a deflectibility inseparable from the nature of the Creature, bound up only by the heavenly charms of this Divinity resting upon the Person of this Spirit. God in the depth of a design, perhaps too blessed, and too glorious to be penetrated and fathomed by us; as the eternal Sun ascends up on high, going away from this Spirit, and carrying away with him his whole train of immortal beams with a Divine Light, Heat and Virtue. Now like a mournful and hated darkness from below, the natural defectibility of this Spirit covers the whole face of it, making it like Hell itself, the seat of all evils both of Sin and Suffering, which lie eternally upon innumerable multitudes. Let us now consider the twofold Law, or rule of Justice and Goodness, by which this is to be tried. The general Rule, or Law of Justice is this, To give to every thing its due, or its own. Solomon expresseth this Rule of Justice from the Mouth of God in his Proverbs, after this manner, Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, or from the Owners thereof, when it is in thine hand to do it. Divines interpret those Owners, to be all persons in want, all Subjects in any capacity of receiving any good from us. Beneficence, or a disposition to do good to all, is with the Heathen Philosphers a branch of this Virtue of Justice.  
The Law of God, which is the Rule of Justice, commands to love our Neighbour as ourselves. St. Paul interprets this Neighbour to be every other, Rom. 13. 8. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law. The Jews teach us, that the Law is founded in the Name; that is, in the Nature of God. Man was made in the Image of God. The Perfection then of the humane Creature, is the Image of that Perfection, which is in the Divine Nature; the Law of the humane Nature is the transcript of the Divine Nature. Our Lord Jesus interprets this Universal Law of humane Commerce and Justice among men, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour, after this manner, Love your Enemies, do good to them that hate you. He layeth the ground of this Universal Justice in the Divine Nature, That you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven. He adds for a clearer Conviction, If you love them that love you, do not even the Publicans the same. He concludes, by referring the perfection of men to the Divine Perfection, as its Original and Law; Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Thus we see the Rule of Justice with God, and with men, to give our Love, and all good according to our utmost power to every other, as to the Owner of that love and good, to whom they are due.  
2. The second Rule or Law is, that of Goodness. The Law of Goodness and its Essence is to diffuse and communicate itself. The law of each thing is to act according to its nature, of Light to shine; of sweet Waters, to send forth sweet waters; of good, to do good. This Law is most deeply rooted, and highly radiant in the Divine Nature, inasmuch as God is the Chief, the Universal, the only good. Accordingly he makes his Rain, his Sun, both Celestial and Supercoelestial in their season, to fall and to shine upon the Just and the Unjust.  
Having stated the Case between freewill, and the Will predeterminated in its Causes, and having set the Rule, by which the Case is to be tried; Let us come to the Point, in which we must join Issue.  
1. Both Cases agree in four grand Circumstances.  
First, In both Cases, God makes man, and the Will of Man from nothing, according to the absoluteness of his Will and Power.  
Secondly, The event, which is eternal ruin and torment to the greatest part of Mankind, is alike certain to both, by a certainty of infallibility.  
3. God before, and in the making of his work, clearly seeth, and perfectly understandeth, that this will be infallibly the event of his Workmanship.  
Can it then with any reason be thought that the event of the work of an infinite Wisdom fore-seen, should not be agreeable to the design of that Wisdom, and the Will of that infinitely Wise Spirit, whose Power is as infinite as his Wisdom?  
4. God could have made man otherwise in a Divine necessity of being good and blessed like himself, in a confirmed state of Grace and Glory, like the Elect Angels and Saints. These are the Circumstances in which both Cases agree.  
2. The grand d●…fference between the two Cases, where they join Issue is this. In that Case of freewill Man perisheth, because God withholds the good which he hath in himself, and might have given to him, that is a confirmation in good. In the other case of the Will predetermined, Man perisheth, because God withdraws the good which he had once given him.  
There are two Fathers, with their two little Children; one Father setteth his Child down so, that he may run into a pleasant Field, or a devouring Flood. He forseeth, that he will certainly run, not into the Field, but into the Flood, he suffers him to run and perish in the Flood, when he may as easily prevent him, by laying his hand upon him, or taking him into his arms. The other Father holdeth his Child fast and safe in his arms for a while over the cruel Flood, than he casteth him not in, but he taketh away his arms, and leaves him by his own weight necessarily to drop into the Flood and perish there.  
I appeal now to every equal and impartial Judge, whether both these Fathers seem not both guilty or innocent? Whether they be not both likely to be cleared or convicted, if they be tried by those forementioned Rules of Justice and Goodness? Is not the twofold Plea of both these Wills of equal force against the Justice and Goodness of God? 1. Why hath he made me thus certainly to perish? What is it to me, whether this certainty be a certainty of infallibility, only from the mutability of my nature; or a certainty of inevitableness from the necessity of nature, while I certainly perish? 2. Why is he yet angry? who hath resisted his Will? Is not the certain event of his Work clearly fore-seen by him from the beginning, interpretatively his Will?  
Which Opinion shall we prefer? That of the Will predetermined gives to God the full Glory of his Sovereignty, Absoluteness, Wisdom, Power, making his work in the whole, and in every part from the beginning to the end, one entire piece, altogether dependent upon himself, wrought throughout by himself, and conducted from one supreme principle, by one universal Form of the Divine Understanding, and the Divine Image, to one Universal and Ultimate end, the Divine Glory. But it seemeth to cast an imputation upon the Divine Justice and Goodness.  
The other Opinion of freewill seemeth to violate the Sovereignty and Absoluteness of God, making his actings dependent upon the actings of Creature: The Power of God, in giving to the Creature the determination of itself with an independence upon him in these Cardinal Acts of the Will, upon which the whole Circle and Globe of things, in the Divine Love, Justice and Wrath, in the happiness or misery of Man from eternity, is turned about: His Wisdom, while his work hath breaches and gaps in it, like a Chain, whose links are not fastened one in another, while the Harmony is thus broken, while all the great effects and end of his work are casual, uncertain in their Causes and in their Nature, inasmuch as all depend upon the free and fortuitous motions of the Will, independent upon, and undetermined by all preceding, or superior Causes, even the first and universal Cause itself. Together with all this Cloud which the Opinion of freewill casts upon the Glories of God in these other Attributes, it doth not at all excel the other Opinion in clearing the Glory and Justice of the Divine Goodness. But while as with triumphant flourishes, by Rhetorical Reproaches, it insulteth upon the other Opinion, as equalling God in savage cruelness to the most arbitrary Tyrants, to the most inhuman and ferine Man-eaters; It leaveth God equally exposed to the same Reproaches, and itself to the imputations of the same Blasphemies. I have now finished the first thing which I had to propound in answer to that Argument against the predetermination of the Will, which is taken from the goodness and justice of God.  
2. The second thing which I have to propound is this, the holy Scripture in many places seems plainly to assert the Divine Conduct, with a potent and irresistible efficacy, in this dark part of things, the evil, as also the Glory of the Divine Justice and Goodness in this conduct equal with that in the good. I will instance in three Scriptures only.  
1. My first instance is, that of Solomon, Eccles. 3. There is a season for every thing, and a time for every purpose. A time to be born, and a time to die. A time to kill, and a time to heal: A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embraces: A time to destroy, and a time to preserve: A time to love, and a time to hate, from the first to the ninth verse. He, that is, God hath made every thing good in his time, verse 11, I know, that all which God hath done, this shall be for ever.  
I shall draw forth this Scripture into a few brief Maxims, which seem to arise naturally and clearly out of it.  
1. There is all Variety in the Unity of the Divine work, a Variety extending itself to the remotest, the highest Contrarieties Affirmative or Negative, to the most distant perfections and privations. So the holy Spirit speaketh expressly in the general, every thing, every purpose, all that can fall within the conception or comprehension of the vastest and most incomprehensible Spirit hath its season and time. So the holy Spirit speaketh in particular love and hatred, war and peace, embracing, and abstaining from embracing, life and death, destruction and salvation, have their time and season.  
Do not these particular instances expressly define the highest Contrariety Affirmative, or Negative, of good, and evil, in their greatest Latitude, and most universal Nature?  
2. God makes all this Variety and Contrariety, and that in the lowest Region also, even under the Sun, where it appears in a dark tempestuous scene of the greatest disorder and confusion; There is a time, saith Solomon, for all, and a season for every purpose. The word Season signifieth a set measured time, like the times in Music; the time or season of each thing is its duration. Duration is the mode or measure of the Essence, and so really the same with the Essence, the Essence measured and bounded. As Essences and Habits, so also have privations their measure and bounds, as Rests and Stops have time in Music. Every Essence is the Birth of an Understanding, of which it beareth the impression and Seal. It is the work of an Understanding alone to give measure and bounds to things. That then, which setteth the time for all Varieties and Contrarieties, Perfections and Privations, which consequently maketh and formeth them, can be no other than the Divine Understanding, God in his essential and eternal Word, which alone is above and before all things: So we read here, concerning all these Contrarieties, That God hath made them beautiful 〈◊〉 their time. God then hath made them.  
God maketh all Contrarieties Affirmative and Negative, Perfections and Privations; but after a contrary manner. He maketh Perfections, as the Sun maketh light in the Air, after an Affirmative manner, by a positive presence, power and influence.  
He maketh privations, as the Sun maketh darkness and night, after a Negative manner by his absence, by a drawing in his power, and binding up his sweet influence. But this negation also, and so the privations, which flow from it are called here by Solomon, (the Master of all Wisdom) Humane and Divine Purposes. There is a season (saith he) for every purpose; then he instances in the Contrarieties following, Privations than are Divine purposes; that is, Designs, Contrivances, Divine Forms, designed, contrived and measured in the Divine Mind. Upon this ground some Philosophers teach us, That God is a transcendent Good above all Being's, who comprehends Originally in himself not only all Being's, but all privation of Being, which themselves also, as darkness, night, absence and death in their place and time, are Forms of good, although not Forms of Being and Divine Forms, Forms in Divinity, although not natural Forms, nor Forms in natural Philosophy. But now I am passing to my third Conclusion.  
Thirdly, God maketh all things, the Varieties and Contrarieties, beautiful in their time. They are the express words of Solomon, from the height of all created Wisdom, in its single state; They are the words of the Uncreated Wisdom itself, speaking by Solomon, God hath made all beautiful in his time, verse 11. This is manifestly spoken with respect to the general All in the first verse, and the particular Alls of the highest Contrarieties, of the most distant privations, enumerated in the following verses; the time of each Being respecteth its relation to the whole. Beauty is an Harmony, and consisteth in the suitableness or conveniency of the several parts with each other, and with the whole. Suitableness is a similitude, similitude is an Unity in Variety, an Unity of Form in distinct Subjects, as the same sweetness and colour in several Flowers; The same beautiful light of knowledge, the same pure and lovely sweetness of Spirit, which makes a Divine Friendship, the highest suitableness and similitude. Philosophy teaches us, That the first Good, and the first Unity, are the most proper Names of the most high God, having both the same sense and force; It teaches us also, That the first Beauty is an effulgency from the first Good; the first Good, or the first Unity shining out into a distinct Image of itself, which is the first Distinction or Variety, and so the supreme, the most ample Variety. All Beauty then in its kind and degree is an Unity, diffusing itself, and shining forth into a Variety, where from the whole, and from each part it reflecteth itself upon itself, with all its united Virtues, Proportions, and Sweetnesses, meeting every where in each point. Upon this ground we are taught, That the first Understanding is the first Beauty, and that every Beauty is the Birth and Object of that Understanding alone, at least in some impressions or footsteps of it. For Beauty being the meeting of many parts or proportions in one undivided Point, or an Unity in Variety, can neither be, nor be discerned, where there is not a spiritual Form or Substance, which is itself an undivided Unity. Then doth the Beauty spring with a delightful sweetness both in the Subject and in the sense, and all the various perfections or proportions of the whole, and of the several parts concentring in each part, giving a perfection to it, and receiving a perfection from it; and thus reflecting the distinct and united perfections of the whole, and of all the parts, mutually and endlessly upon each other, and so shine forth, carrying as in triumph upon every sparkling beam the multiplied reflections, as so many Celestial Venus' exactly answering one another, and all in one, into the beholding and ravished eye.  
But this will be confirmed, and made more clear to us, in that which followeth.  
Fourthly, God maketh all things for eternity, verse 14. I know that whatsoever God doth, that shall be for ever; God's ever is eternity. Eternity, as we learn from Philosophers and Divines, is a perfect Unity, comprehending all Variety within itself, even Time also, with all its successions, divisions, and distances without and above time, succession, division or distance. It is defined to be Tota totius boni simul, & semel possessio; A whole possession of the whole good at once, and in one.  
Thus God worketh all things from eternity in eternity, and for eternity; Thus he maketh every thing beautiful, as it is seen in the light of eternity, which alone is the light of Truth: Time being the shadow of Eternity, and a Veil upon it, for in this light, in which the Works of God are all wrought, in which alone a true judgement may be made of them, every particular is seen, as it lies in the whole, as a part of the Variety in the whole Variety, and in the Unity: The whole Variety and the Unity appears entire and complete in every part, so the fullness of the Divine Work, the fullness of the Divine Beauty and Glory, spread through the whole Work, is united in every part, and fulfilleth all in all.  
Object. Perhaps you will say, Are moral privations as well as natural, is sin also comprehended in this discourse? Hath God also set a season for that, and made that beautiful in its time? Then is it no more sin, if it be not a deformity; Then is it a grace, if it be a beauty; A Divine Grace, if it be a Divine Beauty; And a Divine Work, if it be made by God? How genuinely does the Opinion of the Ranters flow from these Principles? That then only we see things in the Light of the Gospel, the only true and eternal Light, when we see no more any distinction between Good and Evil, Grace and Corruption, the deformity of Sin, and the beauty of Holiness, the Works of God, and the Works of the Devil, all (say they) seen by an eye truly illuminated is a Divine Work, a Divine Grace and Beauty.  
Answ. I reply first in general to ranting Principles and Practices, as St. Paul doth with abhorency and detestation, God forbid, far be it, far be these Principles from the mind and life of every good man, as they are far from the Divine Truth, from the Mind, Life, and Work of God, form by the Devil, from a Seed of enmity to God, unto the Glory of the Gospel, in the Womb of the blackest darkness, in the darkest depth of the bottomless pit. But my more particular and distinct Reply is this.  
1. If sin be a positive Form of Being, than it is originally and eternally comprehended in the first Being; the only Fountain of Being, it floweth from, it lieth in the frame and order of the Universal Being; It beareth upon it the impression and character of the first Being with its Beauty, it beareth a part with the whole or universal Being, making up the perfection of the whole, and clothed with it, crowning it, and crowned by it. All this upon that supposition will necessarily be true of it, most properly, most directly by itself, and not indirectly, or by accident only. But according to the narrow compass of my knowledge or understanding, this supposition and consequent both are contrary to the common current, and general stream, of Philosophy and Divinity.  
2. If sin be a privation of Grace, it is to be considered two ways: 

1. In Principio. 1. In its Principle.  
2. In Termino. 2. In its Term or Subject.    
1. The privation of Grace is to be considered in its Principle. As a privation hath no Being, so it hath no Principle in a proper sense, if we may apply such language to it. Privation, which is no Being with its particular modification and bounds, hath for its proper Principle Nonentity, or not Being, in its universal sphere or compass, as the narrow and midland Seas are divided from the vast unbounded Ocean.  
But the Principle, from which the privation of Grace ariseth in its Subject, by consequent and by accident, is Grace itself, in its first Principle, withholding, or withdrawing itself. The Principle of Grace is God alone, the Privation of Grace, as it is the withdrawing, or the withholding of this Principle, in its Operations or Influences, so it is immediately consequent to, originally comprehended in the Acts of the Divine Will, and the Divine Wisdom. This privation of Grace, lying thus in the Principle of Grace, comprehended in the Acts of the Divine Wisdom and Will, as their term and bound, hath its part and place in the Divine design: It is now and here in this Prospect, a part of the Variety, as a Contrariety; It lies within the embraces of the whole Variety, it lies in the bosom of the Unity, which is the Spring, the Seat, the Throne of the Variety. So the whole Variety in the Unity, the Unity in its full Variety, and at once, after the manner of eternity, spring up in it, shine through it, look forth clearly and completely in the face of it, richly cloth it all over. After this manner is the privation of Grace, in its Principle, in the Acts of the Divine Will, and the Divine Wisdom, a Divine Workmanship, a Divine Beauty. Agreeable to this, is that common Principle of our Divines, That God hath his influence upon Sin to order it, to bond it, in all its circumstances, to reduce the disorder of it into order, to make it serviceable to the order and the beauty of the whole.  
In this sense Proclus affirms in his Divinity, That there is neither Privation or Corruption, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in Totis, that is according to his sense. In Divine Intellectual Spirits, which by the light of Eternity comprehend in themselves in one view the whole Work of God, the whole nature of things, with all their Varieties and Contrarieties, as an entire piece, an entire Image. The Divine Workmanship, the Divine Beauty of the supreme Spirit, whose Unity is figured upon. For, here the Divine Form and Beauty of the whole, resting upon every Privation or Corruption, makes that also in the whole a Divine Unity and Perfection.  
2. Privation is to be considered in Termino vel Subjecto; that is, in the Intellectual Spirit, as the Seat or Subject. Divines say, That the Act of creating, as it is in God, its Principle is God; as it is in the Creature, where it is terminated, is the Creature. In like manner, the Privation of Grace, as it hath its beginning in the Author of Grace, from an Act of the Divine Wisdom and Will, designing, or determining the withholding of it, is thus Divinely-beautiful and good. The same privation of Grace, as it is terminated and seated in a created Spirit, is an evil of Sin, the highest deformity, the first, the greatest evil, the fountain of all evils, most properly, in its own nature, and in the Eye of God; As being the first and foulest privation of the first Good, or the highest Beauty, and the Fountain of all following Privations, extending their poisonous and baleful shades to the bottomless pit, to the nethermost Hell.  
God saith in the Prophet Isaiah of Nabuchadnezzar, he is a Rod in my Hand, but he thinketh not so. Nabuchadnezzar was, as in the hand of God, but as a Musicians Quill. The Acts of Enmity, Tyranny and Cruelty exercised by him, and upon the people of God, were from the Divine Musician, the Master of the universal Music, skilful strokes and tender touches upon his Harps or Lutes, which are his Saints, making the universal, the eternal Harmony complete in their Persons, and in his whole Work. But the same Acts as they were from Nabuchadnezzar, were a disorder, a breach of the Harmony, a Contrariety of an enmity, which is the highest opposition to it. In the same sweet, and beautiful sense of Divine Love, that loveliest figure of our Lord Jesus saith to his Brethrens concerning their savageness, selling, sacrificing him to their envy and malice, directed against the Divine Glory, declaring itself in him by heavenly Visions; Ye thought evil against me, God meant it unto good, Gen. 50. 20. Thus he comforted them, concerning their greatest sins, who were now humbled for them.  
After the same manner, to the same end, the Truth himself, the Lord Jesus by his Spirit, striketh upon the heart of the Jews, who had crucified him, that now themselves might bleed inwardly from the sense of that precious blood of his, which they had shed, Act. 2. 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and with wicked hands crucified. See that Act, the most bloody and direful that ever the Sun saw, by which the Sun's Sun in Flesh, and on Earth suffered; the most mournful and tragical Eclipse, attributed at once to the determinate Counsel of God, and to the wickedness of men. Here that was eminently true, which was represented by the former Scripture in the figure, that which men thought evil against their Jesus, their only Joy, their God, their only Good and Glory; the same thing (the cursed sale and cruel sacrificing of their God) he meant unto good, to bring to pass, as at this day, to save much people alive, to bring many Sons to eternal Life and Glory.  
A learned man citys from Aristotle in his Metaphysics, a passage, in which he affirms, That all the several parts are referred to the good of the order in the whole as the end of all. Upon this he discants, that this good of order depends upon the vilest, as well as the most precious things, that it consisteth in the interval and proportion between these. That in respect to this order the vilest things are determined and framed with the same most exact skill, as the most curious things: Thus the sufferings of Joseph, the crucifying of Jesus, as they lay eternally determinate in the determinate Counsel of God, designed and fashioned there unto good, the highest Good, the supreme End, the universal Order, the Divine Glory, which wraps up in it the blessedness of all the Saints; so itself was a part of the Order, a part of the Glory, a Grace, a Beauty, a Perfection, in the universal Order and Divine Glory.  
But as this proceeds from the hearts and hands of Men, the Instruments of it, who like Nabuchadnezzar, thought not so, like joseph's Brethren thought it for evil, like the Crucifiers of Christ, were wicked in it; It is a deordination, a disorder, a real evil, the worst of evils, not only a falling short of the Glory of God, which is the Divine Image and effulgency in the Harmony of things, as St. Paul describes Sin, nor yet a transgression and breach only of the Law, which is the rule and measure of this Order, as another Apostle defines sin, but an Enemy to it, as all sin is in its root and essence, according to the Language of St. Paul in another place. So the discord in Music is truly in its own particular nature, and apart a discord; so a black crooked line, a dark shade, is in itself truly black, crooked, dark, offensive to the eye, contrary to Light, Rectitude and Beauty; although the discord be a part of the Harmony, this line and shade a part of the Beauty in the whole.  
Object. But you will perhaps say, All these things seem hitherto to confirm the Ranters in their licentious Principles and Practices. For, why should not Sinners with the freedom of all sinful pleasures, rest and rejoice in the absoluteness of the Divine Conduct, the Perfection of the Divine Order and Beauty, which giudes them through all, which accompanieth them in all, as the Motion and Music of those heavenly Spheres, the Divine Wisdom, Power and Goodness, comprehending all things with their courses, as Stars fixed in them; what place is there here for shame, guilt, displeasure, or punishments?  
Answ. I am sensible of the weight of this Work, in which I have by degrees engaged myself, and how unfit my shoulders are for it. When that wise Queen of Sheba saw the attendance of Solomon's Servants, and the order of his House, there was no more any spirit left in her: What then is the order in the House of God, in his Work from the beginning to the end of it? What the attendance and ministry of all the parts of this Work, as the Servants in this House, according to the Divine Order? What Cherubin or Seraphim would have any more any Spirit left in it, while it contemplates this Order, which at the height of its most ravishing Contemplations remains still, for the excess of Glory, incomprehensible to it? This is that Wisdom in a mystery, which the most princely Spirits, and Understandings of the whole Creations, in their natural capacities, are unable to take in. What then is my spirit? what my faculty? that I should be capable of taking off the Veil from this Divine Chain of heavenly Pearl, so closely and curiously set; to behold in myself, by any imperfect glimpse; to present any glance of it, in its Divine lustre and order to other eyes, and to preserve it from the feet of Swine, or mouth of Dogs? What am I? that I should attempt to take the Cloud off from this heavenly Paradise, which is in the midst of us, before us, round about us, in which all things, and motions of things spring and flourish as Divine Plants, in a Divine Order, to open it to the view of the Sanctified Beholder, and at the same time to defend it from profane Spirits, by the flaming Sword, by the sparkling, penetrating, consuming, or refining beams of a Cherubin?  
We will, therefore, penetrate so far as we may into this bright Deep, which so delightfully swalloweth up the most Angelical Understanding: may our dependence be upon that Spirit alone, which moveth upon the shining Face of this Deep, and is a Baptism of heavenly fire, purifying the beloved Soul, illuminating with an heavenly Light the purified Eye, enflaming with heavenly Love the purified Heart, and so initiating him into these holy mysteries; But keeping off every profane Eye and Heart, by darkening, dazzling, affrighting, and burning upon them.  
Divine Truth is as a Rosetree, which as it hath its beautiful and perfumed Roses, so it hath prickels to guard those Roses from rash and rude hands. My Answer then to the forementioned Objection shall be divided into these gradual steps.  
First, No Sinner in a sinful state, no Soul in any act of sin, can see the Divine Order in the Work of God, which Order is Jesus Christ, the Image, the Wisdom, the Glory of the invisible God, figuring himself upon the whole Work, from the beginning to the end, as one entire, lively, living Picture of himself, himself being the Life of it, and shining in the face of it. Sin is the Souls falling short of the Glory of God into the darknesses below, being unable to raise its Understanding to the Beauty of this Light. Sin is the violation or breach of this sacred Harmony, by which the Soul cuts off, and separates itself from it, by which it over-casts the Glory, with a deep stain and a black Cloud, which take it altogether out of its sight, all defilement is an undue mixture. Every sin confounds the Soul, it wraps it up in an universal confusion; sin is an enmity to this Harmony of things. It is a dark confusion from below, rising up as a poisonous vapour to overspread the pure Light of this heavenly Order. The Divine Order then and all things, as they lie in the Divine Order, fight against sin and the sinner, their common and only Enemy; As the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera. St. John, the beloved Disciple, having first declared God to be Light, without the mixture of any Darkness at all; Then testifieth, That if we say that we have fellow ship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. Sinners universally in the Scriptures are styled Children of Darkness, and not of the Light. The Light of the Divine Order and Glory, the acting of a part in this Divine Order, in the light and truth of it, are inconsistent in any Spirit with the darkness of sin.  
2. If any Spirit by the highest improvement of its Intellectual Powers, by Angelical assistances and heightenings, by the more sublime and supernatural, though common illuminations of the Spirit of Grace himself, form to itself an heavenl●… Image of this Divine Order, and that anointed by the same Operations of the same Spirit with an heavenly Beauty, Sweetness and Virtue: This Spirit thus far will be sanctified by this sacred Light, being taken up out of the tempestuous Seas of its sins, into the sweet and pure, the calm and clear stream of this Harmony, as into a River of Milk and Honey. But if this Spirit do take from hence arguments to sin, encouragements to sin; now it no more seeth a right Image of this heavenly Glory, no not in the notion of it. As St. Paul speaketh of the Gospel, that which shines in this Spirit now, this Image perverteth, and so the Order is changed into a disorder and confusion.  
That Divine figure, sprung from the holy Spirit, is withdrawn, together with that Spirit, a Spirit from below is sprung up, as by an hellish Magic or Enchantment, into a counterfeit but perverted representation of that heavenly Beauty. Thus sin deceives this Spirit, then defiles it, and so slays it, by extinguishing the sweet of sight of its true Light.  
Let such Spirits tremble, lest they be found in the number of those unhappy Spirits, who having tasted the good Word of God, and the Powers of the World to come, tread under their feet the Son of God; that good Word of God, that Wisdom of God, that golden Chain of heavenly Harmony, in Divine Providence, and offer injury and despite to the Spirit of Grace, by which the Son of God sweetly lives, and shines in the sacred order of things, and by which they were once sanctified, having been washed in this Spirit of Grace, the Fountain of this lovely Order, from the Pollutions of the World. Are not these the Spirits upon whom wrath is to come so long as Christ shall Reign?  
3. My two first steps have been as the preparatory to my Answer, like the Porch to the main Building; my third step will bring you into the House itself, which I shall endeavour to present to you as perfectly and perspicuously as I can. In this will consist the strength, the beauty of the Answer: If I be able to set it forth in its proper strength and beauty, I am sensible how far I am below this; I therefore entreat those that read or hear this Discourse, for their own sakes, and the Truth's sake, to assist my weakness with the utmost strength of their candour, attention and understanding.  
Dionysius the Areopagite saith in one place, That God reduceth into order those things which are out of order, and so establisheth all in good and beauty. There are two Rules and Maxims concerning Harmony and Order.  
1. The Order and Harmony is there perfect, where the Variety is full. Contrariety is an eminent part of the Variety, which enlargeth the Variety, and heightens the Harmony. Contraria juxt à se posita magis elucescunt, Contraries illustrate and heighten one another.  
2. The Order or Harmony is there most complete, where the Unity is preserved most entire and conspicuous, in the fullest Variety. To this it is necessary, that there be no where any leap or gap. This makes the Beauty, this makes the Music, to which all Spirits sensual and Intellectual on Earth, or in Heaven, spring and dance with sweetest and liveliest motions of delight and wonder, when the Unity unfolds itself into its amplest Variety by just degrees, even numbers, and exact proportions: When one extreme passeth not to another, but through all the middle terms that stand between these extremes. When one passeth not to three, but by two. Now the Unity is preserved, the middle term being as the band, or the connexion of the two extremes which joineth them in one. Now the Variety lies in the explication of the Unity, as it lies complicated in the Unity, when as the Ternary by being first gathered up into a duality, lieth folded up in the bosom of the Unity; so the Unity from the bosom of the duality, unfoldeth itself into the Ternary number. As in the blessed Trinity, the Father shines forth in the Person of the Son, his Beauty, and beautiful Object. Both these breathe forth themselves into the Spirit, the mutual Love, the Marriagebed of these two.  
When thus the Varieties and Distinctions of things proceed by even and just degrees, springing up naturally and immediately out of the bosom of each other, as they lie naturally and nakedly in the bosom of each other, according to their Divine Love-sport and play in the Palace of their Father, the supreme Unity; now the Unity shines and triumphs with a full Joy and Glory in the Face of the whole, and of each part. Now it flies, singing and sporting itself, upon the golden wings of a most ravishing Harmony over all. According to these two Rules, I shall proceed in my Answer, upon which it rests as upon its two Pillars, Jakin and Boaz, Establishment and Strength.  
God is the God of Order, saith St. Paul. Order is the sacred Harmony of the Divine Nature; the Divine Nature, the Divine Beauty, the Divine Music, all in one; first, in their Architype, then figuring themselves upon the whole Work of God; sweetly flowing through it all, shining, smiling, and playing every where upon the face of it. This Order with a Divine skill, by just degrees, and harmonious proportions, slides into its contrary, which is disorder, by which it sets off, and heightens itself, making the Variety more full.  
The first, the highest disorder, the fountain of all disorder is Sin. This is the disorder of Intellectual Spirits, the chief of all the Works of God, the Head, the Guide, the measure of all the rest. All the other Creatures are to these, as light cast forth from the body of the Sun, which is the Sun's shadow, or as shadows in this life, the shadows of this shadow. St. Judas expresseth the Sin of Angels by their disorder, The Angels which kept not their first state, but left their own Habitation. State is in Greek Principle; they kept not their first Principle, the supreme Unity; They held not the Head, as St. Paul expresseth it. They left their proper Habitation, the Divine Image, the Divine Order and Harmony, their proper place in that Harmony, where they were divinely-beautiful, and made an heavenly melody in the heavenly Consort and Quire. The Psalmist saith of man and his sin, Man being in honour continued not, but became like the Beast that perisheth. Honour is the delicate gloss, or sparkling lustre of a true Beauty, especially the beauty of Spirits, delightfully shining forth, and reflecting itself upon all Spirits round about it. The Divine Order and Harmony alone is the true beauty every where. This is immortal.  
Thus man by sin breaks himself off from, and so becomes like the Beast, without any sense of, or sensible subordination to the Order and Harmony of the whole. While he cuts himself off from this, he dies, his disorder is his death, the true life of man vanishing, together with the Universal and Divine Harmony.  
Every contrary supposeth or constituteth its Correlate contrary: the contrary to disorder is order. That than which the Scripture speaking with the tongue of a man, gives the name of Displeasure, Anger, Wrath in God is no other than love itself, in its naked and golden smiles; the Divine Beauty in the purity and simplicity of its most native and unchangeable sweetness; the Harmony of the Divine Nature, as a Glory eternal, calm, and Sunshine, opposing themselves to the discord, deformity, enmity of Sin. As they say ill natures are tormented by Music, as the evil Spirit in Saul was cast out by David's Harp: So is anger in God, the most delicious, the most transporting melody, sounding through the whole nature of things, from Jesus Christ, the Universal Image of the Divine Nature, and the golden Harp of God, which either charms the Spirit of disorder, or torments it.  
Contrariorum remedium est contrarium, One contrariety is the cure and remedy of another. Disorder is reduced into order by the Divine Harmony, setting itself in an opposition and contrariety to it. While the opposition between these contraries remains, they heighten one another. This state of opposition is in the Divine Poem, or Work, as the scene of storms and tempests of Blood, Confusion, of the blackness of Darkness, of Death and Hell. This scene coming in, as a part of the Variety, sets off with a greater heightening, even to an ecstasy of wonder and delight, the Sweetnesses, the Beauties, the Glories of the Divine Harmony surrounding it, springing up, shining forth with a golden calm and lustre in the midst of it.  
St. Paul divinely represents this to us, Rom. 5. ult. The Law came in, that Sin might abound; that where Sin abounded, Grace did superabound. That as Sin had reigned unto Death, so Grace might reign through Righteousness unto eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The Law which is the contrariety or opposition between the Harmony of Divine Love, and the disorder, the confusion of Lust (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) came in by the by, or by the way, in the course or stream of the heavenly Harmony, of the general and grand contrivance of Divine Love, to set it off and heighten it, to raise and transcend all expectations, to extend and surprise all Understandings, to make the melody of the whole more full, by the Variety, and more gloriously triumphant by the Discords.  
The evils of Sufferings, according to the Law of the Divine Harmony, which is the Image of the Divine Wisdom, the first Beauty of Truth, the Image of the Divine Will, the first love and goodness in the Creature, have their entrance three ways.  
1. Every Principle unfolds itself into all the powers and forms contained in it; so the evil of Sin, which is the root of Disorder, springeth up into all manner of disorders, through Spirit, Soul and Body, into all manner of evils, of blame, shame, pain, sorrow, torment. Lust when it conceiveth bringeth forth Sin, Sin when it is perfect bringeth forth death. All Disorders, all Evils, all Sufferings, are steps and forms of death.  
2. The disorder of Sin, as it is the contrariety in the Harmony, is reduced into order, and made harmonious in the whole, by the opposition and contrariety of the Harmony, as in Music, the setting the Concord by the Discord, makes the Melody. Now as the Harmony is all good, of Grace, Joy and Glory, every good, in every kind, being a particular Harmony, in the universal Harmony; so where the Universal Order, the Spirit of Order, which is the Spirit of Christ and God, setteth itself in a Contrariety to any disorderly Spirit; there all good of every kind is withdrawn, all evil, as of loss, so of pain ariseth. God saith in Deuteronomy, If you walk contrary unto me, I also will walk contrary unto you. Then all Plagues are reckoned up, the natural consequencies of this Contrariety. Then saith he several times over, If you go on to walk contrary to me, I will yet bring seven times more Plagues upon you. As the opposition, and disorder, and sin increaseth, so the Divine Harmony also is heightened in its contrariety to it. All this is done, that the evil of sin and disorder, the beauty and sweetness of the Divine Grace and Order, may set out the Contrariety. This also is, that the distinction between the Ceator and the Creature, the heavenly Image, the Original and Substance which is all pure Light and Good, without any mixture of Darkness, or capacity of Evil. And the earthly Image, the shadow, which is composed of a figure of Light and true Darkness, from which sin, with all evils, spring and take life, according to the Language of the Apostle, may be more clearly discovered. Thus by the breaking in of sin, by blame and shame, and sufferings, which are as so many Glasses to set before sin the deformity and ugliness of its own face; the Creature, the shadowy Image is humbled, is broken to pieces, is brought into the dust, that it may give all glory, and attribute all good to the Creator, the Original, and eternal Image, that it may resign itself to it, seek its rest alone in it, and that it may finally return into the bosom of the Original Glory, which in these ways, by these degrees, through the break of it, springeth up in it, breaketh forth through it, and bringeth it back again to lie down eternally in that Bosom of purest Love and Light, where it was at first from eternity, where it hath been eternally hid with Christ in God. All this God doth, that he may eternally display the unsearchable Riches of that Variety and Fullness which is in himself, that he may swallow up the Understanding of every Creature, Man or Angel, into an admiration and adoration of the incomprehensibleness of his Ways, his Wisdom, his Blessedness and Glory, who at once bringeth forth these Varieties (which like Morning-Stars and Sons of God in the purest unmixed Light and Love, dance and sing together in his Bosom) into such fight Contrarieties, upon the stage of the earthly and created Image here below, making that the seat of deformity, shame, woe and death, while it figureth out the highest Joys and Glories of eternal Life above, who again gathers up all these jarring and tumultuous Contrarieties into the first state and supreme Unity, where the Variety is far more vast and boundless in the whole, far more full and distinct in each branch of it, where the whole is all, an eternal Melody, an eternal Beauty, an eternal Joy, unexpressibly Divine, pure and ravishing, where each branch, in its own distinct Form, is a Beauty, a Melody, a Joy equally pure, perfect and ravishing with the whole, being crowned with the Unity and Eternity, which is the highest Unity. This St. Paul representeth to us clearly and fully in the person of each Saint, when he saith, Heights and Depths, things present, and things to come, this World, Life and Death, all things are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is Gods. All things are Divine, distinct eternal Glories in the person of a Saint, as a Saint is taken up into the Glory of Christ, as Christ is in the Glory of God.  
3. The evil of Sufferings is the proper way, in the Universal Order, by which the disorderly Spirit, with its disorders, returneth into order, to possess and enjoy in itself the Divine Beauty and Music of the whole. Gild is the Obligation upon each Spirit, from every Act of disorder, unto the Divine Justice, which is the Law of the Divine Harmony, seated originally in the Divine Nature from the opposing itself to the disorderly Spirit, and the reducing it by the opposition into order.  
This is done three ways, 

1. By Expiation.  
2. By Compensation.  
3. By Abolition.    
1. Expiation or atonement is the bringing in of something Sacred, Divine and Perfect. The Heathen in their Expiations generally made use of brimstone, which seemed to have something Sacred and Divine in it, as appears by the Greek name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which signifieth both brimstone, and something Divine, perhaps the reason is its aptness to take fire, and its resemblance in its pure and fiery flame to the Celestial Bodies.  
2. Compensation is of like to like by an equality, this turneth the Discord into a Concord, and gathereth it up into the Unity.  
3. The Abolition is the effacing and blotting out the disorder, bringing it forth now into order, where the deformity of the discord is swallowed up into an amiable and beautiful Harmony. This is the chief part of the expiation or atonement in which the Ancients to this end made use of a living stream or fire, as things Sacred and proper for purification. But this whole work is comprehended in the mystery of Christ, it is begun and finished in his Person alone literally or mystically.  
1. Expiation. Jesus Christ, the eternal Spirit of the Divine Order and Harmony springs up in the midst of the disorder, and takes it all upon himself, by taking Flesh. This is the beginning of the Expiation, this is the truly sacred Divine and perfect thing, brought in to expiate the confusion and the abomination: This is the supreme Unity, the supreme Harmony, Love itself, the Prince of Peace and Harmony, the God of Order discovering himself, as a sacred and eternal Root at the bottom of the disorder, in whom that also stands after an orderly and harmonious manner, while he himself also is springing up through it. This is the beginning of the Expiation.  
2. Compensation. This Jesus, which is Divine Love itself, appearing in the enmity, the Divine Harmony itself, in the disorder, seats himself, as the mark of the opposition and contrariety, by which the Divine Order, in the Spirit of Order, which is himself, sets itself against the Disorder, to subdue and reduce it; he receiveth himself into his own bosom and heart, all the envenomed arrows and fiery darts which the Justice and Wrath of God, that is Love itself, casteth forth in its highest opposition, and contrariety to the enmity.  
This contrariety of the Divine Love to the enmity, which hath violated and slain this Love, in breaking the Harmony, is maintained by a War of Blood and Fire, till it come to its ut most height, till the contrariety of Love to the enmity be fully displayed and discharged, till the enmity and disorder, that work of the Devil, be subdued and destroyed, together with the dissolution of flesh itself. The earthly and shadowy Image, the seat and ground of sin and enmity, by the death of Jesus Christ, who hath taken our Sins and Nature upon himself, as the first root and ground of all.  
O sweet and Divine Mystery! O musical Discord, and harmonious Contrariety! O peaceful and pleasant War! where the supreme Love stands on both sides, where, as in a mysterious Love-sport, or a Divine Love-play, it fights with itself, suffering for itself, dying by itself, and so itself sinking by death into its own sweetest bosom and dearest embraces, the fountain of Life, the centre and circle of all Delights: O bitter Peace! disordering Melody! broken and unpleasant Harmony! where Love suffers all evil, and is slain on both sides, to make perfect the Harmony. But oh full Compensation! O full and sweet Harmony, arising out of the Discords, swallowing up the Discords themselves into the most pure, the most perfect, most pleasant melody; whereas Love first suffered, and was slain by the disorder and enmity of Sin; so now Love again suffereth, and is slain for the enmity, for sin, by the wrath of God against sin, that is, by the Love in its contrary to the enmity. Thus Love itself, in the place of us all, most lovingly, and beauty itself, most beautifully is become a Sacrifice for itself to itself.  
3. Abolition. The last step in the way of reducing disorder into order, is the Abolition or Renovation; this is the finishing of all in the Person of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is the complete Image of the invisible God. Thus he comprehendeth the whole Creation in himself, for all the Creatures are so many expressive or manifestative figures of the Divine Glory. We read in Scripture, That the things which are seen; that is, all the created Objects of Sense or Reason, Humane or Angelical, stand up out of the things which are not seen. Jesus Christ then being the first, & highest Image of the invisible God, as he is in his own unaccessible Light, is the Root out of which, and in which the Creation stands; the Lord Jesus, as this universal Person, goes down into the Grave, and carries thither, into those lowest shades, at once with himself all Images of things, the Original and the Copy, the Substance and the Shadow, the Uncreated Glory and the created Figure. So Christ dies, and the whole Creation dieth with him, so he makes an end of Sin and Transgression. Here he sings that triumphant Song, O Death, I am thy death. Here all the evil of Sin and Suffering, of Disorder and Contrariety, which, as a grave, had swallowed up the whole Creation, is swallowed up into Victory in the grave of Christ.  
In this Divine Death, the whole Creation is dissolved, and comes to its last end, in its last end it meets with its beginning, falling quite out of itself, falling down out of its own empty, obscure shade and nothingness, it falls into the bosom of its heavenly and eternal Mother, the Original Glory.  
The Original Glory in the Person of Christ hath descended thus low, together with its Birth and shadow; Here it finisheth its descent in its shadow, here diffusing itself and its eternal Light through these shades of death, and through the whole Creation, in these shades it maketh itself perfectly one, by an entire and mutual communion in death with all the Creatures, whose life was a continual War with it. The Light of the heavenly Image poured forth in these shades of death, flowing through the created Image, overflowing and taking it into itself, is that precious and Divine Blood, which by its mysterious washings maketh the crimson and scarlet sins or stains upon this Image whiter than the whitest wool or snow.  
In this Divine Death, the shadowy Image, with all its evils of disorder and enmity, are now passed away for ever, in respect to any reality, substantiality, or subsistence in themselves; they remain only as figures, in the Divine shade of this death, in which shade the heavenly Image bears all in its pure, although obscured bosom. It is now the Root of eternal Love, and eternal Life in Death, receiving into itself all the Creatures, with all their disorders and enmities. They all now do here put off their Realities, and become only mysterious shadows, through which the supreme Beauty and Sweetness springeth and sporteth itself. But the Original Glory, in the Person of Christ, having now finished the mystery of its descent in the Creature, and in this final dissolution taken the Creature again into itself as its first and proper Root, beginneth now its return and ascent. As the Lord Jesus died, so he riseth again an universal Person, with both Images, created and uncreated, united in himself.  
The eternal Glory, once in the first Creation, vailed itself beneath a shadowy Image, to die in that Image; accordingly he died with it, and for it. But now he riseth again, in the brightness of his heavenly Image, he raiseth the whole Creation together with himself, as his proper and immediate Birth, as its purest and loveliest Bride, in the most intimate, entire, and mutual Union with itself, in all its glories, thus to live for ever in the richest and closest embraces of each other.  
Here now ye have a threefold Resurrection in one:  
1. The Divine Image, which is eternal Love and life itself, as it had been vailed, as it had suffered and died in the Creature, riseth sweetly and gloriously from beneath all those shades into its own freshest and fullest Beauties: Thus it riseth in the midst of the created Image.  
2. The created Image, was once a fair entire Picture, of the eternal Beauty, living a Divine Life, breathing a Divine Sweetness, being a Divine Paradise in itself, to itself, while it stood as a pure resemblance of its Divine Original. But by its fall into the inf●…rnal Deep of Sin, it stained itself, it broke itself all to pieces, it buried its Life, Beauty, and Sweetness in a dreadful and hateful death. Now having put off that death, in the death of Christ, it riseth again in the bosom of the Original Glory, not only in its fullest Beauty and Sweetness, but a Beauty and Sweetness far more excelling. It was before its fall, a sweet shade, an earthly Paradise. The shade vanished into darkness, the Paradise faded and disappeared. But now it riseth as the ●…un-shine of the Godhead, as the sweetest Light, at once lying in the Bosom of the highest Glory embraced by it, and surrounding that Glory with its embraces, by a mutual, immediate, and eternal Union.  
3. The fall, the disorders, the wounds and death of this shadowy Image, so dreadful and hateful as they stood in time, now also have their Resurrection, and put on a new appearance in eternity: Having now passed through the Death and Sufferings of Christ, where they put off all their evil, by putting off all their own proper reality; they stand in his Resurrection as figures of eternal Glories, which are themselves also Glories in the Bosom of their Glorious Original: They are seen now, as they eternally spring up and flourish in the Garden of the Divine Mind, as they bear their part, and shine in the universal Beauty of the Divine Image and Work. As the eternal Original with its Paradisical shadow lay hid in them, like a Flower in its Seed in the Earth, as both these Glories now are sprung forth through them, and bring forth them again, as eternal Lights, in the light and circle of their own Beauties: So is Christ in the circle of the Throne of God, as the Lamb that was slain, where his wounds appear in his glorified Person; not as Wounds, but as Beauties; not as Fractures or Stains, but as Diamonds or Pearls in the Crown of his Righteousness and Glory. Perhaps I may seem too long upon this part of my Discourse, but we read of a Sanctuary into which the Holy Spirit entereth, when it is perplexed with the outward face of the Divine Providence in the evil of sin and Sinners, and of Sufferings to the Saints. There it seeth the end of all. There the mystery openeth itself into an universal Uniform piece, and prospect of Divine Beauty and Delight, Psal. 73. If I be not deceived, Jesus risen from the dead, in this order and manner is this Sanctuary, this Temple of Grace and Truth. He hath now rend the Veil of his Flesh, and opened himself into an universal eternal Spirit. He now shines out with a sweet amiable clearness and glory, into an universal eternal Light.  
In this Spirit, which is this Light of Life, the whole course of his Work in the Creation, and in Providence, his Incarnation, Sufferings and Death, present themselves in all the smallest threads and contextures of them, as one Di●…ine piece, as full of Divinity every where. Here all in the whole, and in the parts, present themselves to the spiritual Eye, as beautiful and blessed Spirits, in numberless troops, by a Divine sport figuring their immortal Glories in all Varieties of lights and shades, hiding their Glories beneath these figures, breaking with their Glories out of these figures, as so many Suns out of their Clouds, showing their figures themselves as Glories. Like the Palms, and Lilies, and Cherubims of the Temple, carved first in Cedar, and then covered with massy Gold. In the mean time all these numberless Spirits, in their whole play from the beginning to the end, are comprehended in this one Spirit, the universal Spirit of Harmony, Order, Beauty, and pleasantness in all. Jesus risen from the dead, the first, and the last, the same yesterday, to day, and for ever.  
O the Wisdom! the Power! the Grace! the Glory! the unsearchable Riches of the mystery of God in Christ! What a depth is this without any bottom? What an height without any bound? What a breadth? what a length without any measure? How doth it stretch forth itself beneath all, above all, through all, beyond all things, or thoughts? Who can ever satisfy himself with any the richest, the fullest forms of words or conceptions, in conceiving or expressing this Mystery, this Jesus.  
But I have now brought to an end, according to my weak manner, the reducing the disorder itself into order, in the Person of Christ, by these three sacred steps of Expiation, Compensation, Abolition, of the Disorder in the Order, or which is the same, the Renovation of the Order in all. I have endeavoured to show how every thing of part●…cular order and disorder, hath been made beautiful in its season, keeping its time in the Universal Harmony of this Song of the Lamb, in the Music of the eternal Word.  
I have also attempted to open that mystery, how this Work of God, in every part of it, with its Beauty, is for eternity, the light of eternity, being the only light of Truth, with a golden Calm, an unstained Sunshine, of purest perpetual Peace, Pleasantness and Glory. In this light of eternity alone, is the Work of God seen aright, in the entire piece, in the whole design, from the beginning to the end. As all times appear in this Light, less than a moment, a point, nothing, being as eternity in the undivided Unity of eternity; so are all the disorders of time, no more, not so much as a shadow in a dream that is past, but as the highest and sweetest Harmony in the undivided Unity of the eternal Harmony.  
All this is true in the Person of Christ, to which the Scriptures give a clear Testimony. All things are gathered together in one in Christ, both which are in Heaven, and which are on Earth, Ephes. 1. 10. Having made peace through the blood of his Cross, God hath by him reconciled all things to himself by him, whether they be things on Earth, or in Heaven, Col. 1. 20. These are true in us, as Christ springs up in us. Then only are we ourselves baptised. Then only do we see all things unto us, together with us, baptised into the sweet, shining, boundless, bottomless Sea of this universal a●…d eternal Harmony, when we are baptised into Christ. As many of us as are baptised into Christ, are baptised into his Death, and into ●…is Resurrection from the dead. How then can we live any longer in sin, being now dead to it? How can we live any life besides that of Holiness and Heaven, being now risen again with Christ into the Glory of God? Thus St. Paul excludes all pleas of the Flesh, for a licentiousness in sin, from this Doctrine of the free and rich Grace of God in Christ, Rom. 6. 1, 2, 3, 4.  
I am now come to the end of my design upon this Scripture, Eccles. 3. I have been large in the prosecution of my design upon this Scripture; my purpose was to reconcile the absoluteness of the Divine Sovereignty, Wisdom and Power, through this whole Work, with the Divine Justice, Goodness and Glory, in the determination of the Will, by its essential Principles, by the uninterrupted order, and connexion of causes; by the first and universal Cause, which is most intimate to every effect, and worketh most of all; Secundum modum naturae, in a natural way, as being the n●…tura naturans.  
I promised two other Scriptures, for the making good of this design; I will lightly touch them, and so hasten to an end of my Discourse.  
The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea even the Wicked for the day of evil, Prov. 16. 4.  
There are four parts clear and distinct in this Scripture.  
1. An efficient cause or beginning, The Lord Jehovah.  
2. The final cause or end, For himself.  
3. The universality of the effect, and influence of these Causes, The Lord hath made all things for himself.  
4. A confirmation of this universal influence of these Divine Causes upon every Effect, by a particular and most eminent instance; Yea even the Wicked for the day of evil.  
Three things are remarkable in this particular instance:  
1. It is brought in as an anticipation of an Objection, and with a twofold Asseveration; Yea, even. Here in this point men are apt most of all to doubt the continuation and universality of the Divine influence. What, say they, hath God made all things for himself? What the evils of Sin and of Suffering? Here men of greatest wit through all Ages have been at a stand, not knowing how to fasten the golden Links of the Divine Chain, in the Work of God, one within another. Here they have broken the Chain of the holy and heavenly Order. Here therefore the Divine Wisdom by Solomon peculiarly fasteneth the Links, and maketh the Chain entire, that he may enclose the whole Work, as one complete piece, within the same Divine beginning and Divine end, knit together by the same Divine influence, running equally through all parts, and making all one; The Lord hath made all things for himself; yea, even the Wicked for the day of evil.  
2. The effect in this particular instance is remarkable. This effect is, every wicked person under the formality of a wicked person. As a Creature, an Angel, or a Man, he cannot be the subject of any question or doubt. The evil of sin, by which he is constituted, and denominated wicked, is clearly designed by this emphatical instance. I have often already expressed the manner of the influence and operation of the Divine Power and Providence, upon the evil of sin, and so of a Sinner, under the formality of sin. All evil being a defect, depends upon the first Cause, together with all intermediate Causes, in their deficiency only, and in the ordination of circumstances.  
3. This instance brings in this particular effect in its inseparable connexion with its subordinate end; The day of evil. The Lord hath made all things for himself; yea, even the wicked person, who becomes wicked by the evil of sin. He hath made the inseparable connexion between the evil of sin and the evil of sufferings. He hath made this evil person by an inviolable Order for the day of evil, the evil of Sufferings. He hath made this evil person, this evil of sufferings, the connexion between these two, as the effect and next subordinate end; For himself, the Ultimate and last end, the blessed, the glorious Crown of all. I will finish this Subject with two or three brief and clear Observations drawn from this Text.  
1. The beginning and the end of all things, are the same. God in his most glorious Essence, the only, the supreme, the universal, the essential Good, an infinite Good.  
2. The end is the first and chief Cause, moving all other Causes, and directing their motions from the first, to the last motion.  
3. All things are bounded by these two; The first beginning, and the last end. All things in every step of all effects, of all subordinate ends, are in motion, and in the way to the last end. They rest not, they attain not their mark, to which they are designed, from the beginning by the first and universal Mover, till they arrive at this their last end.  
4. ●…he last end gives amiableness, beauty and perfection to all things, as the means of bringing forth this end. It gives this beauty and perfection to them three ways:  
1. Itself runs along through all things, in their whole way to it, as the first universal Mover, as the first and universal virtue and force which moves in all, and moves all throughout from the beginning to the end.  
2. It comprehends all in it, as the bosom, or nest, in which the whole is designed and form.  
3. It rests upon all things in every part of the work, and step of the way, as the life and light of the universal Order and Harmony; which attracts, directs and conducts all to itself.  
4. It gathers up all things at last into its self, as the term and mark to which all things move, in which alone all motions cease, and are changed into rest. Every thing in its Ultimate end gaineth its perfection, its true and proper self. Every thing is so far itself, as it is perfect; so far as it is imperfect, it falls short of itself; every imperfection being a privation of being, and so to each self a privation of itself, according to its degree. This is the sweet and musical close. This is the bright and beautiful crown of all things, the beginning and the end meeting in one.  
5. The end itself, as it is the first Mover, so doth it last of all cease from its motions, and terminate them in its own beatifical Rest. This is the end perfectly accomplished, when all things tending to this end, meet in the perfection of the end. The end therefore never returns to its rest, till it rests with its full perfection in every part of the Work, in every particular form directed to itself. Our Divines teach us, That the Glory of God is the Ultimate end of all things, not the essential, but the manifestative Glory; so the Glory of God, then only finds rests, when it rests with a full revelation of itself, unvailing all its Beauties, unfolding all its Sweetnesses in the bosom and face of each part of the whole Work of God. So the Divine operation and motion ceaseth not in any part of this Divine Work, until all rest in the bosom of this Glory, perfectly displaying all its Pleasures and Delicacies upon it: For this manifestative Glory is the end of all. The end mutually gives to, and takes from all the means to the end, rest and perfection. Thus God hath made all things, all effects, with all their subordinate ends, yea, even the wicked also, for the day of evil, his subordinate end; for this Great and Ultimate end, himself, in the brightness and full outshinings of his Glory.  
I pass now to the third Scripture, Rom. 11.  
If I deceive not myself, I seem to myself to discern in this Scripture a rich Mine of Divinity, of Divine Truth and Glory, in which no Workman hath yet laboured. But it is not agreeable to my present time, or purpose to open, or point out this Mine, if I were furnished with an heavenly strength and skill sufficient for it. I shall now only touch at some verses in this Chapter, which contibute to my present Design, verse 23. God hath shut up, or as it is in the Greek, God hath locked up together all in unbelief, that he may have mercy upon all. St. Paul in this Chapter sets before us, God as the most skilful Painter, sweetening and beautifying his Work in the whole, and in the parts of it, by the mixtures and interchanges of Light and Shades, Grace and Severity, still terminating all in the sweetness and light of the Divine Grace, as the end of all.  
From this Contemplation he raiseth himself into, and loseth himself in the pleasant heights of a Divine Ecstasy, verse 33. O the depth of the Riches, and the Wisdom, and the Knowledge of God: How unsearchable are his Judgements, and his ways past finding out? Every Work of God hath a threefold Depth of Riches.  
1. A Depth of Riches, the riches of Power, Purity, Beauty, Love, Goodness, Grace and Glory.  
2. A Depth of Wisdom, of Divine Contrivance, of perfect Harmony.  
3. A Depth of Knowledge, comprehending all endless and infinite Varieties in a clear view at once.  
In every part of the Work of God do all these Depths meet, which swallow up the most capacious Spirits of Saints and Angels into themselves, but can be fathomed by no Spirit. The distinct judgement in which any one, the least piece of this Work is wrought, hath so boundless a depth, height and compass in it, that it is altogether unsearchable. The way of God in it is a Divine secret, and mystery of Grace and Glory, which hath such recesses, such endless Varieties in it, that it cannot be traced by the Foot, or discovered by the eye of any Creature.  
St. Paul foundeth this incomprehensibleness in the Work of God, upon the incomprehensibleness of the Divine Mind. He foundeth this unbounded Treasure of Divine Goodness and Glory in the Work of God, upon the absoluteness & freedom of the Divine Nature, ver. 35. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? and who hath been his Counsellor? or who hath given first to him, that it may be given again to him, by way of return or exchange. As are the Riches of the Divine Mind, which first forms in itself the Ideas of all its work, and then forms every work according to that Idea which rests upon every Work, as the Seal upon the Print in the Wax; such are the Riches of God in every part of his Work. As is the absoluteness & unlimitedness of the Divine Nature, which consulteth with nothing, considereth nothing in the Creature, but taketh the measure and the manner of all his Works from eternal patterns, in his most glorious Essence, and is put on, and taketh the rise of all his Works, from the ever-ful, ever flowing, overflowing fountain and boundless Riches of his Godhead; such are all the operations and emanations of the Divine Nature. Thus St. Paul concludeth, and justifieth the Divine Wonders of incomprehensible Riches, Wisdom, Knowledge: The Divine Wonders of an absolute, unconfined freedom in all the Works of God, by the cause of all, verse 36. Because of him, and by him, or through him, and to him, are all things.  
Plato maketh three Causes alone, the 

Efficient,  
Formal, or Exemplar, and  
Final.    
St. Paul wraps up all these in one, in God alone. He is the beginning, the way, the end of all. He is the Fountain, out of which they all arise in their several streams: He is the Channel in which every stream runs along; He is the Sea, into which they all flow; where they lose not their Distinctions, but rise up to the perfection of them, in this Marriage, with the first, the full and unbounded Glory.  
To what unbounded expectations of Divine Riches, surmounting all expectations in every Creature, may we now raise our thoughts, when the beginning, the way, the end of every thing, thus lies in the Godhead? when this Bosom, the Treasures of all Glories and Sweetnesses, is to every thing its Fountain, in which it riseth; its Channel, in which it runs along; its Sea, in which it ends. How justly doth St. Paul set a Crown of Glory upon the Head of the Deity in all its Works, To him is glory in the Generations, so may we most properly read the words. How sweetly doth he seal up his own Faith, Understanding, Love, in sweetest Rest, and fullest Joy, with this Glory, Amen. Of him, through him, and to him, are all things; To him be Glory for ever, Amen.  
Thus, this last Scripture in a clear Harmony, with the other two, seems to give a sweet and full close to the Divine Music of this heavenly Truth, and leaves these divinely-delightful touches upon our Spirits.  
1. God, the only Good, is equally absolute, entire, universal, in shutting, or locking up all men in Unbelief, the Prison, the Dungeon of deepest darkness; as in showing mercy, which is the opening to them, the taking them into the Palace of eternal Light, the Light of Life, the Light of Love, the Light of Glory. He shuts, and none can open; he opens, and none can shut. These are the two Cardinal Acts, the shutting up under belief, and the showing mercy. Upon which the whole work of the Divine Providence moves through Earth, through Hell and Heaven, through Time and Eternity.  
2. Showing mercy is the end, shutting up in unbelief is the means or way to this end. Mercy is one of the sweetest names of Love, the shutting up in unbelief is then an Act of Divine Love: For all motions to the end, are in the virtue of the end; the end is the light, the life, the loveliness of the means. All means and ways to the end, are first comprehended in the end. The end by itself immediately formeth them upon the Spirit of the Agent: The end through the Spririt of the Agent bringeth forth itself into them, as so many tendencies to itself, as so many gradual, orderly springings forth of its self. The end at the last comprehendeth them all again in itself, as making up the perfection of the end, and having their perfection in the end. Thus the severity and wrath of God, in its severest Act, the shutting up men under unbelief, is Love, and divinely-lovely.  
3. God, and Love, in this Work of his, appear to be both one. For Love is the end of Wrath; By being the end, it is also the beginning, and the way. So also is God, For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom is the glory through all Generations. The highest expression of God, unto our capacity, as he is in the simplicity of his Divine Essence, is Love. This is his Glory, as he is unvailed, unclouded. This is that that darkens and thickens itself into every Veil or Cloud. This is a sweetening, a gild upon every Veil, every Cloud. God, as he is Love, is the beginning, the way, the end of every Work, through every Generation; and so the Glory in every Work, to all generations.  
4. God in his Work is absolute, and absolutely free; He taketh no counsel, he is touched with no motive from any thing without himself. The reason and rule of all his Works, is alone from himself from within: All within is the Unity, the simplicity of the Divine Essence, uncapable of any mixture or composition; all mere, clear, pure Love.  
5. The Work of God, in shutting up in unbelief, and showing mercy, is an unfathomable Depth: But is a shining Depth of most perfect Beauty and sweetest Light. For it is a Depth of Divine Wisdom, it is a Depth of Glory and unsearchable Riches. It is a most delicious Depth of Divinest Love, the unsearchable Treasure of all the most lovely, and most loving Sweets and Joys. The work of God is unsearchable, incomprehensible, infinite; but an unsearchable ●…ncomprehensible, infinite Love and Glory. Let us therefore e●…pect in this Work to meet with Difficulties too great for our Understanding. Let us be content to say, Here is a Depth unfathomable, not to my Spirit alone, but to every finite Spirit of Man or Angel. Then let us add from our knowledge of whom, whose the design and the work is; It is a lovely, a delightful Depth; a Depth of purest Glories, and richest Loves: So let us gladly cast ourselves into it, to be swallowed up by it; concluding all with these words, I cannot receive, nor comprehend thee. Do thou receive and comprehend me. O Depth infinitely too glorious to be comprehended by me! O myself infinitely blessed, in being comprehended by thee!  
I come now to the third Reason I am to answer.  
Reason 3, The Language of the Scripture, in the whole current of it, seemeth generally to run along upon this ground, of an undetermined freedom of the Will of Man. The Divine Will is cleared from the evils of Sin and Suffering. The Will of Man is charged with them. Agreeable to this, are the Divine Precepts, Prohibitions, Promises, threatenings, Admonitions, Reproofs, Complaints, Expostulations, which compose a great part of the sacred Writings.  
Answ. I answer by a distinction; This manner of Language, As I live, I desire not the death of a Sinner. Why will ye die, O house of Israel? with all expressions like to these, are either,  

1. Proper and plain.  
2. Figurative and mysterious.   
1. If they be proper and plain, two great Difficulties arise.  
1. The true and living God, thus represented, appears like Homer's Gods, and the Gods of the Poets. Weak, querulous, passable, ever in contentions and combats.  
2. While the Divine Will in that, on which it fixeth itself with so great truth and intention, is capable of being opposed and defeated, it appears destitute of Wisdom, Power and Blessedness.  
2. If they be figurative and mysterious. The figures first are to be determined, and the mystery vailed, beneath the figure, to be discovered; before we can establish any certain, or clear sense upon them.  
1. The figure made use of in this manner of Language, is, by the consent of Divines, complicated of an Anthropopathy, and a Metonymy.  
2. The Anthropopathy is then, when passions proper to man are attributed to God.  
2. The Metonymy is of the cause set for the effect; and the things signified in the place of the sign.  
So those changeable passions in created Spirits, which bring forth and express themselves by changes of good or evil; the effects and signs of those passions are applied to the unchangeable God, when he bringeth forth the like changes in his Work. So the Jews say, That the holy Scriptures speak with the Tongue, and in the Language of a Man; But all such figurative expressions concerning God, are to be understood with this Caution. Every thing indeed in the Creature is a figure, which hath its Original pattern answering to it in the Divine Nature: But all imperfections attending the figure, are to be removed: All perfections in their utmost heights, and most absolute fullness, are to be attributed to the Original pattern, when by the shadowy figure in the Creature, you look to the exemplar and primitive truth in God. So by these changeable and divers passions in man, you are to represent to yourselves in God, a Goodness, a Power, an unsearchable Riches of Variety, and manifoldly various Wisdom; and all these apart, and together, with the most absolute simplicity, and highest Unity in the Divine Essence, producing all diversities of accidents, all changes of good and evil in the Divine Design, which cometh forth at once, as one piece, divinely Rich, in all Varieties from him, and as one entire Image filled with the riches of all distinct Beauties of him, who is unchangeable, and most perfectly one.  
2. Having thus determined of the Figure; Let us try to lift up the Veil, and discover the Divine Mystery beneath this Figure.  
I shall endeavour to take a Prospect of this Divine Secret, and hidden Glory, by several steps or degrees.  
1. The letter of the Scripture, in the general ●…ream and current of it, is the Ministry of the Law. So St. Paul in divers places distinguisheth the Law and the Gospel, or the Covenant of Works, and the Covenant of Grace, 2 Cor. 3. 6. Who hath made us able (speaking of God) Ministers of the New Testament, or the New Covenant, not of the Letter, but of the Spirit; for the Letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. In the following verse, the engraving of the Law in Tables of Stone, and Moses are mentioned. Again, in prosecution of the same Discourse, Moses with his Veil is brought in; To this are opposed in the 17. and 18. verses, The Spirit of the Lord, the liberty of the Spirit, the sight of the Glory of the Lord, with an unvailed Face, the tranfiguration of the Soul into the same Image, from glory to glory, and all this by the Lord, the Spirit.  
These things laid together, seem to make it clear, that in the sense of the holy Apostle; the letter, the proposal and pressing of any truth or goodness upon us, in a literal and moral way only, whether outward or inward, amounteth to no more than the old Covenant, the Ministry of the Law: on the other side the new Covenant, the Gospel is the Spirit himself ministering himself through the letter to us, taking off the Veil which lies upon the letter, and upon our hearts, bringing us forth into the Liberty, the open Light, and the Divine Life of the Spirit, giving us a naked view of the Face of Christ, in his spiritual and heavenly Glory, and by this view transforming us into living Images of the same Glory, springing up, and increasing in us unto the perfect day of eternity. Suitable to this, is that of St. Paul, Rom. 10. 5. Moses describeth the Righteousness which is of the Law, That the man which doth these things shall live by them. Whatever imposeth upon us any thing to be done by us, as an antecedent condition to any consequent good, is the Law opposed to the Gospel. The Law maketh Precepts the ground of Promises; He that doth these things shall live by them. But the Gospel maketh Promises, the sure, the sweet, the precious pleasant ground of Precepts. So St. Peter, 2 Pet. 1. teacheth us, That by the Glory and Virtue of the Godhead calling us to itself, most great and precious Promises are given us, that by these we may be made partakers of the Divine Nature. So St. Paul engrafts Evangelical Precepts upon Evangelical Communications of the Divine Nature through Evangelical Promises. Work out, saith he, your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do, Phil. 2.  
2. The proper end of the Law in the design or effect, is not Love, Righteousness, Life, and Blessedness; but Condemnation, Death, and Wrath, 2 Cor. 3. 7. It is called the ministry of Death. At the ninth verse, The ministry of Condemnation. St. Paul in another place speaketh plainly, That, if there had been a Law which could have given Life, Righteousness should have been by the Law. St. Paul instructeth us in two eminent essential differences between the Law and the Gospel. First, The Law by Descriptions, Commands, Allurements, Terrors, setteth Righteousness before us; but infuseth not a new Nature, a new Life into us, which may of its own accord bring forth Righteousness, as Plants sp●…ing up out of the ground, and out of their proper root. Secondly, the Law not giving Christ himself to us, to be a quickening Spirit in us, to be our Life, to be one Life with us, cannot give us Righteousness, either to the acceptation of our Persons, or to the Sanctification of our Natures.  
3. The Law which is the Ministry of Wrath, is not the first or chief design of God: that in which he begins, or with which he ends. The Divine Love, the Beauties of Holiness, and the Divine Nature, Immortality, the Glory of God, founded and wrapped up in that one Seed, which is Christ, from whom, together with whom, for whose Joy and Glory sake, they spring freely, fruitfully, irresistably, subduing all things to themselves. These are the first and chief design of God, the good pleasure of his Will. So St. Paul teaches us, Gal. 3. That the promise in the Seed was first, and the Law came after that; which cannot therefore frustrate the design of the Promise and of the Seed.  
There is a beautiful and rich Scripture opening the Glory of the Divine Design of the Lord to us, Rom. 5. 20, 21. But the Law came in by the by, that Sin might abound; but where Sin abounded, Grace hath abounded much more: That as sin reigned unto death, so Grace might reign by Righteousness unto eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.  
Two things are remarkable here. 

1. The way of the coming in of the Law.  
2. The end of bringing in of the Law.    
1. The way of bringing in of the Law, is most elegantly and amply expressed in that one word (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.) The Law was not brought in first from the beginning, nor for its own sake; that it should be the end. Grace, the Divine Love, the everlasting Righteousness, eternal Life in the Seed, the eternal Son of God, the Image and fullness of the Godhead, the brightness of his Glory; Jesus Christ was the great design, for which all things are constituted, to which all things serve: In which God beginneth and endeth all his Works, all his Counsels, and in which he eternally resteth. In the stream and current of this Design, the Law itself is brought in as subservient to it. In Dramatic Poems, which have the design laid in some one entire, great, and glorious action; the continuance is set off, heightened by two eminent parts in it. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a knot tied fast in the course of the action; then the uniting of this knot, which makes the action more full of Variety, more glorious, more delightful. Thus in this great action of time and eternity, the bringing of the Sons of God to Glory, by their glorious Captain Jesus Christ; the Law is brought in, in the course ofit, as a knot tied fast, which no created Power is able to untie, or to understand how it should be loosed. This is the way of bringing in the Law.  
2. The ends of the Law are of two sorts:  

1. The proper and next ends.  
2. The extrinsical and Ultimate ends.   
1. The proper and next ends of the Law, are Sin, Condemnation, Death, and the Divine Wrath. So that St. Paul saith in this Scripture, That the Law came in, that Sin might abound.  
1. The Law let in Sin, so St. Paul teacheth us expressly, Rom. 7. 8. Sin taking occasion by the Commandment, wrought in me all concupiscence. Again, as the 11. verse, Sin taking occasion by the Commandment drceived me, and slew me.  
2. The Law heightens Sin, so that expression testifieth, The Law came in, that Sin might abound.  
3. The Law by bringing in Sin, bringeth in upon us a spiritual Death in Sin. St. Paul speaking as by a figure of all Mankind, in his own person, Rom. 7. 9, 10. I was alive once without the Law, (that is in Paradise) but the Law coming, sin revived or sprung up into life; but I died. These three ends of the Law flow from it, not by itself, nor from the nature of the Law; but by accident, from the weakness of the Flesh, and of the Creature. So you read, verse 10. The Commandment which was unto life, in its own nature, was found to me unto death, in the effects of it, verse 13. The holy Spirit opens the design in these effects of the Law, Is then that which is good (namely the Law) made death to me. But sin, that sin might be made manifest, wrought death to me by the good, that sin might become excessively sinful by the Law.  
God having a design which he intended to enrich with the fullest, the highest Glories of his Godhead, brings forth in the course of this design, a dark scene of all evils, Sin, Death, Wrath; The evil in this scene is carried on to its utmost extent and height; Thus the Variety becomes more full in the whole design, and the chief design is heightened in its sweetest Glory. God through his infinite Wisdom, so bringeth in this scene of sin and evil, that himself is perfectly pure, and good in the contrivance and conduct of it. He setteth up a Law, good, holy, and spiritual, but such that sin inevitably may take occasion from it through the frailty of Flesh, and of the Creature, to spring up by it unto an overflowing Flood, to display itself over all things in its fullest, foulest Forms and Births.  
4. The Law hath for its proper end, the conviction, condemnation and death of all men.  
1. The conviction of the Law is twofold:  
1. Man is convinced of his frailty and consequent mutability in his Primitive state, before the Fall. So saith the Psalmist, Man in his best state is altogether Vanity: He is the shadow, not the very Image, the true Glory. He hath a shadow of Righteousness, of Wisdom, of Power; a shadow only of Life, a shadow of Being: Christ only in his heavenly Image, and eternal State, is the Life itself, the truth of all these. Man in Paradise had no Being, Life, or Motion of himself, or in himself: As a mere shadow is no more than it is in its proper substance on which it depends. If it be any thing in itself, it is no more a shadow, but the substance. The Spirit saith of the Heavens and the Earth, That God turneth them, as the Wax to, or by the Seal. The Divine presence and appearance in man newly created, was the Seal to this Virgin Wax, which as it changed, changeth the impressions upon it together with its whole form.  
2. The Law convinceth man of his fallen state, of the evil of this state, that there is no good, or power of good at all in him. That the whole person and nature of man is only evil, and altogether evil. Thus St. Paul chargeth Mankind universally, Jews and Gentiles; There is none that doth good, no not one. The poison of Asps is under their Tongue, they are altogether corrupt: They have not known the way of peace. He presseth this charge universally by these words; Now we know, That that which the Law saith, it saith to those that are under the Law. Now we know that all Mankind, according to the state of nature, and in the first Creation, is under the Law: if there be any difference found among men, it ariseth not from nature, or the principles of Creation; but from common Grace, supernaturally communicated by virtue of the heavenly Seed, all along sown and springing up in the nature of man.  
Now to this conviction, as to their proper end, are directed; The precepts, the vehemency of exhortation, expostulations, comminations, and allurements which God maketh use of to man through the whole Scriptures: That man may be sensible (if he be capable of any sense) that he is dead in sin, that there is no principle, no power of good at all in him, which may be a ground to receive this good seed cast from without upon him; that it may take root in it, and bring forth fruit by it.  
2. The Law is a ministry of condemnation, so St. Paul expressly styles it. This conviction and condemnation both, the holy Apostle presenteth clearly to us, when he saith, That the end of this whole ministry is, That every mouth might be stopped, and the whole world become guilty before God.  
3. The last end of the Law is Death. Death upon all Mankind, upon the whole person of man, a spiritual and natural death; Death here, where man is truly dead, while he seem to live: Death in the departure out of this life, death after this life, in Hell, in torments: This death is without any Ransom or Redemption within the compass or power of the whole Creation.  
These are the proper and next ends of the Law: Before I come to the remote and Ultimate ends, I shall make my way clearer, by answering an Objection, which may here set itself in our way.  
Object. Is it not the proper and next end of the Law to be a rule of Holiness, and a guide to it?  
Answ. Indeed not rarely, the form of each thing, being its perfection, is called the end of it. But if we distinguish the formal and the final cause, this is not the end, but the essential form of the Law. The true form and essence of the Law, is a proposal of good and evil to man, as the object of his choice. In the Law we have before us the good of Holiness, with its Divine Nature and Beauties, with its attendant joys and blessedness; The evil of sin, with its hateful form, and the monstrous disorders in the nature of which an Angel becomes a Devil, and which is the proper constitutive form of a Devil, together with the consequent horrors and torments extending themselves to the nethermost Hell. Thus is the Law (as now we speak) in its essential form, a convenant of works, presenting to man holiness and sin, with life and death accompanying them: that he may make his choice, by embracing holiness, taking life in it, and together with it. Or by entertaining sin, receiving death into his whole person, and all his solaces round about him.  
From this essential form of the Law, see how the Law is directed to the forementioned ends. Man is composed of the light of God, and his own proper darkness. These two, the Schools call the Act, and the potentiality; the form, and the matter; being, and not being, which constitute every Creature.  
The darkness or nothingness, which is the Creatures own, is the proper ground of sin; which is its own form, and is a privation, or deficiency, a falling to nothing. While the Divine Glory shines upon man, tempering, forming and confining this darkness, by its own light to an harmonious Union with it, it becomes the Daughter, and Image, and Spouse of this Light. Now sin lies dead in us, but the man lives. This Divine Life shining in the darkness, and through the darkness, is to him a Divine shadow of the Divine Light.  
While these two stand undivided and undistinguished to man in the Unity of the Divine Image, and in the simplicity of this Divine Unity; sin finds no way, can take no occasion to bring forth itself into life. The Law comes, this distinguisheth between the Light of God, and the darkness of the Creature in man. This is the temptation, and the state of trial. Abide, saith the Lord to man, with thy darkness in the Divine Light, as a shadow of the Divine Glory, in the simplicity of the Divine Unity; so shall this Unity, this Glory be a Tree of Life to thee; thou shalt eat of it, and live for ever: Thou thyself shall be as the fruit upon this Tree, which shall never fail, nor fall. But if thou choose to thyself thine own darkness, if in this darkness thou distinguish and divide thyself from the Divine Light, seeking to captivate this Light in thy darkness, and to turn it to a glory to thyself, as if thou hadst in thyself, and in thine own darkness, the root upon which this Divine Light, with all its beauty, force and sweetness grew. This division in thyself will prove to thee the forbidden, and that cursed Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, in eating of it, thou shalt immediately die.  
God thus in the Law presenteth this trial to man; That he may discover man in the earthly Image of the first Creation, with all his Strengths and Beauties to be altogether shadowy: That he may make way for the dissolution of this shadowy Image, (in order to the springing up of the heavenly Image, as its proper seed, through it, into its ripe fruit and perfect form,) God withholds his Divine presence, appearances and influences from man, during this trial: Now the darkness which alone is man's own, discovereth itself in its own proper deformities and confusions; it predominateth in man, captivateth man entirely to itself, becomes his choice, and his Lord.  
Thus now sin springs up, thus it takes life to itself, bringing forth death together with it, which is the perfection of sin, and of the Original Darkness, dividing itself from the Divine Light, heightening itself to an enmity against the Divine Light, making itself by this means as a Mark and a Butt of opposition to the Divine Light, against which it shooteth all the fiery Arrows of the Divine Displeasure and Wrath.  
This seemeth to be the proper meaning of St. Paul's words, before cited; I had not known concupiscence, if the Law had not said, Thou shalt not covet. I was alive once without the Law, and sin in me was dead: But when the Law came, sin lived, and I died. Sin taking an occasion by the Law, deceived me, and so slew me. That of man's own, the darkness, was the Womb, out of which sin, the delusion of sin, and death by sin, spring forth into life.  
There is one note upon this Scripture, which is very necessary for the enlightening of the whole sense. Some Copies read in the 9 verse. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Sin revived; this supposeth a former life of sin, this seemeth uncapable of any sense agreeable to the Text, the Context, the Design of the Apostle in this place: But other Copies as that interlineary Greek Testament of Arias Montanus readeth it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sin lived, now first took life. This reading alone furnisheth us with a sense, in which all the expressions of the holy Apostle, scattered throughout this place, fall into a most beautiful Harmony.  
St. Paul here setteth himself in the place of all Mankind, in Paradise. He describeth to us, as in a figure, the nativity of sin, its esssential form or life, (if we may have leave so to speak of a privation) the occasion and manner of its first appearance, and taking life.  
I have now finished my Discourse upon the ends of the Law, which are of the first sort, proper and immediate: which are called by Logicians, the ends of the work. I pass now to the remote and Ultimate ends, which are styled the ends of the Workman. I shall make my transition by this consideration.  
A Poetical History, or work framed by an excellent Spirit, for a pattern of Wisdom, and Worth, and Happiness, hath this, as a chief rule, for the contrivance of it, upon which all its Graces and Beauties depend. That persons and things be carried to the utmost extremity, into a state where they seem altogether uncapable of any return to Beauty or Bliss: That then by just degrees of harmonious proportions, they be raised again to a state of highest loy and Glory. You have examples of this in the Divine pieces of those Divine Spirits, (as they are esteemed and styled) Homer, Virgil, Tass●…, our English Spencer, with some few others like to these; The Works of these persons are called Poems. So is the Work of God in Creation, and contrivance from the beginning to the end, named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, God's Poem. It is an elegant and judicious Observation of a learned and holy Divine, That the Works of Poets, in the excellencies of their imaginations and contrivances, were imitations drawn from those Original Poems, the Divine works and contrivances of the eternal Spirit. We may by the fairest Lights of Reason and Religion thus judge; That excellent Poets in the heights of their fancies and spirits, were touched and warmed with a Divine Ray, through which the supreme Wisdom form upon them, and so upon their work, some weak impression and obscure Image of itself. Thus it seemeth to be altogether Divine, That that work shineth in our eyes with the greatest Beauties, infuseth into our Spirits the sweetest delights, transporteth us most out of ourselves unto the kindest and most ravishing touches and senses of the Divinity, which diffusing itself through the amplest Variety, and so to the remotest Distances, and most opposed Contrarieties, bindeth up all with an harmonious Order into an exact Unity; which conveyeth things down by a gradual descent to the lowest Depths, and deepest Darknesses; then bringeth them up again to the highest point of all most flourishing Felicities, opening the beginning in the end, espousing the end to the beginning. This is that which Aristotle in his Discourse of Poetry, commendeth to us as the most artful and surprising untying of the knot, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or by a discovery. This is that which Jesus Christ pointeth at in himself, who is the Wisdom of God; The manifold Wisdom of God, in whom all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge lie hid, in whom all the Divine contrivances are form and perfected. What will you say, when you shall see the Son of Man return there, where he was at first.  
In this God himself seemeth to place the highest Beauties, the sweetest Graces, the richest Glories of his whole contrivance and work, in bringing things down by the Ministry of the Law, to the last point, to the lowest state, to the most lost condition, to the nethermost part of the Earth, to the nethermost Hell; And in ways unexpected by, uncomprehensible to Men & Angels, to raise things again by the Gospel to that first supreamGlory, which was their Original Pattern in eternity. The Law was brought in, that sin might abound; That where sin had abounded, grace might superabound. So the Wisdom of the Heathen, and of the Scripture, both instructeth us, That God entertaineth himself universally, and divinely, with this great and pleasant Work of making high things low, great things little; of making little things great, and low things high. He sendeth the rich empty away, and filleth the hungry with good things. He grindeth man through pain to d●…st, and then he saith return again ye Sons of Men.  
But I have made a long transition. I come now from these proper ends of the Law, which were the deepest descents, which comprehended the reign of sin by the Law unto Death, an Universal Death, the most kill death, a spiritual, neverdying death of immortal Spirits, as well the natural death of Bodies, separate from their Spirits, to the Ultimate ends of the Law, in which some glimmering lights begin to dawn of the most desired and delightful day shining from this black and hellish night.  
All these Ultimate ends of the Law are generally comprehended in Christ, the Ultimate end of the Law. The end of the Artificer, and of the Agent, of the eternal Spirit in the Law, is Christ. So saith the Spirit in the Scriptures, The end of the Law is Christ, Rom. 10. 4. He may well be the end of the Law, who is the end of all things; for whom all things are made. The Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth were by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came full of Grace and Truth, saith St. John in the same Chapter, Joh. 1. 14, 17. Grace is the Divine Love opposed to the ministry of wrath by the Law: Truth is the naked Face and Beauty of the Godhead, the Light, the brightness of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ, as he is opposed to the Vails and shadows of the Law. Thus Christ, that is, God in the nakedness and simplicity of the Divine Essence, as he is Love, as he is Light, the Light of Immortality and Glory, in which there is no darkness, is the end of all the darken, dividing, and destructions, of all the shadows and severities of the Law.  
But this general end is to be subdivided into its several steps or degrees.  
1. The end of the Law is to be a prison for fallen man, till Christ comes. This is the language of St. Paul, Gal. 3. 28. But before the Faith came, we were kept in custody under the Law, being shut up unto the Faith, to be revealed. Faith is the evidence of things not seen, and the substance of things hoped for. The Divine Faith, is a Divine evidence of Divine things, divinely invisible from an excess of Divine Light and Glory, too great for every natural eye, or understanding. The Divine Faith is the Divine substance of Divine things, the objects of a Divine hope. Christ is said by St. Paul to be the hope of Glory, and the end of the Faith of all the Saints. He also is the Light and the Life. This then is the Faith, and the Revelation of the Faith of the Gospel in the Saints; Christ the Light of the Glory of God, eternal Life, the quickening Spirit, the fountain of Life, the heavenly eternal truth and substance of all Good, our Hope, our End, comprehending all the Objects of our Hope, all our blessedness in himself. This Christ thus coming to us, forming a Divine Nature, a Divine Light, a Divine Eye, a Divine Understanding in us, shining forth in the midst of us, setting all things good and desirable in an invisible and eternal Glory, in their heavenly truth and substance before us, open and manifest in the midst of us, with their naked shining flowing Beauties and Sweetnesses to be possessed, to be enjoyed by us, to become one Spirit with us, to form themselves upon us, to transform and to translate us into one Spirit and Image with themselves, in the fore-tasts and first-fruits, as the earnest and pledge of our hopes springing up to a full fruition; This is our most holy, and most precious Faith, the Faith of the Gospel, opposed to the Works of the Law. This coming of the Faith in this verse, is expressed before, verse 9 by the coming of the seed, why then was the Law? It was added, because of Transgressions, until the Seed came. The Law than is a Prison. In this P●…ison all men are kept bound in Chains, shut up with Locks, and Bolts, and Bars, which no force can break, until the Seed, which is Christ, come. This heavenly Seed alone springing up into a new Nature, a new Creature, a new Person, into an heavenly Image, and a Son of God in him, alone brings him forth into the Liberty of the Glory of the Sons of God. Now, before this Jesus thus springing up, and shining forth in him, the Prison of the Law is dissolved, and vanisheth like an enchantment. The place in which it stood is known no more, for all is covered and filled, with the Light, Liberty, and Love of the eternal Spirit overflowing and encompassing this Son and Heir of God, this fellow-heir with Christ. So saith St. Paul to Timothy, 2 Tim. 1. The appearance of Christ in the Gospel abolisheth death, and bringeth life and immortality to light.  
2. The end of the Law is to be a shadow of Christ, and a Veil upon Christ. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read, That the Law had a shadow only of good things to come, not the very Image, Chap. 10. vers. 1. Jesus Christ the Image of the invisible God, is the very Image of all good things to come in the Spirit, and in eternity. The Law had a shadow of this Jesus, with these good things contained in him: The Law was also a Veil upon this Jesus, who with all these invisible eternal beauties and blessednesses, lay hid and lived after an hidden manner in these shadows and figures of the Law, as beneath a Veil. You may see this, 2 Cor. 3. 15, 16. St. Paul saith of the Jews, While Moses is read, the Veil lieth upon their hearts. But when there is a turning to the Lord, the Veil is taken away. He goeth on, But the Lord is that Spirit; where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; that is, freedom from the Veil: There is a beholding with open face, the Glory of the Lord Jesus; a transforming of the Soul into the same Image, with an increasing Glory, by the Lord, this Spirit. Thus Jesus, with all his Glories, was vailed in the Law; By the removal of the Veil, the Law becometh Gospel: The naked Glories of our Jesus flow forth upon us, and form us into one Glory with themselves. St. Paul teacheth us, 1 Cor. 1. 10. That the Fathers were all baptised into Moses in the same Cloud, and in the same Sea, eat of the same spiritual Bread, drank of the same spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. Upon the same account that Bread, that Sea, that Cloud was Christ. Christ was shadowed upon all these, and vailed beneath all these. The Clouds, Thunders, Fires, Tremble, and Earthquakes at Mount Sinai were shadows of Christ, and vails upon Christ in his most glorious Person, suffering and dying. The top of Mount Sinai, where God and Moses conversed familiarly with Faces shining mutually one upon another, being mutual Feasts one to another, was a shadow of Christ, and a Veil upon him in his Resurrection and Ascension.  
Divines teach us, That the Law is the Gospel vailed, and the Gospel the Law unvailed. The Jews say, That the Ten Commandments are founded upon the Name of God. The Name is the Image of the thing; Christ who is the very Image, is the true Name of God, and of all true things comprehended in God. The Moral Law, with all the Precepts and Duties of it, is Christ in his heavenly and Divine Nature in us, but vailed with the Letter, with the darkness of the Letter, yet in that darkness doth the heavenly Image figure itself, making the darkness itself a shadow of its Glory.  
How rich, and how sweet is our Jesus, and the mystery of God in him, through all his works? The Law itself hath no Darkness, no Death, no Fire; so full of Dread, Horror, and Destruction, which looked upon with a right eye, is not unexpressibly beautified and sweetened by this, that Jesus Christ, with all the treasures of eternal Love, Beauty, and Joy, is shadowed upon it, and vailed beneath it. The Fathers under the Law acquainted with this mystery, conversed with Christ, saw his day, grew up into him through this shadow, beneath this Veil, seeing and embracing him shadowed also in their own persons, and lying hid as under a Veil in their Hearts and Loins, in their Flesh and Spirit.  
3. The Law prepared the way of Christ. John the Baptist, who came to restore all things to their Primitive purity, in the Ministry of the Law, is represented as an Angel sent before the Face of the Lord, to prepare his way. The Law is a threefold preparation for Christ.  
1. By Conviction, Condemnation, and Death; which all discover a necessity of Christ, make him precious, make him the desire of all Nations, make all wait for him, as the only blessed One, and their only Blessedness, Crying, Blessed is he, blessed is the Messias, the Christ, blessed is Jesus, who alone comes in the Name of the Lord, in the Form, Power, and Glory of the Godhead.  
2. The Law is a preparation for Christ by the Righteousness of Morality, and of the Letter.  
3. By setting Christ before us in a shadow, and under a Veil. So the Law fills up the Valleys, and makes the Mountains plain. It humbleth and bringeth down every high thing, it raiseth up every dejected and despairing spirit. It turneth all reliance or glory in our own Righteousness or Strength, in our own Reason or Will, into shame. It takes away our distrust and despair, turning that into hope, and a joyous expectation. It first burieth all the beauty, strength, excellency, and life of the Creature, in a grave of Sin, Death and Wrath, as deep as the nethermost parts of the Earth, as the nethermost Hell; Then it shadoweth Christ upon this Grave, and showeth him hidden beneath it, as under a Veil, and as a Seed of eternal life sown in it.  
4. The Law is an heightening to the sweetness and beauty of Christ. The Law came in, that sin might abound: That where sin had abounded, Grace might super abound. The Law is a threefold heightening to the sweetness and beauty of Christ in the Gospel.  
1. The Law heightens the Glory of Christ, by an Antiperistasis. As in hard Frosts, the Lights of Heaven shine brightest, and look with sweetest Glories upon us: As in the coldest season, the Fire burns brightest, and refeshes our Spirits with the liveliest warmth and heat: So Darkness, Death and Wrath, in the Ministry of the Law, by their opposition being carried to the greatest extremity, excite and stir up the Godhead to pour forth itself from all its richest and unconfined Depths, in the most full, the overflowing Seas of all his sweetest, richest, most exalted Loves and Glories.  
2. The Law heightens the sweetness and beauty of Christ, by being a soil to it. There is more joy in Heaven over one Sinner that repenteth, than over ten righteous persons continuing in their Righteousness. The Father of the Prodigal in the Parable giveth this reason for the excess of Joy, the unwonted Triumphs, with all the heightenings of Feasts, and of Music; This our Son, which was lost, is found; which was dead, is alive. The Violets and Roses of the Spring are the sweeter, and more beautiful for the Winter going before them. How sweet and amiable is the light of life arising upon those who sit in darkness, and under the shadow of death? As a foil beneath a Diamond, so do the darknesses and deformities of Sin, the hateful stains and insupportable guilt of Sin; the terrors, the horrors, the torments of Death, and the Divine Wrath under the Law, make the freedom and fullness of the Divine Grace, the Righteousness, the Life and Glory of God in the Person of the Lord Jesus appearing to a lost forelorn Soul, in the midst of these black shades, unvaluably precious, infinitely amiable, pleasant, far surpassing all the sweetness and beauties of the loveliest Morning, all the Lights and Glories of the purest Sun arising out of the darknesses of the most melancholy and tempestuous night.  
3. The Law heightens the brightness and delightfulness of Christ in the Day of the Gospel, as fuel to that heavenly and blessed flame of Divine Love. As Sin hath reigned unto Death, (saith St. Paul) so Grace reigns through Righteousness unto eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin exalted its black and fiery Throne, by subduing to itself the first man in all his Primitive powers and purities; The first Paradise with its sweet peace and pleasantness, the first Creation in the whole Compass of its Divine Glories, sprung forth from, and resembling the Divine World in eternity. How great and deep is that darkness, bottomless as Hell itself? How bitter is that death, as the poison of Asps, as the poison of the old Serpent, the Dragon himself, which hath extinguished the light of so much Beauty, which hath corrupted so much Sweetness, which hath devoured and swallowed up into the black and bottomless Abyss of a first and second death, an unsearchable depth of confusion and woe, such a world of so Divine Sweetnesses and Beauties, with all their amiable light and life?  
But now what Tongue can express, what Heart can conceive the unmeasurable heightenings of that Divine Grace and Love, the unparallelled unbounded Beauties and Glories of that Righteousness, the infinite purities, pleasures, powers, perpetuities of that life, the inestimable, incomprehensible Sweetnesses, Beauties, Virtues, and force of that Person our Jesus, in whom all these united, who by all these uniteth in his own Person, reigneth over these devouring Powers of darkness and death, subduing them all unto himself, and carrying this whole captivity, captive, into the Kingdom of Light and Love, unto which he himself returneth as he ascends.  
The fire at once increaseth its own force and flame by the great quantity of fuel on which it feeds, and converts the dead fuel into one glorious spreading ascending flame with itself. Shadows seen alone, have little grace in them, but skilfully mixed with the bright colours in a Picture, and presenting themselves to the eye in one view together with them, increase the beauty of the Picture, are themselves a sweet part of the Beauty, and a rich Variety in it. Discordant touches upon a Lute offend the Ear, but in a Lesson of Music, they are themselves harmonious, and enrich the Harmony of the whole Lesson.  
Thus the first Adam (who was only an earthly Image, a shadowy similitude of the Divinity, and made under the Law,) the Fall, the whole reign of sin unto death, by the Ministry of the Law, with all its Clouds and Storms of shame, terror and torment, are in themselves a melancholy Image, filling us with the afflicting Forms of deformity, confusion, desolation and woe: But when these in the Gospel become fuel to that pure, potent and pleasant fire of the Divine Love, the eternal Spirit, the Spirit of Grace and Glory; now they enlarge and heighten this beautiful and blessed flame, now themselves are become spiritual, immortal flames of highest sweetness and beauty in this Divine flame. Now these discordant notes, these dark lines and strokes in the Evangelical melody of the eternal Word, in the unvailed Face of the heavenly Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, in the Music of the eternal Love, in the beauty of the Righteousness, the unvailed Glory of the Godhead, in the Person of Christ, become themselves most rich heightenings, most pleasant and beautiful parts, most dear and delightful Varieties in the eternal Melody, and unfading Beauty of the Divine Loveliness and Love.  
I have now finished my Reply to this Reason, for freewill in man, taken from the Language of the Scripture. In which Reply, I have endeavoured to set before you in their clear distinctions, the difference between the vail of the Letter, and the mystery of the Spirit, hid beneath this Veil. I shall now conclude this Discourse, by offering humbly to you three Rules, for the right understanding of those expressions in the Scripture, which are most of all pressed, and pressing in this Point.  
1. God planteth and establisheth man upon natural Principles of rectitude in the Divine Image; he leaveth him to the force, and to the trial of these Principles; he ministereth to him outwardly, inwardly all moral assistances, for the strengthening, actuating and heightening of these Principles to their utmost perfections. Thus God who properly hath no Will, nor any thing common to the Creature, or proportionable to the Creature; But as a Will with other faculties and forms, proper to the Creature are given to him, by a fit figure, and according to the manner of the Creature, saith of himself, I will not the death of a Sinner, but rather that he return and live.  
2. When God appeareth unvailed in the Face of Christ, who is the brightness of his Glory, Righteousness, Love, Life, Immortality, Joy and Glory, attend upon, and flow from his unvailed Person, his naked presence and appearance; As the Sun carrieth along with him in his Circuit, a sweet flourishing Spring and Summer. When God withdraws himself behind clouds of darkness, and of night, when he withholds the sweet beams and pleasant influences of his own face and person behind thick cover, strange forms and disguises. Now man withers and dies away in all the beauties and sweetnesses of the Divine Image: in the place of these, Deformity and Death spring up from that deficiency which is inseparable, to the natural principles of the Creature, which then discovers itself and overspreads the whole man with the shadow of Death and Hell, when those principles are no more fed and supplied from their eternal springs in the bosom of Christ. In this sense these words are most properly true, Thy destruction is of thyself, but thy Salvation is of me, O Israel, saith the Lord.  
3. God in himself, and in the person of the Lord Jesus, as he is the essential Image of God, is a most simple Unity, comprehending all Varieties within himself. In this Unity, he is Love itself, the first, the supreme, the most pure, the most potent unconfined love. All pleasantnesses are in his Face and Presence, he is the Bridegroom, entirely fair and pleasant, altogether delightful, the Object of all Loves, Desires, the Seat of all Delights and Glories, the Spring of Immortality and Eternity. As himself is, such in the highest affinity and resemblance is his work, as it springs immediately from him, his principal design and contrivance, with which he begins, in which he ends, and rests eternally, which he carrieth along as his first and Ultimate design throughout all things.  
This then is one entire universal piece, comprehending all Variety in itself; this is one entire piece of sweetest Loves, of riches Lights, of purest Glories; All scenes, all forms of darkness and death are subordinate and subservient to this, are parts of this, are comprehended in this, drawn forth from it, terminated in it, by a Divine and delightful skill set with a shining amiableness in their proper places, overspread with a sweetness and lustre in the Unity of the grand design, and finally in a manner most pure, most harmonious, most ravishing, swallowed up into the eternal Lights, in which the whole piece terminateth. Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, who is blessed for ever. How true is it? how exceeding large now is this truth in all senses, in all languages, Humane or Divine, That God willeth not the death of a Sinner? That Destruction is not of him? As the Understanding of God is Truth itself, the highest and most universal Truth, the measure of all Truth; so is the Will of God, which is himself, the first, the highest, the most comprehensive, the unconsined Good, the only reason and measure of all good.  
We have passed through those Reasons which seem of greatest moment, and to have greatest difficulty in them. We hope that we draw near to our Haven, and that with easy and gentle strokes, we shall now soon arrive at it. The Reasons on this part, which now remain, seem to be rather mistakes, arising from vulgar or general conceptions unexamined, undistinguished, than from the exercised judgements of wise and learned Spirits. They are derived from the nature of things, Moral, Physical, or Metaphysical; I shall continue them in the same order with the precedent Reasons.  
4. Reason. If the Will of Man be not free, all Laws seem useless.  
Answ. The force of this Reason seemeth to be entire and powerful on the contrary part. If the Will of Man be free, undeterminated by the dictates of the Understanding, Laws have no more any signification or efficacy. For the intent of these, is clearly to work upon the Understanding. Precepts and Prohibitions are Rules propounded, Lights set up to the Understanding, to inform what road or course is to be followed, what to be carefully avoided in our Navigation through the Sea of this World, that we may pass safely, free from the danger of Rocks and Shelves to our desired Port. Rewards and Penalties are to be weighed and judged by the Understanding, according to whose standard and estimate they have all their value. Vexatio dat intellectum. The proper end of Punishments and Rewards, is to excite the Understanding. The proper end of Precepts and Prohibitions, is to enlighten the Understanding.  
The excellency and efficacy of every Law, is to impress upon us the sense of Good and Evil. So Moses the Lawgiver among the Jews, saith to them, I have set before you this day, Good and Evil, Life and Death. What effect hath the sense of Good and Evil seated in the Understanding, if the Will be guided by an absolute ungoverned arbitrariness within itself, without Order, without Harmony, without Connexion, without respect to the dictates of the Understanding? How useless, how fruitless are all impressions of Good or Evil, if the Will be not by the Law of its own Essence, by its own essential Principles determined to good, sub ratione boni, under the formal appearance of good?  
5. Reason. Who meeteth not with this frequent experiment in himself, which the Poet expresseth in the person of Medea, (as I remember) Video meliora proboque, deterior a sequor.  

Better things I see, approve;  
The evil yet I choose and love.   
Answ. This thin mist is easily scattered and cleared into a pure Air, by the beam of one distinction between good, propounded in the Thesis, in its abstracted and general nature, or in the Hypothesis, clothed with all its practical and individuating circumstances. In the first, it is the subject of the Dictamen practicum intellectus, of the Understanding in its proposal of general Rules of practice to the Will; In the other, the good is the subject of the Dictamen practice practicum, of the Understanding in its dictates and directions to the Will in arenâ, upon the place, in the singular and individual action, now this moment lying before it, with all its circumstances. The Schools well distinguish between Act us signatus, and Act us exercitus. An Act marked out and described by the Understanding, or an Act now immediately presenting itself unto a real existency out of all its Causes.  
Whoever vieweth and distinguisheth exactly the sentiments of his Understanding, the commerce between those and the motions of his Will, maketh this clear discovery, if I be not very much deceived; That in the general conception and rule in the practical dictate and direction, in the exactest contemplation and description of a moral Act, one thing seemeth good to us, when after this, when we come upon the place to exercise the Act itself, our sense is altogether changed. The practically practical dictate of the Understanding, its sentiments now in the moment of action, in the presence and immediate impressions of all Circumstances, differeth from the precedent Rules, and passeth quite to a contrary Point, to present that, as the present good, the good of the present moment to the embraces of the Will, which was condemned in the general Rules, as a most dangerous evil, a most certain ruin.  
Two circumstances upon the place, and in the moment of action, are cast into the balance upon the place, or in the moment of an action or temptation, which weigheth it down with a great force.  
1. One is the difficulty and pain in resisting the alluring evil.  
2. The other is a flattering hope of enjoying the false sweetness of the present Action, and being delivered from the unhappy consequences threatened; while they are looked up, either as uncertain or contingent, or capable of being diverted by the Divine Goodness, or by a succeeding repentance and change especially for this one adventure.  
We may seal up this Answer with the impression of this golden Truth mentioned formerly; Good under the form of good, is the Object of the Will. This alone attracteth the Will, this alone moveth it. The connexion than is inviolable and immediate between the Ultimate proposals of the Understanding, presenting any Object to the Will under the formality or appearance of good, and the motions of the Will towards that Object, to receive it with mutual embraces.  
6. Reason. What do most persons upon this Subject say? Can I not walk, sit, or stand, when I will, at my pleasure? Can I not choose or refuse? Can I not Will as I will? Is not my Will then free?  
Answ. This Argument indeed is form Crassâ Mineruâ, from a very gross conceit, from the want of distinguishing between a spontaneity in the Acts themselves; and an undeterminedness in the essential Principles, from which the Acts flow. The question is not concerning the power or pleasure of the Will in Actibus imperatis, in governing the Loco-motive faculty, and the Instruments of motion, the members of our Body: Neither is it about the Elicit Acts of the Will, it's own immediate motions of loving or hating, whether these be in the power and pleasure of the Will. That which is the subject of the Controversy, is the root of this power and pleasure in the Will, which it putteth forth in its immediate or more remo●…e Acts, the Essence, the essential form and principles of the Will itself. However the Will in its essential form and principle be determined by superior and universal Causes, which as essential Principles, and as nature itself are complicated in the essence and nature of the Will, yet doth the Will move in all its Acts with no less power and agreeableness. Yea, rather the sweet and harmonious concurrence of the superior and universal Cause, in the Essence and Operations of the Will, by the combinations of all Celestial, Angelical, Divine Virtues, make the motions of the Will more potent and more pleasant. In truth, the Will of man in a temptation, may be like a Ship in a storm. The Ultimate dictates of the Understanding, the appearances of good and evil, in the moment of Action, clothed with all its circumstances, may suddenly and violently vary; They may be like contrary Winds and Waves, carrying the Ship in several moments unto contrary motions. As the last gust of Wind, and the last motion of the Waves, so the last dictates, the last appearances of good, carry the Will away, whether it be upon a Rock, or in a safe course to its Haven. Yet still this is true which Aristotle saith, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Election or choice is a desirous Understanding, or an Intellectual Desire, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, A desire from deliberation.  
7. Reason. I have met with this Argument for the freedom of the Will from a learned pen. The chief ground on which the predetermination of the Will is built hath been this Principle, That sin is a privation, and no positive Being. Thus God is believed to be cleared from the evil of Sin, in the Acts and Motions of the Will, while evil being a deficiency, is capable of no efficient Cause. An instance is brought to overthrow this Principle, from a Spirit hating God. Here this Act of the Will, the hatred, as it is formally drawn forth by, and terminated in this Object, the Person and Nature of God, is formally, in its positive Being a sin.  
Answ. 1. If sin in any Subject or Act, be a positive thing; I know not how by any skill or understanding, Humane or Angelical, God can be acquitted from being the Author of sin. For this is without controversy the sense of all Divines of all sorts, except the Manichees, and those who with them establish two coordinate Godheads of Good and Evil, that he who is the only true God, is the first, the universal Being, the Fountain of all Being, the Being of every Being.  
2. Here seemeth to be a plain mistake, for want of distinguishing this individual Act of hating God, as it is considered in genere moris, and ingenereentis; In its moral, and in its natural capacity.  
1. While we look upon this Act of hatred in a complex proposition, as it is determined upon this Object the Divine Essence; we consider it not naturally, but morally, we rightly pronounce it to be morally evil: But this moral evil ariseth from a moral circumstance, which is the undue determination of the Act upon an undue Object. The evil here lies in the irregularity and obliquity of this Act morally considered in the determination to its Object. This irregularity and obliquity is a privation of the due rectitude in which principally consisteth a right determination of the Act, upon a right Object. Thus is the evil of sin, no more any thing positive here, but altogether privative.  
2. If you consider this Act, ingenereentis, in its natural capacity, you abstract it from all its moral circumstances: you take a naked view of it, as it is a natural motion in the will of aversion or opposition. Thus it is clearly good. It hath a natural, or physical goodness, as it answereth the proper and immediate Principles of the Form or Essence from which it flows, and those formal essential Principles by which it is constituted. It hath also a metaphysical goodness, as every thing; that is, is good in its conformity to the Divine Will, which, as the Seal, setteth the impression of being upon every thing that hath Being.  
3. There is also in this case before us, a deception of our Intellectual sense, by a mist cast before our eyes, in which appearances are taken for realities. I humbly conceive, that there is no greater contradiction to all Principles of Truth and Knowledge, than this assertion; That any Spirit hateth God as God, as he appeareth in his own proper Form. God is that, which all things desire. God alone is Good, saith Jesus Christ. If God alone be good, he is the first, the supreme, the universal Good; The general Good of the whole, the proper good of each particular; All Good in one, the only Good in all; the only Suitableness, the only Agreeableness to every Spirit, Person, and Nature; the Truth, the Perfection of each Being; That which all things desire, that which equalleth and transcendeth all desires. As St. Paul saith to the Athenians, That God whom ye ignorantly worship, I preach unto you. So by these unquestioned Principles, it seemeth unquestionable, That God, as he is in his own proper Form, is alone that Object which all things in Heaven, on Earth, and under the Earth, love, seek, and adore. If he shall please to lift up his Veil, and discover his Face to be seen by all eyes of mortal or immortal Creatures, all casting away their several Idols, would run swiftly and unanimously into his Bosom alone; crying out with an universal shoot, This is he, whom our Souls love, This is our Beloved. This alone is the Good which we have pursued in all things, through all things: Here is our Rest for ever. If any Spirit than hate God, it directeth its hatred not against God, but a false Image, which it hath set up to itself of God, as an hater of him, as a cruel one, as extending himself to a larger compass in severities and wrath, than sweetnesses and loves; as an hard Taskmaster requiring Brick, when he affordeth no Straw; as an enemy or a neglecter of the joy and felicity of his Creatures, as raising a pleasure and glory to himself in the shame and ruin of his own Work; or at least from a want of natural goodness and kindly affection, leaving his own Work, his own Birth to shame and ruin, when it is every way in his Power to make it good and great in Blessedness and Glory. So now it is no more God, which this Spirit hateth; but an Idol set up within itself, in the place of God. So sin deceiveth it first, and then killeth it, by a misplaced hatred upon a mistaken Object. So this Spirit sinneth, by falling short of the Glory of God; and manifesteth its sin by this to be nothing positive, but a privation only.  
8. Reason. This predetermination of the Will placeth Man in the same rank with Automata, the selfmoving Works of Art, as Clocks and Watches. These are determined by the Workman to a certain motion, which they cannot vary, and being put into motion by the hand of the Workman, they continue it without any power over it unto its designed period. Such a piece of work Man seemeth to be, if the motions of his Will upon which all other Humane motions depend, be not in his own power.  
Answ. What if Man be not allowed that Prerogative, in respect to the superior and universal Movers, which these works of Art have in respect to the Artificer? He frameth his pieces for their motion, he putteth them into motion; they now continue their motions without any assistance from the Workman, the Author of their frame and motion. Man lives, and moves, and hath his Being in God: Every distinct moment of his Being, Life, and Motions, are new and distinct emanations from God, as in their first Beginning, as at their first Creation; yet are the preeminencies of this self-mover, the Soul of Man, many, great, and glorious, above the selfmoving works of Art.  
1. The motions of the Will are Intellectual. The Soul in the actings of the Will understandeth, reflecteth upon its own motions: It comprehendeth the beginning, the end of them, their causes out of which they arise, their nature and differences, their course and stream in which they run along, their effects and consequents in which they determine.  
2. The motions of the Will are with a relish and agreeableness. They all flow from Love, the love of Good, the love of Beauty, which is good in its proper Image or appearance. This is the first and great wheel in the Will, which puts all the wheels of the other affections or passion sinto motion. The motions of the Will tend all to delight and joy as their mark, to the delightful and joyous fruition of the beloved Beauty, the beloved Good, in the which the Will, together with the whole Soul, and the whole Man, hath its rest and its end.  
3. The Soul of Man in the motions of the Will is acted by superior and universal Causes, not as an external hand or power, but as internal Principles, as the springs of Being and Beauty, of Life and Light, of Activity and Motion, of all power, sense and relish, which are essentially comprehended in the Essence of the Soul and Will, which continually feed it.  
Give me leave here again to cite those uncontroverted Maxims, in the Metaphysics; the universal cause is most truly, is most of all the Cause in every kind of casuality: So is it most truly, most of all the essential, the formal cause of the Soul and of its Will. The universal Cause is most intimate to every effect. It is then most intimate to the Will, and to the operations of the Will.  
We read in Proclus, That the Soul containeth all things in itself, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is after the manner of a Soul. The subordinate and supreme kinds of things are comprehended in the inferior kind, entering into the definition and essence of each specifical nature together with it. Thus man comprehendeth in his Essence the superior forms of a living Creature, of a corporeal substance, of substance itself in its abstracted eminency of Being, the Fountain and Head of all these. After the same manner, the Divine Ideas their eminencies and virtues, the Angelical forms in their powers and properties descending and forming themselves into an inferior Image, in which they are all united, constitute the Essence of the Soul, and are complicated in it.  
But to conclude my Answer to this Reason. Doth this darken the glory of the Will of Man? Doth this confine it, destroying its freedom and its Joy? that it acteth and moveth in conformity to, in communion and fellow ship with the Divine Will, from the same Principle, in the same amplitude, to the same end, by the same necessity of good alone, of the supreme, the universal Good, comprehending all things in itself, unchangeable in all. This is the proper nature of Man, and of his Will, that Divine Similitude and Image in which he was first created.  
9 Reason. But the Variety of things, that it may be entire, requires it, that there should be in nature a free agent, undetermined to motion, or a cessation from motion; to this or a contrary motion, having the disposal of itself, of its own acts independantly, entirely in itself.  
Answ. 1. I do not remember, that I have hitherto read or heard this pleaded, That the Will is equally undetermined and free to Good, or to Evil, presenting themselves in the formalities or appearances of Good, or of Evil. This were to affirm that evil equally with good is the Object of the Will: That all things desire evil in its own proper form, as much as good. Yet this Variety here asserted, clearly asserteth this.  
2. A full Variety is directed to the most perfect Harmony, as its end. It is the Unity preserved entire in the Variety, which composeth the Harmony, and is the Soul of Harmony. Variety itself being a singular name, is an Unity. Things absolutely divided and separate one from another, make not a Variety: This ariseth from the Unity in which they agree, in which they are bound up together, like Flowers in a Posy, and presented in one Form, in one view to the eye, or to the mind. A part of the Variety then, which by its independency upon the whole breaketh the Unity, dividing itself from it, destroyeth both the end and the essence itself of the Variety, which are the Harmony and the Unity.  
3. Nature is the Law of Being. Variety is Being varied. Is not this a contradiction in the terms? that the Law of Being, that Being varied, should call for as its Perfection, a Being independent upon Being itself, the first, the universal Being; that is, should call for a Nonens, a not Being. Such doth that Will seem clearly to be in its essence, motions, and actions, which in these, in any moment and point of these, in any circumstance, is absolute in itself, independent upon the first and Universal Cause, the Fountain of Being.  
Being thus cast into the bosom of the Divine Variety, in which Nature and Grace, the Fall and the Exaltation of things, things visible and invisible, of the Creature and the Creator, lie and spring together, as in their Garden-Bed: Here with this Variety we will close our Discourse, and in this Bosom take up our rest. Jesus Christ in his Discourse to Nicodemus, representeth the spiritual Birth by this similitude, Joh. 3. 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but thou knowest not whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. St. John saith, 1 Epist. 2. Chap. 10. verse. He that hateth his Brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goes. O that all the Lord's people, O that all Mankind were enlightened with the heavenly brightness and splendour of the Divine Love, anointing their Spirits with the heavenly perfume of the same love to their Brethren; that is, to every other Person or Spirit, as St. Paul explains it, Rom. 13. 8. He that loves another fulfils the Law. That which the other Scriptures call a Neighbour, a Brother, is here Another, every other person. This Love would be an anointing of light upon the eyes of our mind, giving us a clear and sweet prospect round about us, in which we should not only hear a sound or a voice, but see whence we came, whither we go, where we are, the truth of all this, and the way. By the practice of this Divine Command, To love one another, we should, as by a shining hand from Heaven dropping Mirth upon our Spirits, be lead to the reason and the root of this Love, which is the Divine Variety now mentioned, the Jerusalem above, the Mother of us all, free, and unconfined. This is to love another, according to the heavenly Command, and to love another as my Neighbour, my Brother, to love every other person and thing, as a fellow Branch with me in this Variety.  
But if we will see the sweet and glorious Light of this heavenly Love, we must not take the Variety alone, but join to it the Unity, and the Union of both these, which are integral, essential and primary parts of the Variety, which are every way equal to the Variety, and distinctly, essentially comprehend it in themselves. Thrice happy is that Spirit, which by the Initiations, Sanctisications, and Anointings of the eternal Spirit, hath been admitted to this Sacred and Supreme Mystery; To behold this Trinity, the Variety in its first, highest, and unbounded form; The Unity, most absolute, entire, and undivided; The Union of both these, every way mutual, and perfect. O what Joys? what Glories? how pure? how high? how universal? filling all in all, transcending all things and thoughts open themselves to this Spirit, who now sees himself a Variety of the same joy and glory, in these joys and glories, who now sees himself one eternal Joy and Glory, with all these Joys and Glories in their Divine Unity? What an eternal Marriage-day doth this Spirit now enjoy; while at once by the bond of this Divine Union, it seeth itself a distinct beauty and blessedness in the midst of all these innumerable glories, equally distinct from him, and one from another, with the first, the highest, the most full distinction, which is the perfection, the compleatness, the life of the Variety; and yet in the same Scene, in the same appearance and person, one with them all, as they all are one in the first and highest Unity.  
This Spirit now seeth those Divine beauties and truths shining upon it with a most ravishing amiableness, which we have touched in our former discourse, as the Divine ground, on which the determination of the Will is built, from which spring up those great and Sacred mysteries of the Gospel and the Law, together with all the several Seeds or Forms of Light and Darkness, Life and Death, Nature, Sin, Grace, and Glory comprehended in them.  
The Seed of God, which is the Seed of the Divine Unity, and by St. Paul called one Spirit, 1 Cor. 6. Hath been first before the world was in the Bosom of the Father, in the Arms of Christ. So saith Jesus to his Father, Thine they were, and thou gavest them me. This Divine Seed is brought down into a shadowy Image, as a sleep, and a dream in a sleep. It still descends lower by the Fall, not only to the remotest distance from the Purity, Pleasantness, and Glory of its Original, but to the greatest estrangedness from it, and opposition to it, as a tragical dream of some excellent Person or Prince in a troubled sleep. God several times mentioneth it with several senses and applications, as a Sacred and Divine mystery, That he calleth his Son out of Egypt. It is his own Seed, his own Son which first descended into Egypt, the House of Bondage, a Land of darkness; and of Devils, where almost every Creature was an Idol-god, and so a Devil. By an heavenly and Divine Call, as by the returning of the Sun in the Spring to the Plants; This Seed of Glory and Eternity sown, and sunk so low, by degrees comes up, and returns again through all the beautiful, the various, the increasing Forms of Light and Love springing up out of Darkness and Wrath. So at length it arriveth at its first habitation of Glory and Delights in the Arms of Christ, in the Bosom of the Father. It now flourisheth in the prime, in the full blown Beauties and Joys of that life which it had at first, which it ever hath had hidden with Christ in God, the Life of eternity.  
Thus is the Variety complete, thus is the whole Variety fully displayed in the heavenly Seed, being carried along through all distinctions, diversities, contrarieties of forms and states of Good and of Evil. Thus is the Seed itself preserved pure through its whole Pilgrimage. Thus is the eternal Spirit and the Divine Wisdom unstained, conducting this heavenly Seed through all these diversities and contrarieties, while they keep their spiritual, their Divine Beauties entire, by keeping the entire Unity, and so the Order, the Harmony of the Divine Variety.  
We read, Rom. 8. That the Saints which are in the heavenly Seed, are predestinated to be conformed to the Image of the Son of God. Of this Son, we read Eph. 4. That he who ascended, is the same who descended first. That he descended into the nethermost parts of the Earth, and ascended far above all Heavens, that he might fill all. That the Variety might be full in his Person, and that he might fill each part of the Variety from the nethermost parts of the Earth, to an height above the highest Heavens, by carrying the Unity, and so the full Variety, and so the Universal Harmony into each step and form of this Variety, whether it were as a shade or a light, as a crooked or straight line in this Divine Face, whether it were a Discord or Concord in this Universal Music.  
In this Divine Glass we see the Law, in the midst of the love, contrivance, and glory of the Gospel rising up as a tragical scene, with all the black and fiery shapes of sin and wrath, acting their parts to the uttermost in this shaded scene, spring up from the womb of darkness, opening itself in the Bosom of the eternal Light, as it was now opening itself in the Gospel to an heavenly Marriage-day between the ever glorious Bridegroom, and this spotless Bride. All this was done that the Variety might be full, That he who cometh after this King, might find nothing to add to his Work.  
Yet through this whole scene of the Law, with all its mournful and affrighting Apparitions, the purity, the sweetness, the life of the Gospel runs along sowing itself in it, vailing itself beneath it, casting itself into this shade, and sleep, and dream, springing up through it, making it all a shadow, a Divine, though obscure Figure of itself; by which also it heightens itself, while the Unity in this part of the Variety also preserveth itself entire, tuning it, and composing it, binding it up into one Universal Harmony of the Divine Beauty and Melody in the whole Variety, in which it is set, according to the Order, which is the Divine Unity, diffusing itself through all in its proper place and time.  
Here the Author concludes the last part of his Discourse of the Freedom of the Will, but the Reader will in the following Pages find the the enlargement which was before promised, upon the Argument taken from Christ's Mediation, which is here continued under the same Title, because it aims at the same design with the rest of the whole Book.   

A DISCOURSE OF THE Freedom of the Will.  
An enlargement upon the Argument taken from the Mediation of Christ.  
I Intended to have passed lightly over this Argument. But being moved by some Friends, who by their Understandings have an authority with me, and by their Loves a power over me; I reflected again upon it in my thoughts, and found, as I humbly conceive, that nothing would more confirm and illustrate the Subject of which I treat, than the Mediatorship of our Lord Jesus rightly understood. I do therefore resume it, and shall attempt to unfold its Glories in order to my present design, as clearly, completely, and compendiously, as I shall be able.  
I shall take for the ground of this part of my Discouse, that Scripture,  Colos. 1. 
Vers. 15. Who is the Image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every Creature; or, of the whole Creation.  
Vers. 16. For by him were all things created, that are in Heaven and in Earth, visible and invisible, whether Thrones, or Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers: all things were created by him, and for him.  
Vers. 17. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.  
Vers. 18. And he is the Head of the Body, the Church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.  
Vers. 19 For it pleased the Father, that in him all fullness should dwell.  
Give me leave to make some notes upon the version of these words, vers. 15. In Greek it is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which signifieth both; the whole Creation, and every Creature. Vers. 16. That which we read by him, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in him. This in the beginning of the verse. In the end, for him, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, unto, or into him. Vers. 17. By him all things consist, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, All things stood together in him.  
In these Verses we have in a lively Draught, or Portrait with incomparable Sweetness and Glory set before us Jesus Christ, with a twofold Mediatorship; One, in the Work of Nature; The other, in the Work of Grace. In respect to one, he is styled, The firstborn of the whole Creation; In respect to the other, The firstborn from the dead, vers. 15, 18.  
The first Mediatorship is described, vers. 15, 16, 17. The second, ver●…. 18. Both are crowned with a double Epiphonema, or Conclusion v●…. 1. That he in all things have the pre-eminence, vers. 18. 2. It pleased the Father, that in him should all fullness dwell.  
In order to my treating of the Mediatorships of Christ, I shall lay down briefly these four grounds.  
1. There is no va●…, no breach, no gap in the Divine Wisdom or Work. Wisdom is defined by Proclus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, A fullness of things. If there were any 〈◊〉 in the Wisdom or Work of God, which is the ●…rth and Design of his Wisdom: There would be a wound upon i●…, and a deformity in the face of it, by the dissolution of the Continuity, of the Unity, of the Harmony.  
2. There is no leap in the Divine Work, no passing from one extreme to the other, without a passing thorough the medium, the middle-space or middle-state. This would make that vacuity a breach in the whole, which we beforementioned, as altogether unsuitable to a Divine, or to any wise Contrivance.  
3. There is a two-told Medium, or Mediatorship; One, Medium participationis; A Medium of participation; The other, Medium abnegationis, A Mediator of separation and abnegation. In this last sense, the Seas are Mediums between the Lands, which they divide and keep from meeting. So sin is a medium of separation between God and the Creatures; partaking of neither, inasmuch as it is a privation of Being; dividing both, as an unpassable Gulf between them, while it remains. After the first manner all middle-colours are mediums of Participation and Union between the two extreme colours, white and black. So the Soul is a medium of Union, and Participation between things invisible and visible, comprehending both in itself, and so joining both in One. Such a Mediator is Jesus Christ.  
4. The Lord Jesus then, as a Mediator of Union by Participation, toucheth both the extremes of infiniteness and finiteness; of God and the Creature, comprehends both in One in himself; fills up the middle space between both; is the way, by which God descendeth into the Creature, and the Creature cometh forth from God; by which again God reascendeth together with the Creature, and the Creature returneth unto God.  
Having laid down these grounds, I shall now upon them build up and establish the Mediatorship of our Lord Jesus in the Work of Nature, by these three Propositions, as so many stories in this Divine Palace of our Saviour's Person raised one upon the other.  
1. Jesus Christ is essentially, eternally, the only true God, infinitely transcending all Created Excellencies or Powers.  
2. The Lord Jesus standeth in the middle between God and all Creatures, comprehending both entirely in One in himself, with an admirable Beauty and Harmony; uniting both by himself with an incomparable Love and Sweetness.  
3. Jesus Christ is the Way by which God descendeth into the Creature; by which the Creation cometh forth from God.  
The first two Propositions seem to lie in those words; The Image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every Creature. Here I hope to discover them, lying clearly and beautifully enfolded in the embraces of each other. I will begin with the Godhead of Christ.  
1. Our Saviour, our Jesus is essentially the eternal, the only true God. I shall endeavour to set before our eyes our Jesus unvailed, and shining in the pure unmixed Glories of his Godhead, by the Lights of two Principles, which, I think, will be granted to me by all who acknowledge a God.  

1. God is eminently, transcendently a vital Act.  
2. God is eminently, transcendently an Intellectual Act.   
1. God is eminently, transcendently a vital Act. The Psalmist saith to him, With thee is the Fountain of Life. St. John in the close of his first Epistle saith of him, This is the true God, and eternal life. He is life itself, life pure, absolute, unmixed, unconfined, eternal, infinite, a Fountain ever equally unexhaust, a Sea unbounded.  
Life is a perpetual Generation. The chief, and most essential Power of life is to bring forth its like; to propagate and multiply itself in Images of itself. The most perfect Life bringeth forth itself into the most perfect Image. The most perfect Image hath two Properties: 1. It is most perfectly distinct from its Original. Take away the Distinction, and you take away the Generation, the Relation, the Representation, the Image itself. As the Distinction is more or less perfect or imperfect, clear or obscure; so are all these. 2. The most perfect Image is the most exact Representation of its Original, most exactly answering it, neither exceeding, nor falling short, nor varying in any part.  
Thus the most perfect Image is most perfectly One, and the same with its Original. Thus God is a vital Act.  
2. God is eminently, transcendently an Intellectual Act. In every Intellectual Act three things meet in One, Life, Light, Love.  
1. The Intellectual Life brings forth itself into an Image of itself, within itself in one Spirit, one Essence, one essential Act and Form with itself.  
2. The Intellectual Light gives the Intellectual Spirit a seeing, knowing, understanding, comprehension, and possession of itself in this Image.  
3. The Intellectual Love is the mutual Union and Communion of these two, the Original and the Image; a continual, sweet, pleasing, intimate, essential, and most agreeable motion of tendency, or inclination to each other, of unexpressible joy and complacency in each other.  
The Life here is the Generation ever in Act, ever perfect. The Light is the Image ever actually springing, ever actually complete. The Love is the conspiration, or the meeting of these two in One, as they are Distinct and One. Where these are most perfect, they are most perfectly distinct, most perfectly equal, most perfectly One, and every One most perfectly and most distinctly all Three in itself. The Original, and the Image most perfectly adequate to, and exactly in all parts, all properties answering each other, do alike mutually embrace, comprehend, bring forth each other within themselves, and within each other. The Love being the mutual embraces and selffruitions of each other equally comprehends both, is equally comprehended of both.  
These Three are therefore called Persons, being all equally One; equally Distinct, equally Complete in one Intellectual substance and subsistence, in an Intellectual Essence and Existence, having equally their Root or Original, their essential Form or Image, their operation; that is, their Life-Spring, their Light, their Love entire in themselves, all infinite, eternal, without Beginning, End, or Bound.  
Behold here our Jesus in the high and holy place of Eternity, the Image of the invisible God, equally God with his Father, having his Father in Himself, equally invisible to every created eye, or finite capacity by the same excess of Light and Glory.  
Behold here the Jesus of the Christians, at once the Son of God, and God the Father of all; at once the second Person in the Trinity, and the Trinity complete in himself, which is the Godhead gloriously displayed in the admired, adored, beloved fullness of Power, Beauty, Majesty, of all transcendent sweetnesses of Life, Light, Love and Joy; a Life ever bringing forth itself, a Light or Image ever springing up in the Bosom of this Life, which is itself; a Love, by which this Life and Image are uncessantly, eternally in an endless Circle bringing forth each other, springing up in the Bosom of each other, multiplying themselves into ever-fresh, unsearchably rich Varieties in the mutual embraces of each other, with sweetnesses and delights unexplicable, ever new, ever full, ever the same.  
This is the first and principal sense, in which our Jesus is the Image of the invisible God.  
This Image is the most perfect Birth of the Godhead within itself. All Images, all Forms of things, which lie wrapped up in the infinite Virtue or Power of the Godhead, all which it ever brings forth through Eternity or Time; all which it is capable of bringing forth the whole fullness of the Divine Essence or Nature with all the unbounded, innumerable Virtues and Powers, which as so many fresh everliving Springs open themselves in it, flow forth most distinctly, most completely into their first, their most true, their most proper Forms and Images here in this Image of which we speak. This Image comprehends them all in One in itself, and so becomes the Paradise of the Godhead in the heights of eternity.  
Our Jesus, as he is this Image of the Godhead in the Godhead, the second Person in the Trinity, the Birth of the Father, is the first Distinction, the first Variety. He is then the supreme, the absolute, the most absolutely unconfined Distinction or Variety; the Fountain of all Variety and Distinction. This is the Wisdom of God with its unsearchable Riches, the first, the most exact Distinction and Distinguisher.  
All Distinctions and Varieties of things, which ever do exist, or are capable of existing any where, exist first here most perfect, and most perfectly distinguished. Here they are all most perfectly One in the most entire Unity of the Godhead in the Father, and together with the Father in the Son. Here they are in this entire, most absolute and undivided Unity, as entirely, as highly various and distinct, as they are One. Here by the transcendency and simplicity of the Unity, which is entire thorough all, and every where undivided, each Distinction, each Variety is an absolute unconsined Unity, comprehending most perfectly the whole fullness of the Godhead, with all its endlessly new and various Varieties in its own proper Variety and distinct Form. This is the the amplitude of the Godhead, its Majesty and Glory in its own essential Image within itself. Aristotle, as I remember, in his Ethics defines Glory or Majesty to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Beauty with a greatness or amplitude. What is the Glory of our Jesus? what is the Majesty of our God, when he appears in his own Image, casting off every Veil, and discovering his open Face in our Jesus? How doth he with every glimpse of himself fill all the senses, all the understandings, all the capacities of Men and Angels, with the overflowing Pleasures of his Beauty in the height and amplitude of it, transcending all Glory, all Majesty in their most exalted heights, in their most extended amplitudes? The supreme and most entire Unity, the first, the fullest, the most ample and unconfined Variety meet here both in One. Here they make a Beauty infinitely high, infinitely ample, in the Face and Bosom of which all Beauties, endlessly new, endlessly various spring up, and shine, and smile together; while each distinct Beauty presents the entire Form of the Universal Beauty, with all its distinct Beauties entirely, infinitely new and distinct.  
Our Jesus in this Divine Image is the Divine Understanding, the internal, eternal Word in the Divine Mind. In this Image then stand together in One all forms of things, according to their most exact natures and distinctions, as they are ever known to God, as they ever appear before him, whose Knowledge is the only measure and ground of all Truth, both in Being and Knowing.  
To what tends this Discourse? To this. Our Lord Jesus in this eternal Image is the Universal, the entire Idea of the Godhead, the Treasury of all Ideas. He is all Ideas in general, each distinct Idea in its proper Unity and Distinction. He is all those unlimited Glories in their most exact Ideas or Images, in which the infiniteness of the Divine Nature is uncapable of being any way figured or shadowed in the finiteness of the Creature. He is all those Glories in their proper Ideas, yet still with an infiniteness of Glory, which cast forth their beams, and their shadows, which compose the whole Creation, and constitute every particular Creature.  
Now you see our Lord Jesus, the Image of the invisible God, and the firstborn of every Creature. As he is the Godhead in its full Idea, or essential Form and Image; so is he the whole Creation, every distinct Creature, every distinct Form, Circumstance, Motion, Variety of each Creature in its eternal Idea or Pattern, in its first and most exact Truth, as it is known of God, as it is seen and contemplated by him in that beatifical Glass, where all things appear at once in their most exact Truth, and most exalted Beauty. This Glass is the Idea, or the essential Image of the Godhead within itself. This is our Jesus, our God in the highest and fullest Glories of his Divine Essence.  
I have now finished my first task in the Mediatorship of Jesus Christ, his Godhead in its simplicity and absoluteness, the most pleasant and rich ground, the most beautiful and blessed Crown of his Mediatorship. I am sensible how large I am upon this Subject, into how vast a Sea I have cast myself. But, I hope, my Reader, thou findest it a Sea of Divine Beauties and Pleasures, where both our Spirits together swim, dive, and bathe themselves with a sense of unexplicable sweetnesses and satisfactions from the Floods of Light, and of Love at once refreshing and swallowing up into themselves our whole Spirits, our Understanding and Will.  
I hope also, if I deceive not myself, as how apt and likely I am to deceive myself in all things, I desire at all times to be sensible; But if I do not now deceive myself, I hope thou seest how pertinent this part of my Discourse is to my principal Theme, for the illustrating and confirming it.  
How beautifully, how delightfully do we see in this glorious Image within the Veil, now unvailed by its own Beams, as the rosy Fingers of the Morning of Eternity dawning in the Gospel drawing aside the Veil, the highest Necessity and the greatest Liberty matched and united? What Liberty is equal to this, where a full and pregnant Unity from its own spring within itself, diffuseth itself unto an endless, boundless Variety, triumphing every where, thorough all, in each imaginable point, with the undivided, unconfined fullness and freedom of all its Glories? What necessity so great as this, where this Unity by the eternally unalterable Law of its own nature brings forth itself unvaried into all this Variety; where this Unity, as Links of a golden Chain, joins all these Varieties by an immediate, immutable order, and connexion to each other; where this binds up all this unbounded Variety in its own straight, and sweet embraces? What Beauty so beautiful, what Delight so pleasant, what Harmony so agreeable, as this Divine Marriage between the most absolute Unity, and the most ample Variety in the Palace of Eternity; between the most unalterable necessity, and the most unconfined freedom in the Divine Nature? The Schools say, That God alone is Ens necessarium, A necessary Being, the highest Necessity; and that other Being's compared with him are contingent in respect to themselves. They also teach us, That all this which this supreme adorable Being is, in the infiniteness of his Divine Powers and Virtues, in the infiniteness of his Divine Essence, all this he is in a pure, immutable Act. Yet is he in this highest necessity, and most immutable Act, the freest Being the freest Agent.  
Do we not in like manner by contemplating this all-charming Person of our Jesus, this supreme Image in the Godhead, the Seat of all Beauties and Truths? Do we not see the Liberty of all things in their most proper, most glorious Heads and Springs, in their eternal Originals, their Ideas, the firstborn Images of themselves? How do they here each of them reign and spread themselves through the amplitude, and infiniteness of the Divine Variety, seated upon the Throne of the Divine Unity, in the Palace of this Universal Image, or Idea of the Divine Nature, every one in its own distinct Form? Is not this the ground of all Liberty, this the truth of all Liberty, in the inferior Forms, and orders of things, not a freedom from the force, or conduct of their Ideas, their Divine Heads and Springs in the Bosom of the Divine Being; but the Spring of these Ideas in them, forming them, figuring themselves upon them, acting them, diffusing themselves thorough them in all their growths and fruits.  
The Metaphysical Truth of things comprehendeth all kinds and degrees of Being, Divine, Natural, Moral, Mathematical; all kinds of Truth, Divine, Natural, Moral, Logical. Every thing, as it is, is metaphysically true. The metaphysical Truth of things is defined to be, the conformity of each thing to its first Truth, to its Idea in the Divine Mind. So far every Logical Truth, the truth of every Proposition Affirmative or Negative is true, as it answers its Idea in the Divine Understanding, which is our Jesus, the essential Image, and so the essential Wisdom, the essential Truth, the essential Liberty of the Godhead, the Mediator of all Births, all Images, of all truth and liberty thorough the whole nature of things. But let us now proceed.  
The Lord Jesus being a Mediator, uniting two extremes, toucheth both, standeth in a middle state between both, filling up the middle space, and so maketh both One. We have already seen the Lord Jesus in the heights of the Godhead, in the excesses of Glory. Let us now take a view of him in his middle-state between both.  
2. I shall endeavour to prepare the Way of the Lord Jesus, as he comes forth in the Mediatory Glory of this Middle-state by two general discoveries of his Person and Beauty here.  
1. Our Jesus in this middle-state is the Divine Union of Unity, and Diversity; of the Unity of the Divine Nature, of the Diversity of all Created Natures in One Divine eternal Person and Spirit. One of the two Extremes is the supreme Unity, comprehending all Distinctions in itself, preserving itself absolutely entire, eternally undivided in all. The other extreme is the Diversity of the Creatures, where the Unity is broken into all manner of Distinction, being every where imperfect, and at its highest point but the shadow of itself. The middle between these Two is the Union of these extremes, where all the most differing, distant, divided Diversities, the most divers forms of things dwell together in one Divine Image, in one Divine Spirit and Person; where the supreme, and most absolute Unity spreads itself thorough all the Diversities, unites them all in one undivided Glory, shines entirely in the whole, and in each part.  
2. Our Jesus in this middle-state, as our God, appears in an all-ravishing, all-admirable, all-adorable Beauty; in a Beauty distinct from that of the Divine Essence in its simplicity, distinct from that of the Divine Image in the Creation, joining both in a new Beauty, presenting all the various Beauties of both in a new Variety.  
How pure, how pleasant are the Glories of the Godhead in its own essential Image? How pure, how pleasant is the Image of God in the whole Creation, with all the differing Forms and Motions in their whole course and compass from the Head to the Feet, from the first rise to the last end, and rest of all seen in one view at once? How unexpressibly, how divinely transporting sweetest excesses and raptures of most glorious joys is the Harmony between these Two, when they are seen together in one Divine piece, in one Divine Person, in one undivided View and Spirit? This Person, this Prospect is our Jesus in his middle-state. This is his Mediatory Kingdom. This indeed in a Divine, most desirable, and most blissful sense is the Personal Reign of the Lord Jesus. Here doth he in the Divine fairness and fullness of his blessed Person sit upon a Throne of Grace and Glory, thorough the whole Variety of all Uncreated and Created Forms of things, in the whole, and in each part, as in the whole. Here is he the Marriage, and the Marriage-day of God and the Creature, of Eternity and Time, with all its divided Forms, successive Motions, disagreeing changes of Lights and Darknesses, Lives and Deaths. Here is he the Marriage of each thing, with its Idea in his most spacious and most glorious Bosom, where all the Fountains of Being and Beauty, of Life and Love open themselves. Here all things, the highest Lights of Glory, and the lowest shades; the most contracted and obscurest Form with its Idea, infinite in Majesty and Glory, lie together mutually enfolded in the inseparable and joyous embraces of each other, shining thorough, shining in each other, mutually set, as Seals upon the Bosoms and Hearts of each other.  
This is Jesus, the same yesterday, to day, and for ever, standing in the middle-space between Eternity and Time; joining in one Eternity with all its Glories, and Time with all its divers Births and Successions. This is the first Procession of the whole Creation, and of every Creature in the Person of Christ, before any Creature comes forth into its own proper and single created state. Thus is Jesus Christ in a second sense the Image of the invisible God, and the firstborn of every Creature. Thus all things are made by him, and he is before all; as he is the Divine Draught, and Platform of the whole Creation, with the whole Contrivance and Conduct of it from the beginning to the end, as God first bringeth it forth from his own Mind into a most beautiful and exact model, where he hath it ever before him in its Union with the general and distinct Ideas of it in his own Mind, that he may compare them, and with a pleasure worthy of God himself behold them in their mutual, most exact and Divine Correspondency.  
Here Jesus Christ manifestly hath in all things, even in every created form of things, as it is the emanation of some Divine Beam, the pre-eminence. He is first in every Form. He is there indeed with the excess of a Divine Glory. Here all fullness dwells, with a perfect and full complacency in our Jesus. All Uncreated Glories, all created Forms, as the Births and Images of those Glories dwell together here with incredible Joy, as the fullness of each other, as the Divine Mother and her lovely Child, exactly like its Mother mutually clasping each other with tenderest and immortal embraces.  
Having thus prepared my way, I will pass to the more particular Explications of this Mediatory Glory.  
1. God, as he is in the simplicity of his Divine Essence, in his first and supreme Glory, is the Head of our Lord Jesus in this middlestation. The Head of the Woman is the Man, the Head of the Man is Christ, the Head of Christ is God; according to the Doctrine of St. Paul. Philosophers and Divines frequently express the weak, the shady, the passive, the material part of things by the Female, the Woman; the virtue, the brightness, the active, the formal part by the Male, the Man. If we may so far have respect to an Allegorical or an Anagogical sense in this Scripture; We may interpret the Apostles words after this manner; The visible and corporeal frame of things hath for its head the Angelical Nature and World, which containeth all vital and substantial Acts, all Spirits, all Forms in their separated state. Here are the Essences of all things in their abstracted Beauties. Jesus Christ in his Mediatory Kingdom and World is the Head of the Angelical Image. The Head of this is the Divine World, the Divine Essence.  
Plato saith, All the Members were made for the Head. The Head in that spiritual sense, in which we have spoken of it, is the inmost Centre, the utmost Circle, diffusing itself thorough all, encompassing, infolding, and comprehending all. It is the beginning, the end, the strength, the truth, the glory of all with a transcendency of excellency in every kind surmounting all.  
Thus is God, thus is Jesus Christ, as he is the essential Image of God, the Divine World in eternity, the glorious Head of his Mediatory Kingdom, shining with infinitely rich and delightful splendours above all, over all, in all. Thus is God the Person, the Unity, which brings forth this Divine Image, which spreads himself thorough it, lives and subsists in it, gives it its life and subsistency in himself, joins it altogether in one Divine piece, by the Unity of one Life, one Spirit, one Person.  
2. God is here in a Created Form, appearing with a middle-glory, between the shade of the Creature, and the unapproachable shinings of the Godhead; uniting both by a Marriage, which all things in Heaven, in Earth, in the Seas, beneath both, celebrate with Divine Feasts and Triumphs.  
God in the Creature is seen by a shadowy Image alone, which lie as a Veil upon the pure Glories of his Divine Face and Person. He now shines forth like the Sun in a cloudy day, by that obscure Image of his Celestial Form, a reflected, refracted Light.  
God in the Kingdom of the Father, (the Father of Lights in the simplicity of the Divine Nature) is the eternal Sun at its height, at its Noon-sted, in its Meridional Glories.  
God in the Mediatory Kingdom, (which is properly the Kingdom of Christ in his personal Reign) resembles the lovely Morning, the golden Hour of the Day, when there is no more shades or pure Light, but both are mixed, and sweetly married into the pleasant Flowers of Saffron or Roses, breathing their sweetnesses thorough the whole Air and Universe. God in Jesus Christ is now the Sun ascending, shining forth in its strength, but not at its full height. God and the Creature are like two Lilies or Roses joined upon one stalk in a fair Morning, or a bright Forenoon; or like two Friends in this sweet season, in a Garden of Roses embracing. These mutually possess, enjoy the full Beauties, the full sweetness each of other, but not fully, clearly, but not completely, until the Sun come to its full height.  
In the Schools, the knowledge of things is divided into three kinds:  
1. Meridianam, the Meridional, or Moonlight of Knowledge.  
2. Matutinam, The Morning-Light.  
3. Vespertinam, The Evening-shade.  
1. The Noon-Light of Knowledge, is the sight of things in their eternal Ideas, in the eternal, essential Idea, or Image of the Godhead, which is the eternal Word, our Jesus.  
2. The evening shade is the Creature appearing in its self by its own obscure and fading Light.  
3. The Morning-Light of Knowledge is applied by some to the second choir in the first Order of Angels, the Cherubims. These are the Lights flowing from the Second Person in the Trinity, the Light of eternity, and of the Divine Essence; as the Seraphims the first choir are Love, the Love-Unity, the Angelical Figure of the Father, the Unity in the Trinity, the Fountain of all Divine Births, of all Divine Loves and Lights; the Love-Spring, and so the Life-Spring in the Godhead.  
In these Angelical Loves, the Seraphims are all forms of things, as in their first, their sweetest created Love-Springs, and Love-Unions.  
In these Angelical Lights, the Cherubims are all forms of things, as in their first, their richest created Beauties and Ideas.  
But these Cherubimical Beauties, these Angelical Ideas are too faint and fading to be the Morning-Light. All created Glories, the most heavenly, are no more than Evening-Glories, which the setting Sun hath left behind him. They all by degrees sink into the darkness of the night, and disappear for ever.  
Our Jesus alone is the Dayspring from on high, the Rosy Morning, and the rising Sun. In him alone all created Loves and Beauties, Cherubin and Seraphim, rising again from the depths of night unto a new Sweetness and Glory, have their eternal day.  
Thus the Spirit speaketh to the Lord Jesus in the Psalmist, and the first of the Hebrews, The Heavens wax old as a Garment: thou changest them, and they are changed. But thy throne, O Lord, endureth for ever and ever. See in the Heavens, in the powers, sweetnesses, and beauties of Heaven, a night of old Age, and of Death. See in this Death a Dayspring of new and immortal Glories in the rising of the Lord Jesus upon them, and their rising in the Circuit of his Throne. He alone sits upon that Throne of evernew, ever-springing, eternal Light. But thus much of this second Character of Jesus Christ in his Mediatorship or Middle-state.  
3. God in his essential Image replenished with the eternal Ideas and Patterns, the Original Forms of things, is in this second Image, thorough the whole, universal Form, in all the particular and distinct Forms, the Root and Seed of all. This is the Vis plastica, the Ratio seminalis, the formative Power, by which, the formal reason or proportion according to which, all things in their created Image spring up, are framed, are acted in their essential, accidental Forms, Powers, Operations, and Motions.  
The Father hath sent me forth, and I live by the Father. All mine are thine, and all thine are mine. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me. This is the Language of Christ concerning his Father, and to his Father. The eternal Idea of the Godhead, which is our Jesus in the heights of his Divinity, the distinct Ideas in the Bosom of this Idea of the Divine Essence are respectively the proper Places, the Parents, the Patterns, the Husbands of Jesus Christ in this Middle-Image, and in all the particular Images, which shine here, as Stars in their native Heaven, as Flowers in their Garden-beds, to which in the Song of holy Loves, the Cheeks of this Jesus are compared.  
Thus is our Jesus in the Gospel divinely drawn in an admirable Picture, representing him after his descent out of this state rising again in it. He is presented to us in his transfiguration on the Mount, with his Face shining like the Sun in its strength, and his Garment as the Light. O most admirable and Divine Figure of our Jesus in his Mediatory Kingdom and Glory!  
The Face, the Person of our Jesus is the Sun itself, the eternal Sun, the Divine Nature shining forth in the strength of its light and heat, its Beauties and Loves. The created Image is, as the Raiment upon this Person, but a Raiment of Light, of the Flower of Light, Sunshine of the Godhead; a Garment made of a Contexture of Beams, living in, and springing immediately, freshly every moment from this entire Person, which is all one most clear and lively Face of the most complete and Original Beauty.  
The Divine Person is not hid, but shown by this Garment. Mi Jesus pelluces, Our Jesus shines all clearly thorough it; far more clearly, than a beautiful Person swimming all naked in a clear stream, or the richest Diamond in a Case of purest Crystal.  
The Person here, the Divine Sun is at once the eminent Head of all the Beams shining above them; the vigorous Root of all the Beams springing up in them; the pleasant and glorious flower flourishing forth from the end of every Beam; the full Glory filling with itself each part of the Beam, and every where in every Beam presenting itself entirely to every eye.  
All the Beams in One are one entire Image of this Sun. Every distinct Beam a distinct Birth and Figure of a distinct Ideal Light and Glory in this Sun. Yet is the Sun in that full compass of all its Glories seen by every eye in every Beam.  
For so is this Divine Sun, the essential Idea of the Godhead, the same, one, undivided, entire, full, in all the Ideas, in all the Original Forms, and Patterns of each Creature.  
The Beams here are Daughters, Sisters, and Brides, to the Sun. They flow forth immediately from it. They stand upon the same root of the Divine Nature and Personality. God is the only Person in this Jesus. Both are clothed with the same Image. Both by mutual embraces lie in the bosoms of each other, wrapped up together in the same Joys and Glories.  
Yet are the Beams and created Beauties in this Mediatory Image, not only distinct, as the Ideas in the Godhead, where the most perfect Distinction is married to the most absolute Unity, with a most exact equality. But all the Forms of created Glory here have besides a distinction from their Sun, the Divine Glory, and from each other; a diversity, also an inequality, a subordination in an hypostatical or personal Unity. But I now anticipate myself; This will have a more proper place in the following Character of our Jesus in his Mediatory Kingdom.  
4. Christ here in his created Nature is a Spirit, a great and universal Spirit, comprehending the whole Creation eminently in himself, before it have a subsistence in itself. The whole Creation is here in greater majesty, in greater clearness and glory, than in itself, when it is freshest and fairest. It is the very justre and effulgency of the Godhead itself, all transparent; the Divine Essence at once shining thorough it, filling it, clothing and comprehending it; as a Temple founded upon itself, framed by itself of its own most immediate Light, and clearest brightness.  
The King's Daughter is said to be all glorious within, and her Garments of wrought Gold, Psal. 45.  
The first Marriage is that of the most High, and holy Trinity, to which eternity itself is the Marriage-day celebrated with Joys and Glories, transcending all measures or bounds. The Father and the Son are here mutually the Bridegroom and the Bride, while both are in both, the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father; the Love-Spring in its lovely and beautiful Image; the Lovely-Image, the first and highest Beauty in its Love-spring, the first, the sweetest, the fruitfullest Love and Fountain of Loves. The Holy Spirit, the conspiration of both these in One, is their Marriage-band and Marriagebed, where they preserve entire their Unity, and their Distinction in a most blissful Union to make their Loves and Joys more full. From this Marriagebed doth flow the Godlike Race of Divine Ideas surmounting all numbers and natures of things.  
The second Marriage is in this Middle-Glory between the Uncreated and created Beauty, joined together in one Divine eternal Person and Spirit. The Divine Nature is here the King and the Bridegroom; this created Spirit is the King's Daughter, his Queen, and his Bride.  
This Queen is described to be all glorious within, and to have her Garment of wrought Gold.  
The Hebrew word within, signifieth properly in her Person, in her naked Face, which are within all her Garments and Vails. Her God, her Bridegroom, Jesus in his essential Image, her eternal Idea, is her Person, her Face, her internal Form. Thus is she all glorious within; For the Lamb himself, her Bridegroom is her Glory. The Glory of the Lord himself in his eternal Splendours enlighteneth all within.  
This Queen's Garment is all of wrought Gold. The word Wrought, signifieth properly a work of Eyes set all over the Garment. So Dr. Hammond expoundeth it, Her Garment was all over set with round O's, like so many Eyes or Suns wrought in Gold. The created form of this Spirit being the pure lustre of the eternal Sun, the Divine Essence, is the Queen's Garment. The numberless Ideas of the Divine Nature, in each of which the Godhead itself is entire in its Sacred Unity, comprehending all its Ideas, or Variety in a Variety entirely throughout, infinitely fresh and new, form in this Garment secondary Ideas, their own most immediate, fairest and fullest Effulgencies, or Life-Pictures. In every one of these is this Queen also, according to the Original Patterns in her Father, King, and Bridegroom, complete with all the full Glories of her Person, and equally distinct in a new Variety of all her Glories, as a new Queen, a new Person, a distinct Spirit. These are the Divine Suns and Eyes in the Garment of this Queen, in which the eternal Eyes and Suns shining in the Divine Essence look forth, as thorough Casements of pure, living, and immortal Crystal. Each Form, each distinction of every kind in the Creation here below is such an eye, such a Sun wrought in Gold, such a Spirit of incorruptible Glory, such a Bride and Queen to the eternal King. Every one in particular is a spiritual and heavenly Member; all together make up the spiritual and heavenly Body of our Jesus in this Personal Kingdom of his, where he in his own Person is a Kingdom to himself, containing the Creator with the Creation in all their Amplitudes and Varieties, married together into one Person, Spirit, and Glory, which is to itself Bridegroom, Bride, Offspring, and All.  
See if this be not that heavenly Jerusalem, the Jerusalem above, which is indeed free in the spacious embraces, and unlimited Amplitudes of the Godhead; which at the same time is by the inviolable sweetness of a sweetly-invincible necessity, the eternal Law of supreme Love confined to these embraces, in which she becometh the glorious Virgin-Mother of us all.  
Is not this the Jerusalem, whose heavenly transparencies, whose Divine lustre, whose unstained, incorruptible Beauties and Virtues are figured by Gold, Pearls, precious Stones, and Glass, Glass of Crystal? Is not this that Bride of the Lamb which cometh down from God, out of the Heaven of the essential Image of the Godhead, as out of the Bosom of her Father and Bridegroom, with this Character, in which the perfection of Beauty, and the sum of all Perfections is divinely seated; Having the Glory of God?  
But let us here a while feast our Understandings and Affections, our whole Persons with all our Powers upon our Jesus, whom all our desires cannot equal. Let us endeavour to take a more distinct and exact view of the Mediatory Glories of his blissful Person in this divinely-admirable piece, his created Image.  
For this end we will fix our eye for a short season upon the threefold Riches of this Work:  
1. The Variety.  
2. The harmonious Order in each part of the Variety.  
3. The Unity of the whole, of each part with the whole, and with itself.  
Now, gentle Reader, let me humbly fore-warn thee, that I may not seem too far to transgress the laws and limits of that Method, which I have prescribed to myself, in treating of the Mediatorship of our Lord Jesus, by touching here in this part, and taking in all things of the Creator and the Creature, of the Fall and the Recovery, of Nature and Grace. I entreat thee therefore to consider and bear in thy mind, when thou meetest with this, these three things.  
1. The Person of our Lord Jesus in this Mediatory Image, of which I speak, unites all. Here God is come down somewhat from the heights of his unapproachable Light nearer to us. Here God is with a delicate and transparent Veil of his own clearest Beams, not hiding any of his Glories, but tempering them after the sweetest manner to a more pleasing suitableness unto us, that we may with a more agreeable familiarity, and a more familiar delight feed the eyes of our minds with them.  
Here is the Creation in the whole Circuit of it, with an Amplitude and Glory far beyond, far above itself. Here it lies together all, as one piece not only in itself, but in the most richly heightened Light of Christ's Divine Person and Spirit. Here it lies in Union with the Divine Nature in its essential Image, filled with the eternal Ideas, the numberless Original, and exemplar Glories of all things, composing one piece, subsisting and shining in one Person together with these.  
No Form or Person in nature drawn with greatest care and pleasure by the hand of the most skilful Painter, a Titian, Portogenes, or Apelles; or contemplated in its Idea, shining in the Intellectual Light of some excellent and Divine Spirit, so far transcendeth itself, seen by a common eye in itself: As the whole Creation, with each minute, part and motion, is glorified here in the Spirit and Person of our blessed Jesus, with an heightening far transcending the most exalted Beauties of its own proper state.  
Here the Creation appears as the Sunbeam, where it is immediately united to the Sun, being far more full, far more bright, and crowned with the Sun.  
This is that Divine Glass, which God in his supreme Wisdom hath framed, that himself may have ever before him all his Works, as they are presented here in one most lively and lovely view; as also that his Work, his Creature in this Glass alone may take a view and measure of it self, of him, of his way, and his glory.  
Think then, Christian Reader, that all things here treated of, are now before thee in this Divine Spirit and Person, as Flowers of Spices in those beds of Spice, which are the Cheeks, the Face of thy Jesus, thy Beloved, thy Delight, Thine and Ours.  
2. This Discourse of the Creation and Redemption, as they lie here in the Person of Christ, their efficient, exemplar, and final Cause, prepares our way for our contemplation of them in their proper places. We know things by the knowledge of their Causes.  
3. Our stay here will be compensated with the compendiousness of our way in the following parts of our Discourse upon the Mediation of Christ. He that hath newly seen a Rose flourishing upon its stalk and root in the Garden, with a more easy and transient view takes in the beauties of a painted Rose, so far as he respecteth nature alone.  
It is now time to come to a Distinct Contemplation of that threefold excellency which we mentioned; The Variety in this Divine Piece, the Order of the Parts, the Unity of the whole, and of each part.  
1. The Variety, which renders the beauty and the delight in any piece more full, is, that itself be most full. The things, which make the Variety any where full, are these:  
1. The Variety from its highest state extends itself to the most remote distance, by even and united steps, that all the distances be full.  
2. The Variety passeth into, and loseth itself in the Contrariety carried to its greatest height, and to the utmost point. This most enlargeth the Variety; most heightens and sets off the Unity, the Beauty; most excites, enlargeth, and heightens the Understanding. This is of so great a moment, this containeth so Divine a secret, so high a mystery of something surprising, transporting, beyond that, which is understood: that no Work of God or of man wrought with any skill wanteth it, or rather hath not the greatest skill laid out upon it to carry it farthest. No Work pleaseth our Eye, our Ear, our Mind, all falls flat to all, where the Shades, the Discords, the Contrarieties are wanting. The wisest man saith of the wisest God in his Ecclesiastes, That God hath set one thing over against another, that man may find nothing to add to the perfection of his Work: Light and Darkness, Life and Death, Contraries one opposed to another. How in an History, in a Theatre do we take the greatest pleasure to have afflicting passions of pity, fear, grief raised in us even unto sighs, a real melancholy, and tears, while we know, that this is only a part in the whole; a Scene, which adorns and heighthens the beauty of the whole, and then loseth the melancholy of its shade, and discord in the universal lustre and sweetness?  
3. In the last place, that which makes the Variety full, is the return of the whole thorough the Contrariety by a sweet and full close into its Unity; the return by the Contrariety from its low estate, to its first and most perfect height.  
The Lord Jesus in his Mediatory Person, is the fairest, the richest Draught or Portrait of the Divine Design and Work, as it lies in the Divine Mind; animated and heightened by the most immediate, intimate, mutual Union with the Divine Mind. Here therefore is to be expected the most ample Variety.  
The Lord Jesus is styled in the Scriptures, The Wisdom of God. He is the Wisdom of God in every sense.  
1. He is the Wisdom of God in the Divine Mind.  
2. He is the Wisdom of God in the Divine Work brought forth from that Mind.  
3. He is the Wisdom of God in the Divine Model of that Mind, and Work, intervening between both, and uniting them.  
Proclus defines Wisdom to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a fullness of things. Our Jesus is the highest Wisdom, the first, the fullest, the richest Variety. St. Paul gives to this Wisdom the Epithet of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a large Gallery, or Porch in Athens, painted at the cost and order of Pericles by the most skilful Artists, with the most exquisite skill, and with that which is the most heightened point in this skill for life and delight, the greatest Variety, was called from this peculiar excellency, the Variety in the Pictures, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Our Jesus is replenished and adorned with the richest Variety of Divine Forms, which that Divine Painter, Naetura Naturans, the eternal Nature, the eternal Spirit is capable of bringing forth. Thus is our Jesus become not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Porch or Gallery of Divine Variety, for God himself, and all his holy Ones to walk in. Here do they contemplate themselves, the Ideas of their own Spirits, all their Works in their liveliest and sweetest Figures. Ah! how is the King, how are all his glorious train tied eternally in this Gallery!  
But thus much for the first excellency in this Mediatory Person of Christ.  
2. The second is the Harmonious Order of all the Parts. These are five.  
1. Divine Love in its eternal Original; or the Divine Unity at its full height. This is Jesus Christ in his Godhead, as he is the essential Image of the Godhead, One with the Father; as he is the Head, the Root, the Bridegroom. To himself in his created Image, sprung forth from, subsisting in the Bosom of the essential Image and Glory.  
All Forms in the height and exactness of their several Distinctions, in their first, their fullest Variety, are here at the height, in the absoluteness of the Divine Unity, which is most heightened purity, the perfection of Light and of Love.  
2. Divine Love descending into an Image of Light; or the supreme Unity in a clear and sweet Union with Diversity. This is properly our Jesus in his Middle-state, in his Mediatory Image. Here are all forms of things, with all their Distinctions, at once in the most perfect Unity, and in a Diversity with a subordination. Yet is this a clear and shining Diversity, a Diversity without distance or division, every where full of the Divine Unity.  
3. The third Part in this Glory of Christ, is, the Divine Love declining into a shadowy Image; or the Divine Unity shaded with the Diversity, yet sweetly figuring itself upon the Diversity, and subsisting with all its Glories beneath it. This is the Divine Love in a sweet sleep filled with a pleasant dream, where all the Divine Forms, vailed with the shading Diversity, seem to act a Divine Masque to the Divine Music of eternal Love, seeming to sound at a great distance thorough these shades.  
In the first of Genesis, a deep darkness is the ground of the whole Creation. This is expressed by Bohu, and Tohu. Bohu, He is in it. Tohu, the last bound, ultima linea rerum. This is the Chaos, the ground of the first Creation, a Divine shadow which the Divine Glory casteth from itself, with which it surrounds and vails itself, in which himself with all Divine Forms doth lie, as the glories of a Plant in its seed under the Earth; or as Man with all his Intellectual, Angelical, Divine Powers, Notions, Glories in a deep sleep. This the Jews call the darkness round about the Throne of God, and apply to this the black Locks like a Raven upon the Bridegroom's head of fine Gold, in the Canticles. This is the Philosopher's Materia prima Metaphysica, first Metaphysical Matter, out of which Angels, Celestial Bodies, Elementary Forms sprung, as Flowers out of the ground of Paradise.  
Out of this Darkness God called the Light of the first Day, the Primitive Light of the Creation, which by varying itself with the Diversity of shades from this ground of the Divine Darkness, springs forth into all the several Lives, Forms and Motions, thorough the whole Nature of things.  
This is not the true Light, which hath no darkness in it; but the shadowy Image of that Light. The Darkness, out of which, and in the midst of which this Light shineth, is the sweet sleep of the eternal Love. The Light is the pleasant dream in this Divine sleep. Thus Man the Diapason, or full Music of the whole Creation, composed of all the several Forms, as several Notes, is said to be made Betzelem, in a shadowy Image of God. The same word is used by the Psalmist, where man is said to walk in a vain show. In which respect the Holy Spirit pronounceth the purest Beauties and Joys of the earthly Paradise to be Vanity, Dreams, and no more; the shadows or figures of things in a Dream; Man in his best state is altogether Vanity.  
I beg thy leave, Christian Reader, here to make use of that History, if not in an Allegorical, yet an accommodated or Allusive sense. God cast Adam into a deep sleep, and then divided Eve from him, and brought them together again, no more as one person, but two. Before the Spirit had said, God made man, Male and Female made he him; As if Man had been then like the Angels, which neither marry nor give in marriage, but comprehend both Sexes, with all their Progeny, as a full Choir in one Person, in one Spirit. For thus they say of Angels. Every one is both Male and Female in himself, a Godlike Unity, diffusing itself within itself into all Variety, with a Divine amplitude, without division or distance.  
But thus our Jesus first is both Bridegroom and Bride within himself; he comprehendeth the Divine Nature, the Universal Image of the whole Creation in one Divine Person, Spirit, Life, Image, Joy and Glory. But then by the Law of the eternal Harmony in the Divine Nature, in its essential Image, he falls into a sweet, and deep sleep. In this sleep, as in a Divine dream, is the Bride divided from her Bridegroom. Now they with their Race of Divine Forms meet in divers Persons, as shadows of themselves. Yet do they in their Pe●…sons, in all their Motions, bear the Divine Impressions, and amiable Figures of their eternal Ideas, in the Love and Light of eternity. These eternal Ideas, while they sleep in these shadows, yet awake beneath them, above them, to act them, to shadow forth their own Sweetnesses and Beauties upon them.  
These shadows of this dream are indeed shadowy, compared with the eternal Glories: yet have they a real Being, a real existency in thei●… own place and order. But we will now pass to the fourth part of this Divine Piece.  
4. This is the Divine Unity, opening itself in the shadowy Image into a Contrariety, the utmost point of its Variety. This is the Divine Love in a storm, in its dream and sleep. The Divine Love is here in a disguise. God, who is Love, calleth the Work of Wrath, his strange Work. The ministry of the Law, and the Letter, which casts a Veil upon the Face of God, is the same in the Language of the Scriptures. We read in the Revelations, Of the Wrath of the Lamb. Wrath is the darkest disguise upon the eternal Love, the eternal Meekness and Gentleness, the Lamb, our Jesus.  
In this state of Contrariety, Sin and Death have their entrance. Our Jesus, the Lamb, eternal Love is here slain and crucified by the Sin of the Creature. In this death of his the whole Creation dies. Here this Lamb, the Divine Love in the region of Death, in the midst of the Powers of Darkness, and Death becomes a Sacrifice for every Creature. By dying for sin, as he dies by sin, he makes an end of sin and death; he takes away the subject, the ground of Sin and Death, the mutability of the Creature, the shadowyness of the shadowy Image in its dissolution and restauration. He at once scattereth the fearful dream, and awakens it out of its sleep, that it may dream no more, but see the light of Life.  
Divine Poets (which with most inspired and acquired skill, raise, refine, and delight the best Minds, by awakening in them the richest, the liveliest Images of the Divine Work, and the Divine Mind,) place the greatest, the sweetest life, and heightening of their Figures in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the knot, and the untying of the knot. This part in the Divine Design and Work is both these, the knot, and the untying of the knot. The Law lets in Sin, Sin brings in Death, the shadowy Image is the Root and Seat of all these. The death of Jesus Christ makes an end of Sin, swallows up Death into Victory, dissolves the shadowy Image, sows it again by its dissolution in the Bosom of the Divine Love, as they lie down together in its grave. Here it springs up again immediately into a Child of Light, in the Image of Light, the heavenly Image. In this Light it springs up an Immortal Bride in the Arms of its Bridegroom, the eternal Love. Thus the Grave of Love is changed into a Bridal Bed.  
O that I had the anointing of Bezaleel and Aholiab upon me, to draw the Divine Model of the Tabernacle of God in this part of the heavenly Image, the Contrariety, the Scene of Wraht! We should see without badger's skin's sullied, parched with dust, sand, and Sun. We should see it in the midst of a desolate Wilderness, round about it a Land of Graves, and fiery Serpents. But all this while within shine, flourish and flow all the precious, the pleasant things of the whole Creation, and in the Bosom of these, as Divine Figures unfold themselves all the blissful and glorious mysteries of the eternal Beauties and Sweetnesses of the Divinity unvailed. Within are the richest materials, colours, works: In the midst of all, as the Centre, the Spring of all is God himself upon the golden Mercy Seat, the Thrones of Grace and Love, within the golden Wings which the Cherubims of Glory spread round about it to make a Pavilion for it.  
Thus true is it, that the Law is the Gospel, eternal Love vailed; the Gospel, eternal Love and Beauty shine forth with naked Faces in the Law itself, when the Veil is taken off.  
But let us trace more exactly the steps of Divine Love, which all drop Myrrh, incorruptible Sweetnesses, as he passeth thorough the Divine Mazes, the curious Windings of this Divine Labyrinth. To this end we will consider this state of Contrariety, or of Wrath in its several Causes; efficient, material, formal, final.  
St. Paul lays a clear and rich ground for us, when he treats of this Subject. His words are these, What if God willing to declare the Power of his wrath?  
Having such an Idea of the Divine Goodness of God, that he is the supreme Love, the supreme Unity, the supreme Good, which are all divers words expressing one thing: Where I meet with the darkest, the dreadfulest appearance in his Births, his Works, I find my Spirit excited to seek the sweetest and delicatest Roses among these Thorns, a Face filled with the richest smiles beneath these Vails, the Divinest Wealth, Skill, and Figures in the Vails themselves, as in that before the Holy of Holies.  
Those Scriptures on such occasions sound with an heavenly Melody in mine Ears, awakening and calling forth my Spirit to the expectation of some divinely-beautiful, transporting and transforming sight: He putteth the greatest comeliness upon the most uncomely parts. It is the Glory of God to hide the Matter, the Word, the eternal Word or Wisdom, the Divine Beauty and Love: But it is the Glory of a King, of the Royal Priesthood, the Kingly and Priestly Mind, to find it out, to enter within the Veil, to draw aside the Veil, and discover the Glory.  
These words, What if God willing to declare the Power of his Wrath? present to us this whole state of Wrath, as it comprehends the Law, Sin and Death, in its threefold Cause, Efficient, Exemplar, Final.  
The Idea of Wrath in the Divine Mind is a Variety in the gloriouslyample, and delightfully-vast Variety of the supreme Unity, the eternal Love. This Ideal Wrath in the Idea of the Godhead, the Person of Christ, as he is the essential Image of the Father, in the Bosom of the Father, is a beautiful and blissful Variety in the Beauty, and most high blisses of the Godhead. It is a Love-part in the triumphantly-joyous and glorious Variety of the eternal Love. This Sunlike Idea in the supreme and eternal Sun of the Divine Essence, is the efficient, the exemplar, and final Cause of this Contrariety, this wrathful state. This is its first, it's most universal, most intimate efficient. This, its Original, exactest Pattern. This, its Principal, its Ultimate End.  
Eternal Love itself in this Idea, is the Divine Framer, the Divine Actor, the Divine Close of the whole Scene, of this Wrath-part in the Love-play. Here it begins, here is its way, here it ends in its Divine Ide●…, in the Bosom, in the Face, in the midst of the Varieties, the Beauties, the Blisses of eternal Love. Without this part in the Variety, they were all imperfect. Love itself without this Lovespot, this beautiful and delightful Wound would have an eternal Cloud and Wound upon it.  
A great Philosopher teacheth us, That Power is an Unity, containing manifold Forms in itself, which it shoots up, and sends forth from itself according to the Law of its own proper Harmony. Every Idea in the eternal Mind is a Divine Unity. The Ideal Wrath there, is an Unity comprehending in Divine Images all the Forms, all the Varieties of this Love-part, the Divine Wrath, in itself. This is the eternal Reason of the whole Ministry of the Law, and of Wrath in the Creation; the displaying of this part of the Divine Variety by Divine Figures in its proper place in the Divine Work. Thus God shows the Power of his Wrath. He seals the Creature with this Idea, with the impression of the Divine and eternal Glory in this Divine Idea also.  
According to the Language of St. Paul; Now Grace, Divine Love, overflows us in all Wisdom and Prudence. Jesus, that essential, complete Idea of the Godhead, is the Divine Wisdom. The innumerable Ideas in this Divine Word, or Mind, in this Univeral Idea make up that, which the holy Apostle styleth, All Wisdom. When Jesus the essential Image of all Lights and Loves, in the Father of Lights and Loves, hath wrought upon the Creature the clear and full engravings of all the Ideas in the Divine Mind; then hath he finished it unto a complete Image of himself. Now doth this Spirit of Grace, of Love, and Beauty flow forth upon it in all wisdom, in all the various Lights of heavenly Beauty, in all the various sweetnesses of the heavenly Love.  
When this work of wrath shall be seen in the whole piece of the Divine Design, when it shall be seen in Union with its Divine Idea, in the light and brightness of its eternal Pattern: What a pomp and triumph of Divine Love, Joy and Glory, shall we see it; how will it increase the pomp and triumph in the Godhead, and its Work? So we see it there, where I now treat of it, in the heavenly Image, in the Mediatory Person of Christ.  
St. Paul presenteth this Joy and Glory to the Disciples of Christ: All things, saith he, are yours, things present, and things to come, this world, Life and Death; all things are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is Gods. So far as we by Jesus Christ are united unto our proper Idea in the Divine Mind, which is our Mansion, or Apartment in our Father's House; we through the Unity of the eternal Spirit, which by a Love-Union binds up all the Ideas in every one, behold, possess, converse with, enjoy all things in their eternal Ideas, their Original Truths and Glories. All things here are clothed and filled with the richest Lights of Divine Beauty, the purest Sweetnesses, and sweetest Joys of Divine Love. But thus much for the Universal, the Ideal Cause, efficient, exemplar, final.  
The material Cause of this Contrariety is the subject, where it is immediately seated; the ground, out of which it immediately ariseth. The shadowy Image, the Creature in its shadowy state, is the subject, and seat of this wrathful appearance. The ground is the shadowyness, the darkness, the ground of defectibility and mutability.  
The form of this legal or wrathful state is composed of many Circumstances. God, who is the eternal Truth, the only, ever-glorious Life and Substance, appeareth in a shadowy Image. God, who is Love pure, unmixed, perfect, unbounded, who hath all pleasantness in his Face and Person, who is all of him in every part, in every glance, the Spring and Centre of all desirableness and delights, covers this most amiable, most attracting Face and Person with a Vizard of Clouds, Tempests, and Fires, as on Mount Sinai.  
In this Form he divides between himself and the Creature. He sits upon the Throne of his Sovereignty and Dominion founded on Righteousness, and attended with the Ministers of his Justice. He setteth the Creature upon the root of his own shadowy Temporaries, faint and fading Principle, clothed with the Beauties and Purities of an heavenly Image in an earthly Form. He imposeth a severe Law upon him, urged and pressed with terrible Menaces, a Law to be observed and performed by the shadowy Power of this fading Principle.  
The Law imposed is, that by the virtue of this temporary Root, he preserve the Beauties of the heavenly Image in himself eternally pure and entire; that he keep his heart chaste, unstained from all the Glories appearing in this shadowy Image, which alone are ever present with the senses, and all the powers of the Soul; that he place his Heart, all the love of his Heart to the eternal Truth, the unseen Glory hid beneath the shadowy Image, and appearing from the midst of dreadful Tempests, devouring Flames, encompassing and guarding the Beauties of the shadowy Image.  
The Creatures fading Root, no more fed from the rich ground of Eternity, now fails; the shadowy Beauties wither, the Darkness springs up, and over-casts all. Sin from this bed of darkness springeth up, and takes life. Sin by occasion of this shadowy Image, in which God appears, turns all heavenly Love, all Divine Charity into Lust and Concupiscence, by terminating it upon the shadow. From the vizor of severity and wrath which God now puts on, sin takes occasion to bring forth in the Creature averseness from God, enmity towards him, the fiery soarce of all hellish passions.  
Thus, as the Wax is turned to the Seal, eternal Love by the force of the eternal Idea treasured up in itself, in the midst of the rich Varieties putting on a form of Contrariety, becometh an occasion for a form of Contrariety and Enmity, (which is the Root and Essence of all sin,) to spring up in the Creature.  
The Contrariety on both sides heightens itself unto the utmost extremity, that the Idea of Wrath may fully display itself in all its forms and forces to make this part of the Divine Variety full.  
So is accomplished that which St. Paul speaketh of himself, as a figure of Mankind: Sin taking occasion by the Law, taking life from the Commandment deceived me, and so slew me. The shadowy Light of the Divine Beauty: the shadowy sense and life of the Divine Love is now extinguished in the Creature, or, which is worse, corrupted and depraved. The whole face of things is covered with a foul and horrid tempest of darkness, lust and wrath. This tempest riseth to its height, when Jesus Christ, the God of Love, with his essential Image, with his Mediatory Image, with his Angelical Image, in which he is the first Creature, the immediate Head of the shadowy Image, with the full Glories of all these vailed beneath the fleshly form of fallen man taken from the Virgin Mary, and espousing it to one person with himself, in all those beautiful and blessed Images, riseth up, and appeareth in the midst of this Tempest, and is slain by the fury of it. All the Contrarieties, the enmities of God, and the Creature meet in him, as the mark of them all. The rage of the Creature, heightened to the utmost height of all sinfulness, burns out upon him, sealing up the s●… of all guilt.  
The Wrath of God in i●…●…tmost force, set on by the Divine Justice, Holiness and Glory, descends upon him at once satiating itself, and making him a Sacrifice for all the World.  
Thus is the knot in the Divine Design at once tied faster, and united in the Death of Jesus Christ. This part of the Divine Variety the Contrariety now carried to its utmost point is finished. In the Death of Jesus Christ, the first, and Universal Creature, the Head, and Spirit of the whole Creation in the Divine Workmanship, the whole Creation dies. The shadowy Image, the seat, the ground of Sin, Death and Wrath, is dissolved in the Grave of Jesus Christ, that, as eternal Love in him riseth again, returning to its own proper form and place, it may carry up all the Births of Love together with itself, opening itself in its own Divine Sweetnesses and Beauties, as a new ground and root beneath all. This is the form of the wrathful state.  
The ends of eternal Love, as it acts this part under a disguise, next to the Ultimate end, the eternal Glory in the Divine Idea, are these. The shadowy Image, beneath which the true and eternal Glories lie as in a sleep, is discovered to be a shadow, and then dissolved. The darkness of its ground arising to swallow up the Light of the Divine Figure in this Image, when it hath so manifested itself, vanisheth away in a moment, being swallowed up into the eternal Light of the Divine Love. Eternal Love in the Person of Christ now sings that Song; O Death, I will be thy death.  
The Ideal, the eternal, the truly Divine Lives and Beauties, from the Mediatory Person of Christ, which lay hid beneath the Foundations of this World, and shadowy Image, now spring up in the shadowy Image by its dissolution. Now the shadowy Image riseth again into its Ideal, Divine Life and Form. Now is it with a solemn and universal Joy married to its eternal Idea, its Original Pattern, and Archetype in the Bosom of the heavenly Image, the Mediatory Person of our Lord Jesus. Now is that shadowy state of the Creature, and the scene of wrath in that shadowy state, (like a Masque at Midnight, when Princes are married) a triumphant enlargement of the Varieties, a Divine heightening of the Beauties and Sweetnesses in the Joys of this Bridegroom and Bride, the Creature, and it's Ideal Glory, its Original Form eternally united in Jesus Christ.  
Thus I have endeavoured to represent the proportion, and harmonious Order of the parts in this heavenly Person of our great and glorious Mediator. The supreme Unity is the supreme Love and Light. This descendeth by just degrees through all steps of the Variety unto the lowest figure, and obscurest shadow of itself. Through the darkness of this shadow, it brings forth itself into the remotest distance of Contrariety. Through this Contrariety dissolving the shadow and breaking up the darkness, it returns by even degrees to its own first heights.  
Now, gentle Reader, stay a while, contemplate with me the divinely admirable Order, Harmony, Beauty of this part the Contrariety, which is the proper Seat of all Dis●…der, Discord, and Deformity.  
1. This is the Wrath of the Lamb, the eternal Love and Meekness, which maketh itself a Sacrifice to its own Wrath. This is eternal Love in a disguise. All pleasantnesses in the Face of the supreme Love and Beauty, our Jesus, our God, lie hid beneath this Veil.  
2. It is in the deepest shade, and darkness of the most shadowy Figure of itself, that Love springs up into this strange Form. In the holy Gospel we read of the Kingdom of Heaven, That while the men of the Kingdom slept, the Enemy came and sowed tares. In the 73. Psalms, It is said of this state of wrath at the 20. verse, As a dream, when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou awakest, shalt thou despise their Image or shadow. Eternal Love seems sweetly to sleep in the earthly Paradise, by its descent with all its true and substantial Glories into a shadowy Image. In the depth of this sleep, this state of wrath springs up, as a troublesome dream. By the trouble of the dream is Love itself awakened, by which awakening the trouble, and the dream both vanish, and as empty, unsubstantial things, lose themselves in the sweetness of eternal Light. Ficinus esteems him a great Person, who saith to himself of all things here; It may be, that all this is a dream.  
3. This is a new scene of Variety, which the Divine Unity openeth in itself, by which it declareth its amplitude and greatness. Here are all forms of things again entirely new, at the greatest height of Variety in their Contrariety. Here also are all Forms of things anew, in a new and Divine Figure, inasmuch as the Contrariety also beareth the Divine Impression of its own proper Idea in the Divine Mind. As the fullness of the Divine Mind with all its Ideas and glorious Forms meet in that Idea above: So doth the Divine Image, with all its Glories, form itself into a new Figure with a Divine Variety in this state of Wrath.  
4. See how the Goodness, the Justice, the Power, the Wisdom, the Holiness of God are here illustrated and glorified. The Divine Goodness and Love by descending through a shadowy darkness into the Contrariety of Divine Wrath, gives occasion to the Creature to rise up into its Contrariety of Sin; that this may be the mark of the Divine Displeasure. This is the Glory of the Divine Goodness and Holiness, that sin can take no birth, and have no place, but in its Wrath, when it is vailed beneath this strange Form of Contrariety and Enmity. As this Enmity hath no Object, but the evil of Sin: So sin hath its birth and place to this alone, as its proper end, that it may be the mark of the Divine Wrath; that the Goodness, Purity, Love of the Divine Nature may be manifested in its high and irreconcilable opposition to the Evil, the Filth, the enmity of Sin.  
Now these two Contrarieties heighten themselves one by the other, till they come to their utmost point. Then the Contrariety of the Divine Wrath, as an unquenchable flame, swalloweth up in itself the enmity of Sin. Then doth this Wrath also having lost the force of its opposition by losing its Object, lose itself also in the Beauties of the Divine Goodness, and in the sweetness of the Divine Love.  
Yea, the fire of this Contrariety not only consumeth itself, but the darkness also, and the shadowy Image, where it hath its seat and root. By this dissolution, the eternal Love reascends to its Throne, where all this scene of wrath and shadows rise again into a Life of Glory, and remain as eternal Beauties and Sweetnesses in the unsearchable rich Variety of the Divine Beauty and Love. Here they remain as eternal heightenings of all their Sweetnesses and Glories.  
How unexpressible is the Wisdom, and the Love in the contrivance of this Scene, by which all these things are brought to pass in it? Eternal Love itself, our Jesus, in its own Divine Person and Form, comes forth into the midst of this Contrariety. He heightens both to the utmost extremity, by making himself the Object of both. He comes full of Grace and Truth. So he raiseth the evil of Sin, which hath its Kingdom in shadows, lies, and enmity, to the highest rage of opposition against himself. Then he takes the guilt of all Sin thus heightened upon himself, exposeth himself, as a Sacrifice for it, to the fiercest flames of the Divine Fury.  
While these flames seed upon his Sacred Person, they at once consume all the evil of Sin, by consuming the whole shadowy Image in its Divine Root. In this blessed Person the fire of Wrath meets with all the Beauties, all the Sweetnesses of the Divine Holiness, the Divine Love and Goodness. In these it meets with a Divine Satisfaction, a Divine Atonement. The Wrath and the Contrariety now ceaseth, being reconciled and charmed by these Divine Harmonies into the Unity of eternal Love.  
Thus is the Cross of our Lord Jesus the utmost bound of things. In this Cross the Divine Design is finished, the Mystery is finished, the Veil is rend; all things in Heaven and on Earth are reconciled, and gathered up into One, tuned to a Divine and Universal Harmony, which is the Music of Eternity. Now is that Song sung, O Death, where is thy sting: O Grave, where is thy Victory. The sting of Death is Sin, and the strength of Sin is the Law: but thanks be to God, who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ on his Cross hath swallowed up the Law, Sin, and Death in the Victory of the Divine Love, the Divine Purities, the Beauties of Holiness and eternal Life.  
Eternal Life, eternal Love; that is, our Jesus now cries with a triumphant shout, O Death, I will be thy Plague and Death!  
This is the Day of the manifestation of the Righteous Judgements of God. Now in the close and end of all, the Divine Design through all the parts and passages of it, clearly opens and unfolds itself. Now it appears unto all Eyes and Hearts to be all throughout in every point of it divinely-beautiful and pleasant, transcending the Understanding, the Affections, the Expectations, the Desires, the most unbounded Imagination of all Men or Angels, proportioned only to a God, and that God, which is so Light, that there is no darkness in him: So Love, that there is no Fury in him. Now is that found clearly, completely true. All his ways are ways of peace, and all his paths are pleasantness.  
This is our God, and we will praise him: our Father's God, and we will exalt him. This is our Jesus, whom our Soul loves, we will rejoice in him, and wait for him.  
Pardon me, courteous Reader, if I seem something longer in this tract of my Discourse, describing that most beautiful and Divine Harmony, with which all things lie together most delightfully in this shining Seat of all Truth, and enflaming Object of all Love, the dear and adored Form and Person of our great Mediator. This is the Eye, the Heart of my design and work. If the entire and naked Face of Divine Truth were rightly drawn, and set before us in any degree answerable to the Life in this heavenly Image, how powerfully would it attract all Understandings into its embraces? how pleasantly would it subdue them to itself, far beyond the force of all Disputes and Syllogisms, which gather up only small divided and dead parts of this Divine Form; like A as collecting the scattered members of his Son Absertus, thrown up and down at divers distances by his bloody Sister Medea, to retard his way; Or like the Philosophers in Boetius, which take hold of the Garment only of Divine Truth, and tear that into deformed shreds, of which they possess themselves, and in which they glory.  
If I could entirely conceive that of which I seem to myself to have some little, but rich, and pleasant glances; If I could clearly express and convey into the Minds of men, that which I conceive of the nature of God, and his Work, which, appeareth to me, to have been gathered from all things Humane and Divine; from Poetry, Philosophy, and Theology: From Nature and Grace; the letter of the Scriptures, and the Spirit, according to my little acquaintance with them, and less understanding of them: I am, perhaps too vainly, apt to persuade myself, that I should make the noblest Conquest, a Conquest of Hearts, which would be equally Conquerors with me, partaking equally in the Joy and Glory of the Conquest.  
For what Understanding would not gladly be swallowed up into the richly unfathomable Depths of the Divine Wisdom; if it were touched with this sense, that the whole Understanding and Mind of God in its utmost and unlimited compass is taken up, and filled with a Love of equal extent to it, and equally unlimited? What Understanding would not joyfully lie down for ever, and lose itself in the gloriously soft and bright Bosom of the Divine Wisdom, if it once by the least sweet glimpse perceived this, that the Divine Wisdom throughout is no other, than the beautiful and blissful Harmony of the Divine Love, that all the Work of his Wisdom within and without is a deep, delightful, Godlike contrivance of Love, on which the whole Godhead layeth out itself to the utmost of all its unbounded fullness and treasures; For this Love to bring forth, and express itself with all possible advantage, with all beautifyings, sweetning and heightenings, as in the whole contrivance, so in each part and point of it; through all which this Love, by this Wisdom conducteth itself with an inevitable force and sweetness. This is that which the holy Apostle hath testified, speaking of things which he had seen, when the Father revealed Jesus Christ in his Spirit, that God by Jesus Christ in his Grace, that is, his Love hath abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence.  
What Will of Man or Angel, if it had in itself the greatest Arbitrarin●…s, and highest Sovereignty over its own Actions, would not with unexpressible pleasure resign its Arbitrariness, its Sovereignty, its self, and all, to the Divine Will, when this Will should appear unto it in nothing Arbitrary, but Goodness itself, it's own Object, Rule, and Perfection, a Goodness eternal, unalterable and inviolable: The supreme and universal Goodness, containing in itself all kinds and degrees of Goodness at an equal height with itself: A Goodness, which bringeth forth itself into the supreme and universal Beauty, its proper and essential Image, to which every Will by its own Principle, and most essential activity and motion is carried with a necessity and irresistableness most rational, and most voluntary; that is, most divinely-harmonious and agreeable.  
What Spirit endued with an Understanding, and a Will, can forbear from casting itself with most enamoured, and most sweetly forcible transports into the Arms, and absolute Conduct of this our Jesus, this our God, when by the first, and most obscure beam of his own Light it is awakened unto this Divine Sight, that this Jesus, our God, is Goodness itself, most pure, most perfect, whose continued Birth and essential Image is Truth itself; Beauty itself: Truth and Beauty in their clearest Glories, in their highest Sweetnesses, in their fullest Amplitude, Extent and Majesty; Truth and Beauty comprehending all things within themselves, as one Truth and Beauty with themselves, bringing forth all things from themselves, as Flowers from their Garden-beds, filling all, shining through all, forming themselves upon all? Shall not the Understanding and Will of every Spirit now be as Wings of Divine Light and Love, on which the Spirit flies with a sweet and a swift strength into the Bosom of the Lord Jesus, that here by its Understanding it may feast itself with an Appetite and Delight ever new, upon the supreme Goodness in its heavenly Image of the eternal Truth; that here by its Will it may lie down for ever with a most blissful Rest, with the fullness of all unexpressible complacency, in the fruition of the supreme Goodness shining forth upon it, immediately clasping and enfolding in its own naked, immortal, most precious, most pleasant Form, the perfection of Beauty, the Essence of all Beauty, Truth, Goodness, and Love in One? But it is time now for me to pass from this second Excellency in the Mediatory Form and Person of our Jesus, the Harmonious Order and Proportion of the parts.  
The third Excellency in this Mediatory Form of Christ is the Unity of the whole, and of the parts, as in themselves, so with the whole. The ground of this Unity is twofold: 1. The Spiritual Nature. 2. The Divine Person.  
1. One ground of this Unity is the Spiritual Nature of all things here. St. Paul speaking of the Lord Jesus in this his proper Kingdom and Glory, saith of him, The Lord is that Spirit. That Spirit in the same place he describeth to be the Spirit, in which the Veil, the Shade, and Cloud of Flesh is entirely removed; where all things are with open face in the Liberty of the Divine Light and Glory. The Lord Jesus faith of himself, The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are Life. It is the Spirit which quickeneth, the Flesh profiteth nothing. Jesus in his Mediatory Kingdom and Glory, casts off the Veil of Flesh, as from his Divine, so from his Humane Nature. The days of his Flesh are now past. He is a quickening Spirit, all Spirit and Life. His Humane Nature is now all Spirit; and by having the Godhead, hath the Fountain of Spirits and Life in it self. All his words in this spiritual state, are substantial, living, immortal Spirits, springing forth from, and abiding in himself, as their heavenly Root and Element. After this manner do all Forms of things arise and flourish in him, being his words of Power and Glory, as the Images in Humane or Angelical Understandings are the words of those Minds.  
Spirits are Unities. There is with them no distance of Space, or division of Parts. All Spirits intimately, entirely, throughout, penetrate, possess, and inhabit each other, transcending all this Image, and measure of space, of place, of corporeal extension. The streets in the heavenly Jerusalem, are said to be Gold and Glass. If I conjecture aright, Jesus Christ in his Mediatory State is this glorious City, where the great Assembly of the Firstborn, all Spirits born of the Father of Lights, Humane or Angelical, on Earth or in Heaven, dwell together in One. It is expressly said, That this City hath the Glory of God, that the Glory of the Lord 〈◊〉 it, and that the Lamb is the Light thereof. How agreeth all this with that Description of Christ, the brightness of the Glory of God?  
In this City of glorious and immortal Spirits, which is itself the Spirit of Unity, and of Glory, where Jesus Christ is built up, not only into a Temple, but into a City in this Spirit, the streets, the lowest Forms of things are Gold and Glass. Such gold as hath the transparency of glass. Such glass as hath the substance, the solidity, the glory, the incorruptibleness of Gold. Thus is the Unity in the spiritual Nature of things most beautifully, and most agreeably figured to us. Like Gold, it is every where full of itself, compact and uniform, sending forth continually all various Forms, as Beams of Glory. Like Glass, it discovereth all Forms of things within itself; in every point of itself, by a perfect transparency, all Forms of things endlessly appear in each form. At every single view, at every single glance the eye of the Spirit is every where terminated, no where bounded, every where at rest, no where restrained.  
2. The second ground of the Unity in this heavenly Image is the Divine Person. All things here are joined by an hypostatical, or personal Union: all are one Person. A Person is an Intellectual Unity, an Intellectual Essence completely existing and subsisting in itself. The Unity here is not that only of an Intellectual, but of a Divine Person: God is the Person here. As is the Person, such is the Unity: both are supreme. The eternal Spirit, God himself in the height of Eternity, makes both Natures, the Uncreated with the Created, one in our Lord Jesus, without any confusion, or lessening the Distinction between the Natures themselves.  
The Unity of a Person is understood by these three Maxims concerning it in Metaphysics.  
1. The Person is the Subsistence, or the Existence: that Unity which is both the Spring, and the Channel, the Centre, and the Circle of the whole Essence or Nature, by which it is one by itself, and distinct from all other things, distinct from itself, as it lies in its Causes, and is there one with them.  
2. All Operations are from the Person.  
3. All denominations belong to the Person.  
The Person than is the indivisible Unity, which within itself, according to its amplitude, springs up into all Varieties of Forms, Operations, Denominations through the whole Essence and Nature in its utmost extent. This is that which works all in all Operations, which appears in all Forms, which hath all names and denominations, which in all these is one, and the same, hath one Form, one Name, which comprehendeth all entirely, clearly, distinctly, undividedly.  
According to these grounds we shall see a threefold Divine and Personal Unity in this Mediatory Form of Christ.  
1. The whole is one, entire, and Divine Person, altogether complete, all over divinely beautiful and pleasant. All Distinctions, Diversities, Distances, Divisions, Contrarieties meet here without distance, diversity, or division in the supreme Unity of one Divine Person, onc all-glorious Spirit, one Life, one most harmonious Image, one Love, one eternal Joy. Behold the Beauty of this more than heavenly Person in these several Elements, which compose all Beauty.  
1. Here is the Variety of lines and colours. All forms of things in their richest Variety lie together here.  
2. Here is Light; The substance of the created Image in this Person is the Flower of Light, the most immediate, sweetest, freshest Sunshine from the Face of the Godhead itself.  
3. Here is Life esteemed the chief part of Beauty. Here is the Life of Love. As it is Life which heightens; so is it Love which sweetens all. A Divine, eternal Spring of Life and Love openeth itself in every part, and from every part with most pleasant intermixtures diffuseth itself through the whole. Thus are all the Beauties here perpetually in sweetest motion in the liveliest and loveliest activity of mutual fruition, and the delightful exchange of their Divine Sweetnesses, their never-fading Pleasures.  
4. All this Variety, Light, Life, and Activity, are composed into, and governed by the most charming, the most exact, the most universal Harmony.  
5. The eternal Sun of Beauty itself, the eternal Spirit of Harmony, the Godhead itself with open Face, with all its unclouded Sweetnesses, all its unvailed Glories fills all, springs, shines forth with golden smiles, in every part clothes the whole Image, is the Unity of all, the Person in all. This is the first Unity, the Unity of the whole.  
2. The second is the Divine, the Personal Unity in each part. Such is the Virtue, such is the undivided simplicity of the Spiritual, the Divine Unity in this Person, that the Unity, the Person, the Variety of the whole, is equally, perfectly entire, and distinct in each part, in every point of the whole. Thus, as there is one Body, and many members; so is Christ in this his spiritual and heavenly Body. But such is the spirituality, the heavenliness of this Divine Body, this Divine Person, that in every distinct Member, the Unity of the Person, and of the heavenly Body; the Person in its full Amplitude, in the greatness of its Majesty, the whole Body in all its glorious Variety, is most completely the same, and distinct in every member. Thus we read, that in the Throne of God, and the Vision of his Glory represented by Ezckiel, and St. John, The Lamb was in the midst of the Throne, as the Centre dissusing itself through the whole Circle. There appeared also in the midst of the Throne four living Creatures, which are interpreted by learned Divines, to be four principal Ideas; the fourfold Spring and Head of all Ideal Lives and Glories, into which the supreme and universal Idea, the Lamb immediately distinguisheth itself, like the Fountain of Eden in its four great streams. These four living Creatures are so described, that every one hath its own distinct Form, that yet all are said to have one and the same Form. Every one is said to have the form of a man, which is the entire and universal Harmony of all forms; the form of that man which rides in the Firmament above the heads of them all, the Lamb himself. This is the second Unity.  
3. The third is the Unity of all parts with each other, and with the whole. Every part equally subsisteth, and shineth in all the other parts, and in the entire Face of the whole, as in itself, being every where most perfectly distinct, and the same. So we read concerning those four living Creatures, Whithersoever the Spirit of the living Creatures was to go, they still went forward, and never turned. This is the force of the Unity of each part, and with the whole. Without change, at once every part stands distimctly in every form of Beauty, Pleasantness, Glory; In all the richness of their Divine Motions, and Activities ever full, ever new. The beautiful and Divine Face of each part, of the whole in each part, standeth and looketh at once every way in every part of the whole, and in the whole. Now have I finished the threefold Excellency of our Jesus in this Divine Image and Mediatory Glory.  
Before I pass from it, let me entreat you to cast your eye for a little space upon two Divine and delightful sights here.  
1. There is no particular Form so little, or so low; there is no privation so empty, or so dark, which hath not its twofold Idea or Archetype here. We read, That Death and Hell are open, and manifest before the eyes of the Lord. Where are the Forms of things so divided and broken, as in the dust of Death? What privations so shady and black, so empty and desolate, so deformed, horrid and dreadful, as those of Death and Hell? Yet are Death and Hell manifest before the eyes of the Lord. Is not this Jesus the Divine Glass and Light, in which alone all things appear to himself, and to his Father? Are not these Archetypes, or Ideal Patterns in Christ, both the Divine Eyes, with which the eternal Spirit looketh upon all things; and the Divine Objects, which alone he beholdeth with these Eyes, the Divine Images in these Eyes?  
Then Death and Hell, all particulars, all privations are evidently and eminently here in the beautiful Form and Person of our blessed Mediator.  
Here they are in their proper Ideas, in their distinct and heavenly Patterns, their eternal Truths. But here they are no more particulars or privations, inasmuch as every part, every point of this Divine Image, where these Ideas are seated, is both the Centre diffusing itself through the whole Image, and a Circle comprehending the whole with its full Majesty and Glory in its own distinct propriety and form. Thus the Psalmist sings divinely of this heavenly Mystery to Jesus Christ. The Darkness hideth not from thee, but the Night shineth as the Day; the Darkness and the Light both alike. This is the first of those heavenly sights, to which I invited thee.  
2. See if our Jesus in this Mediatory Image be not the Jerusalem above, ever new, altogether heavenly, our Mother, which bringeth us forth under the Appletree, the Tree of Love in the heavenly Paradise, which beareth us upon her sides, and dandles us upon her knees, through our whole course, in all our motions and changes of our Birth, Life, and Death; which milketh forth from her Breasts abundance of Glory upon us. See if this be not that City of the living God, having the Godhead itself for a Foundation, where all things dwell together in their heavenly Patterns, and eternal Spirits. See if this be not Jerusalaiim, two Cities in one, compacted together by one eternal Love, into one eternal Spirit and Person, the created and the Uncreated Image, where the First-bron, the whole Creation in general, all Creatures in particular in their firstborn Original Images and Truths dwell together. See if this be not that Kingdom of God universal over all, the last of all, without end, eternal, which is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy. The Righteousness of all Divine incorruptible Harmony and Beauty; the Beauties of Holiness, the Beauties of the Divine Nature in its most unstained, unmixed, highest Purity; that Peace and Joy which is the most ravishing Harmony of all things, as they spring, shine, and sing together in the Unity of the Divine Light, Life, and Love, in the ever dear and delightful Person of our blessed Mediator.  
I have proceeded thus far in our Discourse of the Lord Jesus, as he is the Mediator of the Creation, the way by which God descendeth into the Creature, and the Creature cometh forth from God. To this end, he necessarily toucheth both the extremes, is immediately united to both, and unites both in himself in a middle state between both. I have spoken of the Lord Jesus, as he toucheth the extreme above, and is God with God, the essential Image of God, the Original Seat and Image of all Forms of things in their first state. We have treated of him in his middle state, where he is the Union of God and the Creature, of all Forms of things uncreated, created, joined together in one Light and Spirit of Glory.  
I now pass to the third Consideration of our Mediator, as he toucheth the lower extreme of the Creature, as the Creature cometh forth from God into its single and proper state through him.  
3. Jesus Christ, as he is the Mediator between God and the Creature; as he is One with God, so also is he One with the Creature, that he may bring forth the Creature from God, bring back and home again the Creature to God, to make both one in himself. I shall endeavour to make plain this part of Christ's Mediatorship, the immediate coming forth of the Creature through Christ by several steps.  
1. Jesus Christ having descended with his Original and essential Image, into an Image of Light, all clear and transparent, in every point of which his essential Glories shine brightly forth: Next to this, he comes down into a shadowy Image. There all the Glories of the two former Images are altogether obscured, and hidden beneath this Veil. They appear only by a shadowy Figure of themselves form upon the darkness of this third Image.  
In this shadow of himself, the Lord Jesus retaineth entirely the Unity of his Divine and eternal Person. All the three Images, the Lights of Glory, and their shadow dwell together in the Unity of the same Person. So do they mutually enfold one another. So do they mutually subsist, appear, and act in each other according to the proper Form of each Image and state. The shadow shines, and is a substantial Glory in the Glory of the Images above. The Images above, with all their substantial Glories, are shadows in this shadow: As St. John saith, The Word was made flesh, so is God here become a shadow of himself. God is the Person in this shadow. This shadow subsists in the Person of God.  
The superior Images spread forth the darkness of this Image from themselves, overspreading themselves with it. They themselves, with all their Glories, are as a Divine Seed in it. They are the seminal Virtue, the seminal Reason or Form springing up through this darkness, and filling it throughout with Divine Figures of themselves. As the Plants, Flowers and Fruits, which God made to spring up out of the ground of the Garden in Eden. Thus is this shadowy Image divinely-beautiful and rich, all an earthly Paradise, bearing the Figure of the heavenly Paradise, which it hath for its proper Seed and Root hidden within it. Jesus Christ in his essential Image is as the substantial and Divine Body of all Glories. In his Mediatory Image as a Garment of Light, with which that Body clothes itself, all composed of its own richest Beams. In this third Image, as a shadow cast from both these.  
2. Jesus Christ in this shadowy Image is the first and universal Creature, a created Spirit, the immediate Head and Pattern of the whole Creation in general, of all Creatures in particular, Men and Angels. He is the first Draught, or Life-Picture of the whole Creation, from whence all the Creatures are taken, as so many Copies of this Original. The superior Images are the Life itself, by which this Original and Life-Picture is drawn. Thus is Jesus Christ in a third sense the Image of the invisile God, and the firstborn of every Creature: St. Paul seemeth in that place, Coloss. 1. 15. to have intended this as the principal sense: For he immediately adds, That all things were made by him, whether visible or invisible, and that he is before all things, and in him all things did consist, or stand together. Then, when in the consequence of this, he had said, that Christ is the Head of the Church, the firstborn from the dead; he gives this as a reason relating to both states of Nature and Grace, of the Creation, and the new Creature in the Resurrection, that he in all things might have the pre-eminence: The word is there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that he might be the first in all things, the first in Order, Dignity and Power: The first Creature in Nature, and in the Creation; the Head of Nature, and the whole Creation: The first new Creature in the Resurrection from the dead, when Nature and the whole Creation was fallen under the power of death, and the Head of the Resurrection. The Jews seem to represent Jesus Christ to us in this station of the Creation, as the first and universal Creature, by two mysteries of theirs: For they teach us, That the Soul of the Messias was one of those things, which were before the World was. They say also, That the Light of the first Day was a pure and clear Light, in which the whole Creation in its whole compass with all Forms of things contained in it, through its whole duration from the beginning to the end, with all Revolutions and Changes, universal or particular, were all clearly seen at once in one View and Prospect, as one entire, most beautiful, Divine Image or Picture. They say also, That at the Fall of Man, this Light was withdrawn and hidden beneath the Throne of God, until the days of the Messias.  
The Arians of old acknowledged Jesus Christ in this state as a created Spirit, the first and universal Creature above, and before all things, the Head of Angels, and of the whole Creation. Thus they acknowledged him to be God by representation, deputation, denomination and generation; as being immediately begotten and brought forth from God, as the first created Image of the Uncreated Glory, comprehending all other created Images originally in himself. They ascended right thus high, if they had not rested here, but by this shadowy Image had been pointed to the Mediatory Image in Life, and by the beams of that guided to the essential Image in the Godhead. Our natural senses teach us, That there is no shadowy reflected and refracted Light, where there is not first a pure Light and Sunshine; that the purest Light of the sweetest Sunshine hath above it the Original Light, the essential Light in the Body of the Sun, which is indeed the Body of the Sun, the Sun itself in its essential Form and Image. But let us pass to our third step.  
3. The Lord Jesus in this shadowy Image is immediately the efficient, the exemplar, the final Cause of the whole Creation. As Light, and all the beams flow from the Sun, their formal Cause, as immediate Figures and Images of him: So doth the whole Creation in general, and each Creature in particular flow forth from him by continued emanations. He is the ground out of which they rise, in which they grow and flourish, on which he figures and forms himself, according to his various Excellencies, as the proper fruit of them all, into which they sink down, and return with all their Life and Sweetness, when they disappear. Thus are all things made by him, and for him, that he may live and shine forth in all. In him, saith St. John, was Light, and that Light was the life of man; where he speaks of the Creation of things by Jesus Christ.  
4. I am now come to my last step. Jesus Christ in this shadowy Image is in the whole Creation and in every Creature, as its proper Seed. He is the seminal Virtue, which puts forth itself through the whole Creation, from the beginning to the end, in every Essence of each Creature; in all the powers of every Essence, in all the operations of each Power. He is the seminal Reason, the seminal Form and Proportion, which springs up equally in like degrees in each Creature, together with it in all the states and modifications of it, forming it and figuring it in all. Thus saith St. John, when he treats of him under this term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Ratio, the Reason of all things, and that in order to the Creation, that without him, or apart from him, nothing was made, or came to pass, that was made, or came to pass. He lives; he dies; he flourisheth, he falls; he triumphs, he suffers in all with all: In him was Light, saith St. John, and that light was the life of man: The Life of Christ, as it was in Christ, the Seed of every Creature, was the Life of the Humane Form, the Light of all Forms, as they meet together harmoniously in the Humane Form, or as they appear distinctly in their proper places to man to serve and entertain him. This was the Light of every Form, as it sparkleth forth in all its Qualities and Acts; as it appeareth in all states and changes. This Light of Life in Christ was the Life and the Light of every Beauty, every Sweetness, every Form of things in every Creature: Together they did spring, together they did fade, being ever inseparable. So was the Creature continually figured and framed in all states by the immediate, inseparable presence of the Lord Jesus with it. When the Creature falls and dies by sin, than also is Jesus Christ slain in it and by it.  
If the Life in Christ be the light of man, and so of all things, then is the retiring of this Life like the setting of the Sun, the darkening of all, the over-casting of all with the shadow of Death. But then this eternal Love, the Lamb, our Jesus, dies by our death together with us, that he may become in death a Sacrifice to expiate the guilt of his blood lying upon us: So he becomes also the Seed of immortality and the Resurrection from the Dead, that, as he riseth, we also may rise in him, together with him. Yet is the difference great between his manner of dying, and ours. He knows what he doth in both these Deaths. We know not at present what he doth, nor what we ourselves do in either of them. He sins not, falling short in nothing of the Glory of God, which ever fills his Heart, his Eye, and his Hand through all darknesses and deaths, he carries on the Ideal Glories of both the Archetypes, his two superior Images, and so the universal Design and Beauty of the whole Work in the Creation, which is to be a complete figure of these, having its beginning and ending in them. By virtue of the Personal Union, he at once carrieth down with him the Light of all the Glories, the Music of the universal Harmony in both these superior Images, into these Deaths, and also comprehendeth these Deaths in the Light of these Glories, in the Music of this Harmony, as part of the Glory and the Harmony. This he doth as the Head, the Seed, the First-fruits of the whole Creation. Thus he lives and dies in every Creature. Thus they that are new born into him, most beautifully, most blessedly live and die together with him.  
2. I pass now from the first part of the Mediation of Christ, that in the first Creation, the descent of things, the coming forth of the Creatures from God. I come to the second Part, the Mediation of Christ in the new Creation, the Redemption, the return of the Creature to God.  
I shall endeavour to set before you this Mediatory Work of our Jesus, of our God and Saviour.  
First, In the parts of it, as they lie in the Person of the Lord Jesus, the Head and Pattern of the new Creature.  
Secondly, In the progress and propagation of it through the whole Body belonging to this Head.  
1. The parts of it most commodiously for my purpose are contained in this threefold Division: 1. The Incarnation of Christ, and his Life in the Flesh. 2. The Sufferings and Death. 3. The Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord Jesus.  
1. The first part of the Mediation of Christ in the Redemption, is his Incarnation and Life in the Flesh. We have seen the eternal Light and Love, our Jesus, our God, gradually descending in a threefold form: 1. We have seen him in his essential Form and Godhead, comprehending all Varieties of things in their Original and eternal Glories. 2. We have seen him in his Mediatory and spiritual Form, the Marriage of God with the Creature in one Spirit and Glory, where all the Uncreated Glories, and all the Creatures according to their distinct Essences in spiritual and incorruptible forms, as two are one. 3. We have had a delightful view of the same Jesus in both these Divine Forms, set with innumerable and distinct Glories, descending into a shadowy Image of himself, where he becomes the proper and immediate Head of the first Creation, in whom all the Creatures consist and flourish together, according to their shadowy Originals in the firstborn strength and beauty of this created state. 4. Our Lord Jesus with these universal Beauties subsisting together, and mutually enfolding each other in the Unity of the same Divine Person, goeth down one step lower from the beautiful face of the Earth into the dark places, and nethermost parts of it. This last step of his descent is at once also the first step of his Ascent and Return. Together with man, and the whole Creation falling by sin, he also falls, but altogether without sin. He subsists in the whole Creation, and in each particular Creature beneath the universal Ruin, being the weight of all. Here he is the Seed maintaining the Remainders of the Divine Image in nature obscured, deformed, wounded, broken and slain. Obscured, deformed, wounded, broken and slain in it, together with it; He maintaineth the Relics of the Life of this natural Image in the midst of death. This he doth by a new spring of Grace opening itself in fallen Nature, by the virtue of his Mediatory and essential form now putting forth themselves through his shadowy form in the Creature thus lapsed. Thus is he both in one the old Seed of the first Creation, and the new Seed of the new Creature, which thus in the heavenly Image of the Mediatory Form of Christ makes its way, and breaks forth through the ruins of the earthly Image. This is the promised Seed, the Seed of the Woman, the Seed of the Divine Image both in Nature and in Grace, which gives a new Birth to Nature. This Seed propagating itself through all Generations in the fullness of time, when the season is now for Eternity to shine out through the extended shadow of Time, and to break it up into its own clear Light, springs forth from the Womb of the Virgin Mary into Flesh and Blood, in the dejected form of fallen man; Made in all things like unto us, sin only excepted.  
The Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, or tabernacled in the midst of us, John 1. The Word was made flesh. See there the Incarnation of the Son of God; He tabernacled in the midst of us; behold his Life in the Flesh. Two Natures meet in one, the Word and Flesh, God and Man: The manner is expressed, the Word is made or become Flesh, not by transmutation. The Word ceaseth not to be the Word. The Godhead in its essential Image retaineth all its Glories, its immutability and eternity in Flesh; neither is the Word made Flesh by any kind of composition. The Divine Nature in flesh retaineth its simplicity, its purity, its absolute, all-comprehending, incomprehensible Unity. The Word is made flesh by assumption, taking the Humane Nature into the Unity of the same Divine Person with itself. God in his essential Image, in the entireness, absoluteness, and Unity of his own undivided unconfined Person with the fullness of his eternal Glory descendeth into Flesh. The eternal Spirit, which is Jesus himself in his Divine Form and Power, comes down upon, over-spreads the Virgin Mary with his Ideal force: He also becomes the seminal Virtue in her. So he springs up out of her Womb into a distinct individual man, a frail, fallen man, though without spot, in the Person of God. Thus is he Father and Son to himself; Father, and Husband, and Son to his Mother. Yea, he is also his own Mother in his Mother, of his own flesh taking flesh from her, inasmuch as he alone fills all in all, and is the Truth of all.  
The Word was made Flesh. God in his essential Image and Glory, is the entire and complete Person in the Humane Nature. This is the Unity in it: this subsists in it: this appears in every part and state of it: this acts and suffers all in it: this is named by every name of it: these are all proper to the Person. Thus all the Glories of the essential, of the Mediatory, of the shadowy Image of Christ in their most universal Latitude, as according to their several Orders they comprehend all Forms of things in themselves, being united in the simplicity of this Divine Person, do all meet in this Flesh, fill it, shine through it, become one with it, pass through all states and changes, live and die with it and in it. In like manner this Flesh subsists in the Unity of this Divine Person in the midst of all its Divine Forms and Glories. In the fellowship of these, surrounded with these it acts and suffers all things, it appears in every part and state, under every name it bears the name of these, passing through all the changes of Mortality in their Divine and immortal unchangeableness. We saw his Glory, saith St. John, speaking of Christ in the Flesh, the Glory as of the only begotten Son of God, Joh. 1. Thus is Jesus the same yesterday, to day, and for ever, amidst all the changes of Flesh, and Time unchangeable in the Unity of this Divine Person.  
The Word made Flesh, is the whole Tree of Being Uncreated and Created, the Root, the Body with all the branches putting forth themselves into one little top-branch now withering, that through its death they may renew all unto a fresh and flourishing spring.  
The Lord Jesus now being an universal Person, as the essential Image of God, as the spiritual and Mediatory Image, as the shadowy Image, the Head, the Original frame of the whole Creation in its utmost Latitude, as the Seed of the whole Creation spread through all the parts of it, running along through all Generations, bringing it forth, and sustaining it in itself, by taking Flesh and the Nature of fallen man upon himself, sets himself in the place of us all in our lowest estate. He takes our Sins and Sorrows, all the Diseases of our Bodies and Minds upon himself, that he may take them away from us. Taking together with our Flesh our Gild, Shame, Weaknesses, Demerits, Enemies and Enmities, Death, the Divine Wrath into the Unity of the Divine Person: He makes an end of the Transgression with its trains of evils, consuming all, swallowing up all in the most beautiful and blissful flame of those Divine Purities, Powers, Righteousness, Rest, Glories, Pleasantnesses, Immortality, which receive them into themselves in the Unity of this blessed and eternal Person.  
The holy Ghost clearly and fully expresseth this Mediatory Work of our Redemption by Christ in this ground and superstructure, Heb. 1. 3. Who being the brightness, or effulgency, outshining, of the Glory of God, the express Image of his Person, or Substance, bearing up all things by the word of his Power, having purged away our Sins by himself. Jesus in his essential Image is the Glory of God, as the Woman is said to be the glory of the Man. In his Mediatory Form he is the Brightness, Effulgency, or outshining of this Glory. The shadowy Image, in which Christ is the immediate Head of the first Creation, is properly, according to the Greek word, the Character of his Divine Nature and Person: For a Character is properly the engraving or impression of a Figure upon some foreign matter; as a Figure cut upon a Seal, or from a Seal imprinted upon Wax, or Letters stamped in Ink upon Paper: Such a Character is the Image of God in the Creature. The word in this Text bearing signifieth properly a twofold sense, bringing forth, and bearing up, as 〈◊〉 Seed its Plant: So Jesus Christ is in the whole Creation, and in every Creature all along bearing all things by the Word, or flux of his Power; that is, by his seminal Virtue flowing forth, and springing up in all. Upon this ground, in this universal Person, Jesus Christ taking our flesh upon him (in our lost estate) into the Unity of his Person doth by himself, that is, by the Divinity of his Person, purge away all our Sins, and in them all our Evils.  
Thus in the Incarnation, in the Word made Flesh, the Sun of Righteousness begins to turn towards us; The Dayspring from on high visiteth us in the midst of the shades of Night and Death. Righteousness begins to look down from Heaven, and to spring up out of the Earth, as this blessed Person in his Divine Union at once shineth forth from above, and springeth up in our flesh here below.  
He dwelled among us. The words in Greek are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he tabernacled in the midst of us. See here the Life of Christ in Flesh. His Flesh was the Tabernacle in which he journeyed through the Wilderness of this World, the Antetype to the Tabernacle, in which God sojourned with the Children of Israel, resting in the midst of them, marching before them through the Desert into the Land of Promise. This word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is constantly used for that Tabernacle, and particularly often, Heb. 9 Jesus Christ saith to the Jews, Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will build it up. The Spirit addeth there expressly, That he spoke of his Body, in St. John. The Humane Nature of Christ in the Flesh was a movable Tabernacle to be taken down, and so figured by the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. The Humanity of Christ in the Resurrection, in the Spirit was the true Temple immovable, immutable, eternal in the Heavens, answering to Solomon's Temple on Mount Zion, or Mount Moriah.  
In the Tabernacle under the Law there was a threefold Perfection: 1. All things there were exact Figures of the Pattern upon the Mount. 2. These Figures were taken immediately from the Pattern itself, form, wrought, and ordered by the same Spirit in Bezaleel, Aholiab, Moses, Aron, the Priests and the Levites. 3. The Pattern itself in its Glory dwelled in the Tabernacle.  
The Scriptures laid together, seem to demonstrate Jesus Christ to be this Pattern upon the Mount. The Law is said to have the shadow of good things to come, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not the very Image of the thing, Heb. 1. 1. This very Image can be no other, than the first, the principal, the substantial Image, the Pattern itself upon the Mount. This word is applied to Jesus Christ, Col. 1. 15. He is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Image of the invisible God. And that the very Image, the Original Image is understood, appears by that which is added, The firstborn of every Creature.  
The Jewish Rabbins teach us, That the Tabernacle was a model of the whole Creation; of the Divine World, as it is the Head of the Creation, and at the Head of the Creation appears in a created Figure, of the Angelical, and of the visible World. These were represented by the Holy of Holies, the holy place, and the outward Court. Thus far they were right, but in this they fell short, that they looked not to the beginning and end of these. The Messias in in his own Mediatory Glory, and in his Father's Glory; as he was the Pattern of these upon the Mount, and as these stood originally in him.  
But according to this Type in the Tabernacle in his Flesh, and in his Life on Earth, he fulfilled all Righteousness, the Righteousness of the Creature, the Law and the Letter, the Righteousness of God and of the Gospel. Jesus Christ saith of himself, What I see my Father do, that do I: The words that I speak are not mine, but my Fathers, he doth the Works. The Humane Nature of Christ in Flesh, his Motions, his Rest, all his Words and his Works answered to the Pattern upon the Mount, his own heavenly Image in the Glory of God, and were form from that Pattern by the same Spirit forming his Humane Nature, subsisting in it, and acting it. The Father, saith he, hath sent me, and I live by the Father. The mission of the Father, and his living by the Father, were his springing forth from the Father, according to the eternal Image of things in the Father, by the Spirit of the Father in his Birth, Life and Death.  
Thus he fulfilleth all Righteousness according to the Law, as it was at first engraven on the heart of man, as it was afterwards renewed on Tables of Stone in the Moral Ceremonial, and Judiciary parts of it.  
The Pattern itself also, the heavenly and Divine Image, with the Original Righteousness and Glory, dwelled in this Flesh of Christ, in all his Motions and Rests, filling the figures with the substance. Thus it is said of him, The Word was made Flesh, and dwelled among us, full of Grace and Truth, Joh. 1. 14. It is said again, vers. 17. The Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. Grace is eternal Love, the naked Face of God, as it shines and smiles with all pleasantness in it, opposed to the Law, as it is a Ministry of Wrath, and a Veil upon the Divine Nature. Truth is the very Image, the Pattern, the everlasting Righteousness, the Original, and eternal Glory of God opposed to the shadows, the fading Righteousness, the vanishing Glory of the Law. Thus this Tabernacle of Flesh in the Unity of Christ's Person was full of Grace and Truth. The everlasting Love, and everlasting Righteousness, with their Sweetnesses, Strengths and Glories, which never fade nor pass away, at once form, filled, and rested upon their own perfect and spotless figures in the flesh of Christ. So he fulfilled the first part of his Mediation, and our Redemption, while as an universal Person, comprehending all Mankind and the whole Creation in himself. He presents himself in his Birth, in his Life unto God in the place of all, and all in himself, as a perfect Figure of the Divine Righteousness and Glory, as in an exact Harmony, so in an inseparable, immediate Union with its Pattern.  
2. The second Part of Christ's Mediatory Work in our Redemption, comprehendeth the Sufferings and Death of the Lord Jesus.  
The Sufferings of Christ are to be considered in the manner and the merit of them.  
The manner of the Sufferings of Christ's are set forth in divers Scriptures, Isa. 53. 6. God laid the Iniquity of us all upon him. And vers. 10. He made his Soul an offering for Sin. St. Paul seems to relate to these Prophecies, when he saith, 2 Cor. 5. ult. Him, who knew no sin, hath God made sin for us. It is frequent in the Hebrew Language and Idiom, to express Sin, and metanomically the Sacrifice for sin, the panishment of sin by the same word, Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath purchased us from the Curse of the Law, being made a Curse for us. A cursed Person is a Person charged with all guilt and filth, and universal abomination and detestation to God, to Angels and Men. A Person devoted to Divine Vengeance and Wrath; excluded from all things holy and good, exposed to the opposition and enmity of all things holy and good; set apart to be cut off, and quite taken away in the shamefulest, dreadfulest, and direfulest manner.  
Thus God personally in our flesh suffered. Our Jesus takes away our Sins, the Sins of the whole World, Joh. 1. by taking them upon himself. He stands in the place and person of all Sinners. He beareth the Sins of the whole World upon himself: Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the World, Joh. 1. The Greek word comprehendeth both senses, to take up, and to take away. He is set, as the abominable, execrable, detestable thing in the Eyes of God, and of all the Creatures. He is devoted by the most solemn, most sacred Curses, to bear the weight of all Gild, to satisfy the Divine Justice, to sustain the Divine Wrath to the utmost. As the Sin-Offering was all consumed by fire, and was burnt without the Camp; so went Jesus out of the City, separated from the Society of all, in Heaven, and on Earth, bearing his shame, and to endure the pain. The Curse with all evils in their greatest extent and extremity, shame, pain, the pain of loss and of sense than fell most sensibly upon him, when he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?  
A Wound is said to be a solution or separation of the Continuity, or parts united by one common Life. The Sun was eclipsed at the Death of Christ beyond the course of Nature: for it was eclipsed totally, not by the interposition of a dark Body between that and the Earth; but by the failing of the Light itself in the very body of the Sun. Was ever any Wound so bitter, so full of pain and anguish as this? Was ever any Eclipse so prodigious, so dreadful and direful? God in his own Person, in the most sweet, most vital, the supreme Unity of his Divine Person is separated and divided from himself by the force and fury of an unexpressible Wrath. The Person of God in his own Spirit, in its Divine Strengths, Solaces and Glories, by a fury sharper and fiercer than any Sword or Flame, is divided from himself in his own Flesh. The all-chearing, and all-quickning Light of the eternal Sun faileth in the Person of God, as he is in Flesh, being turned into Sackcloth and Blood.  
Jesus now truly suffereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Torments not only of an Eve-eternity, but of Eternity, for his Sufferings are extended and heightened not only according to the capacity of a particular individual man in flesh, of an immortal Soul, or an Angel great in Power; but according to the proportion of the Super-Angelical Head of the whole Creation, eminently and transcendently comprehending all Creatures in himself. And not only so, but his Sufferings in this nature are suited to the Divine and eternal Person subsisting and supporting the Nature, and to the Divine and eternal Person offended, coming down upon him in the full weight of his Wrath, in the full Opposition, the full Contrariety, the full Enmity of all the Attributes of God, of his entire Godhead, to his proper, most contrary, irreconcilable Enemy, the evil of Sin. This is the manner of Christ's Sufferings. Thus God personally suffered in Flesh.  
The merit of these Sufferings consisteth in this, that this Flesh which suffereth, and the Sufferings of this Flesh stood in the Unity of the Divine Person. Our Jesus was God and Man in one Person, that being Man he might suffer, and this Man being God might merit by suffering. By this hypostatical or personal Union, by this mutual and indivisible Unity of the same Person in both Natures, the Righteousness, the Beauty, the Sweetness, the Glory, all the united Excellencies and Blessedness of the Godhead stood entirely in every Wound, in every Sigh, in every Blush of shame, in every pang of pain, in every part, in every degree of sufferings through the whole flesh of Christ. All these reciprocally were filled and encompassed with the full Glory, with the united Excellencies of the Divine Nature. Thus were they a Divine Price indeed paid down for us in the Blood and Life of our dear Saviour.  
Now the same Divine Person, the God of all Loves and Lovelinesses, the God of all Peace, Righteousness, Joy and Immortality in the Tempests and Flames of Divine Justice and Wrath from above: In the tempests and flames of all guilt, sufferings, and shame from below meeteth with himself on both sides in all these. So the tempests and flames of Justice and Wrath from above in a moment vanish into a golden Calm and Sunshine of Divine Loveliness and Love: In the same moment the tempests and flames of guilt, shame, and sufferings below, are transformed into the Divine unspotted Beauty of an everlasting Righteousness, into the triumphs of an eternal Life, Love, and Joy. In a word, the whole Contrariety thus come to its utmost point returns into, and is swallowed up in the most pure, the most perfect Sweetness and Harmony of that Divine Unity from which it went forth. So is our Jesus become Hylasterion, the Propitiation, the Atonement. Thus the Blood of God in the Person of Christ washeth Crimson and Scarlet sins, double died, in the Blood of God himself unto the whiteness of the wool of the Lamb of God, and of the Snow coming down new unstained from Heaven.  
As Jesus Christ was a Divine Person, so was he an universal Person in his Sufferings. As Christ is God, he is the universal Being, in which all things have their Being; which is most intimately and universally in each thing, as the Being of every Being. He is the Mediator, by which all things in every kind or degree of Being descend and ascend. He is the Head, the Root, the pure and primitive Spirit of the whole Creation, as the Spirit containeth in itself the outward Form and Image. He goes forth into all forms and states of things from above the highest Heavens to the nethermost parts of the Earth filling all. He espouseth into the Unity of his Divine Person the Humane Nature, the Harmony and Model of the whole Creation unconfined by any particular personality: He takes upon him the Humane Nature in its lowest state, in fading, frail and dying flesh. The Father hath given him to the World, and for the World, Joh. 3. He hath ●…iven himself for us, Gal. 2. ult. Thus he suffereth as an universal Person, and becomes a ransom for all: So St. Paul layeth down the ground of this. Ransom, and this Ransom, 1 Tim. 2. There is one God the Father of all: there is one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a Ransom for all.  
The Death of Jesus Christ is the finishing of his Sufferings, and of his abode in Flesh. This is as the Midnight, that Point in which the Sun of the Godhead in the Heaven of Christ's Person, is gone to the utmost distance from him, to the utmost degree of Contrariety to him, and now is returning towards him again in the beautiful and blessed Unity of the Divine Love. There is a twofold mystery in the Death of Christ:  

1. An universal Dissolution.  
2. An universal Resolution.   
1. The Death of Christ is an universal Dissolution. He spoilt Principalities and Powers, making a show of them openly, and triumphing over them on his Cross, Col. 2. This true Samson dying, taketh hold of the Pillars of the World, by a Divine force in his Death pulls them down, and the whole Creation, to fall together with himself into his Grave. Some teach us, That the Sun is the Centre, the Cornerstone, the immediate Foundation of this visible World, and that if this should fall out from Heaven, or should lose its Light and Course in Heaven, all Motions, and so all Forms of things here would cease and be no more. Jesus Christ of a truth is the true Sun, the shining Pillar, which holds the Foundation of all things visible and invisible; the Root of all created Light, and so of the whole World. He dying, all things die in him, all things die together with him. If any man be in Christ, saith St. Paul, he is a new Creation, old things are passed away, 2 Cor. 5. It is a known story recited by Plutarch, That of a great Cry, with dreadful shrieks and groans to Thamus a Pilot, as he passed by a desolate Island, in the Reign of Tiberius, under whom Christ was put to death, Great Pan is dead, this great All is dead. The Heathen figured the whole Creation in the Person of their God Pan, the Angelical, Celestial, and Elementary parts of it.  
2. The Death of Christ is an universal Resolution or Return of all things, as they stand in Christ into their first and Divine Principles. The Light, the Life, the Forms, the Essences of all things return into their Ideal Forms, their incorruptible Originals and Patterns, their pure eternal Springs in the Mediatory Form, and Divine Nature of Christ. The shadowyness returns into that blessed shade, that fell immediately from the Person of Christ in Glory, that Primitive and Divine Darkness which was before the first Day, the Womb of the first Light, and of the whole Creation, which composed those Nights of Beauty, Peace and Pleasure, the Nights of the six Days, the Night of the seventh Day, and all the Nights of Paradise. Thus was Jesus with the good Thief, and all things with him, in him in Paradise at his Death. The Jewish Rabbins distinguish Paradise from Heaven thus; Heaven is a state of Divine Glory and Pleasure above in the open Light of ●…e Godhead. Paradise is a state of Divine, incorruptible Glory and Pleasure below, beneath the shades of the Earth. This is that pure, primitive, Divine Darkness, of which I speak, which was the shade, out of which the pure Earth with all the unstained Forms of things at first arose, and into which they now return again in Christ. This is the Divine sleep of all things in the Death of Christ, their retirement into their Divine Patterns, their sweet and entire rest in them, their contemplation and fruition of all the immortal Joys and Glories of their Patterns, and of themselves in those Joys and Glories, as a Divine dream in this sleep, within this sweet, this amiable, this more than Angelical shade which over-spreads them. Here they desirously and delightfully wait for the Day of the Resurrection from the Face of God, which they see by degrees dawning and rising upon them, when the sweet Peace of this lovely shade shall break up into the more full and glorious sweetness of the supreme Light, and that eternal Day. St. Paul expresseth all this to us, when he teacheth us, That Christ hath gathered up all things into one in himself, Col. 2. The Greek word properly signifies there the Resolution, or Return of things back into their first Principle, their Original Spring and Pattern.  
3. The third and last part of the Mediation of Christ in our Redemption, as it was accomplished in his own Person, is his Resurrection and Ascension. These two agree, are the same in nature and kind; differing only in degree. The Resurrection of Christ is the breaking up of that primitive shade, which overspread him, into a clear Light of Glory. Now he springs up, and flourisheth throughout his whole Person, and all things together with him in his Person, in the Beauty and Immortality of his Mediatory Form. He is now become an entire Spirit in his Humane Nature, both Soul and Body. This two Scriptures make clear to us. Jesus Christ saith to Nicodemus, Joh. 3. 6. That that which is begotten of the Spirit is Spirit. The word there is a Substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a spiritual substance, or substantial Spirit. Now it is manifest in the Scriptures, that the Resurrection of Christ in the Body was an immediate Generation by the eternal Spirit: So Divines interpret, and apply those words, Heb. 1. 5. cited from the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee: Suitable to this is that Scripture, Rom. 1. 4. Declared the Son of God with power, according to the holy spirit by the Resurrection from the dead. Two things are manifest from this Scripture:  
1. That Jesus Christ was raised from the Dead by the immediate Power and Operation of the holy Spirit.  
2. That this Resurrection was a Divine Generation by the Spirit, through which he was brought forth into the proper Form of the Son of God. That which we read declared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, signifieth properly defined, or determinately form. This receives further Light from St. Peter, 1 Pet. 3. 18. Being put to death truly in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit: We read it by the Spirit, but in Gr●… the Flesh and Spirit do so exactly answer one another in the construction and manner of expression, that one would think nothing to be plainer, than the intention of the Holy Ghost to signify, that the Flesh and the Spirit had both the same relation to the Person of Christ in those different states of his dying and rising again, that by this change the Spirit came in the place of the Flesh, and that the Flesh was changed into a Spirit, as by a natural Generation, that that was Water, or Air, is made Fire. The words are these, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. In the same sense, in which he died in Flesh, or to the Flesh: So he rose again in the Spirit, or to Spirit. That same Body, which died a fleshly, compounded, mortal substance, rose again a simple, pure, immortal Spirit. As the Humanity of Christ rose again a Spirit, so it rose in an immediate inseparable Union with the eternal Spirit upon the same Root into the same Life and Image. St. Paul instructeth us in this mystery, 1 Cor. 15. 45. The first Adam was made a living Soul, the last Adam a quickening Spirit, vers. 45. The subject of St. Paul's Discourse there, and in many verses before, is the Resurrection of the Body. He said immediately before, It is sown a natural Body, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Body proper for a Soul; It is raised a spiritual Body, a Body proper for a Spirit, vers. 44. He illustrates this afterwards, The first man is of the Earth earthly, the second man is the Lord from Heaven, vers. 47. Then he distinguisheth them by the names of the earthly, and the heavenly man, or the Super-Coelestial, vers. 48. He likewise distinguisheth their two Images, the Image of the earthly, and the Image of the heavenly, or super-coelestial, vers. 49. Then he concludes with a a positive and emphatical Declaration, But this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of God, vers. 50.  
From these Scriptures laid together, these particulars seem evidently to arise.  
1. Jesus Christ by the Resurrection in his whole Humane Nature, both Soul and Body is a supernatural, super-coelestial Spirit, far above the nature of Souls or Angels in the first Creation.  
2. The humanity of Christ hath now its Root in Heaven, in that Heaven out of which it comes forth, and appears as Lord of all: the Heaven of the Father's Bosom; the Heaven of the eternal Spirit, and of the Godhead, where it hath the Root of its Personality, and its Life hidden with God from the natural eye of every Creature.  
3. The whole Manhood of Christ is clothed with an heavenly, or super-coelestial Image, an Image suitable and proper to that Heaven out which he springs.  
4. The Manhood of Christ is so immediately, entirely, mutually united to the eternal Spirit, the Godhead itself, that Christ, as he is man, is said to be a quickening spirit. The Humane Nature, and the Divine in the Lord Jesus are so far now become one Spirit, as in a mystical Marriage, where at the height of their Unity they keep the distinction as high and clear.  
5. ●…us Christ in his Humane Nature, in his Body, as well as his Soul is thus become a Spirit in opposition to the earthly and fleshly substance of the natural Body of the first man, which is declared incapable of entering into the Kingdom of God.  
6. This spiritual and super-coelestial state above the natural Body, and above the natural Soul of the first man in his primitive state, and so above the Creation in its visible or invisible part, when it was most pure, is properly the Kingdom of God, to which that of St. Paul agreeth, when he placeth the Kingdom of God in the eternal Spirit.  
Thus the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus is his Return with his Humane Nature, with his shadowy Image, with the whole Creation in himself, into the Immortality and Glory of his Mediatory Form, to be there, as he was at first. This is the Object of his Hope, the subject of his Prayer. Now, O Father, glorify me with thyself, with that Glory which I had with thee before the World was, Joh. 17. 5. What time, that now relates unto, you may understand by the foregoing verse, I have glorified thee on Earth, I have finished the Work which thou gavest me to do. Jesus Christ speaketh this by a Prolepsis, or Anticipation, having his Eye upon the finishing his Work upon the Face of the Earth by dying, and finishing his Work in the Heart, or nethermost parts of the Earth by lying the appointed time in the Grave. Jesus Christ points out to us three eminent Circumstances in his Resurrection.  
1. The first is a Glory with his Father, an Union and Fellowship with the Godhead, and with the Person of the Father in his own proper and Divine personal Glory. He expresseth this twice over, as the chiefest sweetness of his Hopes, and the principal Glory in the Glory. Glorify me with thyself, with the Glory which I had with thee.  
2. This Glory transcends that of the whole Creation in its greatest Perfection, as it also antecedes it, as it also is a Glory which was before the World was.  
3. Here are three states distinctly represented to us:  
1. Jesus Christ in Glory, before he came into this World, before this World was.  
2. Jesus Christ coming forth from that Glory into this World, and being without that Glory all that interval of his Life here.  
3. The return of Christ at his Death and Resurrection into the same Glory.  
These three states must necessarily respect Jesus Christ in the same form under the same relation, to accommodate this sense, and make that proper. The Person of Christ in his shadowy Image, in which he was the Head of the whole Creation, and comprehended this all in himself, as he took flesh of the Virgin Mary, and set himself in the place of all in their fallen estate; So He was without the Glory. Before all this in his Mediatory Form, he stood together with God, and his Father in his shadowy Image, in Flesh and Blood, with all the changes accompanying him after a spiritual manner, filled and clothed with a super-coelestial and eternal Glory.  
Two Scriptures laid together give more light and strength to this place and this sense. Jesus Christ having spoken to the Jews of eating his Flesh, and drinking his Blood, Joh. 6. 56. Of his being the Bread coming down out of Heaven, vers. 58. Understanding the Jews to murmur, and be offended at the hardness of this saying, vers. 60, 61. makes this Reply to their murmurs; What if ye shall see the Son of man ascending thither, where he was at first, or before. It is the Spirit quickeneth, the Flesh profiteth nothing: The words which I speak they are Spirit and Life. The other Scripture is that, Rom. 1. 4. Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of God.  
From these two Scriptures compared, the Truth of this mystery shines forth in these parts:  
1. The flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, in the proper sense of Christ's words, are Spirit and Life.  
2. They were Spirit and Life in the Glory of God, before the coming down of Christ upon the Earth.  
3. From that state they came forth into their shadowy appearance here in this shadowy Image.  
4. They returned again together with this shadowy Image into that first state, where casting off the Veil, or rather converting the Veil into the same Nature and Form, they were again all Spirit and Life, by the Glory of God in the Resurrection springing up in them, coming down upon them, and taking them into itself.  
Lastly, The flesh and blood of Christ, even when they are come forth from this spiritual and immortal Glory, while they are in this shadowy state upon the Earth, abide unchangeably in this Glory, and are there still all Spirit, all Life, without any Veil or Cloud: Thus are they the food of a Saint.  
The Lord Jesus expresseth this sense; No one hath ascended into Heaven, but he who comes down out of Heaven, the Son of Man, who is in Heaven.  
Two things are remarkable here:  
1. The being in Heaven is expressed by the Participle of the present Tense, a present and constant Act.  
2. The Title of the Son of Man is particulary added to that clause of the being in Heaven constantly without interruption, while he comes down out of Heaven, while he ascends into Heaven, in the interval, or space of his being on Earth between both these. Jesus Christ, as he is the Son of Man, comes down at first out of that Heaven into which at last he returns and reascends. In the same Heaven also hath he his present and constant abode, while he is on Earth.  
As the Heaven of Christ's Mediatory Glory, and of the Father's Glory, which are far above all created Heavens, the Heavens of this Creation, come down together with him upon the Earth, obscured beneath the Veil of Flesh, and in this Flesh act all the parts of his living and dying here: So do these Heavens also at once comprehend this Earth in the Person of Christ, his flesh, their obscurity before it; All the parts of his Life and Death in the flesh, as parts of Glory in these Heavens; As Spirit and Life, as spiritual and immortal Glories in the Fountain of Life and Glory, the eternal Spirit.  
St. Austin in his Discourses of the Trinity, interprets the mission, or sending Christ by the Father, to be his coming forth out of the invisible Glory of the Father into a visible state and form. The invisible Glory being immutable, undivided and unconfined, comprehendeth constantly in itself after its own manner, that visible Form which it sendeth forth from itself.  
Object. How do we say, that the Manhood of Christ was a Spirit in its Resurrection, when he saith in one place to his Disciples, A Spirit hath not flesh and bone, as ye see me to have. In another place he showed his hands and his side to the Apostles, Joh. 20. 20. Again, he calleth to Thomas, Bring thy finger hither, and see mine hands, and bring thine hand, and put it into my side; and be not unbelieving, but believing. In a visible form he ascended before the eyes of the Apostles, and a Cloud took him up out of their sight, Act. 1. 9 To this I give three Answers.  
Answ. 1. Jesus Christ intended not that these outward appearances of a natural Form to their outward and natural senses, should be in themselves alone any demonstration of his Resurrection and Glory. Did not he know, that all their senses were equally capable of being deluded by a Fantom, or an Apparition of the Devil? If Satan can change himself into an Angel of Light, to the deluding of our most noble and Divine Faculty, our Understanding; can he not as easily by the same skill and power change himself into any known or agreeable Object, to abuse any of our senses? might not he either by false Species or Images impressed upon the outward Organs of sense, the natural Spirit, the Imagination, or by thickening and forming a Body of Air, sergeant the softness, the warmth, the solidity of Christ's Flesh, and his Wounds to the touch, and to the hands of St. Thomas, as well as to his sight, and to his eyes? Histories of those affairs, which write them with greatest Authority, and best Reputation, tell us of dissolute Persons, who have seemed to themselves in the warm embraces of a delightful Person on a soft and rich bed, who yet in the end have found themselves with a filthy sow in the mire.  
Answ. 2. We read in Daniel, that the Bodies of the Saints in the Resurrection shine as the Sun in the Firmament. When Jesus Christ was transfigured, his Face did shine as the Sun in its strength. If then the Body of our Lord Jesus, risen from the dead, did remain flesh still, yet certainly it was rarified, and heightened to such a degree of Spirituality and Glory, that it could bear no resemblance to the natural Body, the Flesh of Christ in its Humiliation upon the Cross, stained and broken with Wounds, with Blood, with Agonies, with the forms of Death invading it. Can we think a glorified Body could bear any proportion to our natural senses, when our own reason, according to the Rules of Philosophy teacheth us, That a sensible Object, if it excel, destroys the sense? Our experience makes this plain to us in the Sun, which shining clearly forth, is uncapable of being looked upon by us, chastizing us with a blindness, even to inferior Objects, if we dare to cast our eyes upon him; yet is he in his brightest Glory, but a shadowy Figure of the glorified Body of Christ, and of his Saints: For, when Christ shall appear in his glorified Body, and the Saints in their glorified Bodies shall appear, and shine in their full splendour with him; the Sun shall have no glory before this excelling Glory, but be turned into Sackcloth, as the Stars lose their light, when the Sun riseth upon them.  
Can we think then, our eyes, our natural senses, or those of the Apostles, capable of discerning or taking in the Glory of Christ's spiritual Body in its proper and true Form, when he was risen from the dead?  
Answ. 3. The holy Spirit saith expressly of these appearances of Christ to the natural senses of the Apostles, immediately upon that History of St. Thomus. Many truly therefore, and other signs Jesus wrought before his Disciples, Joh. 20. 30. We read also concerning these appearances of Christ to the Apostles, that Jesus Christ presented himself to them alive by many signs or wonders for the space of forty days appearing to them, and seen by them. These than were Signs or Miracles wrought by Christ, which had no force in the outward Form, any farther than the eternal Spirit with a Divine Power and Glory wrought in them, and shined through them. Such Signs and Wonders were the Images of things presented of old to the eyes or imaginations of the Prophets, which were of no use any farther than the eternal Word, the Glory of God opened itself to the Spirits of the Prophets through them, at once discovering them in itself, and itself in them. So now the Lord Jesus by these Signs to the outward senses at once opened, fortified, heightened, enlarged the Understanding, and the spiritual senses of the Apostles, and presented himself to them with his whole Manhood, Soul and Body, risen into the Glory of his Mediatory Form, and of his Divine Nature. Here he set before them all those fleshly Forms of his Humiliation, of his Incarnation, Life and Death, through which he had passed in their proper Forms of their several seasons, not as shadowy Images to shadowy senses, but as the essential, eternal Truth, the Spirit and Life of them, as Mysteries and Glories unvailed, and sealing themselves upon the spiritual senses of those, whose eyes were thus anointed to behold them. This was the sight which Christ presented to Thomas, when he said to him with words, which carried a new Creation along with them, be not unbelieving, but believing. This was the sight which Thomas saw, when he cried, My Lord and my God.  
The Ascension of our Lord Jesus is his passage out of his Mediatory Form and Glory, carrying that also up together with himself into the Glory of the Father. Jesus Christ distinguisheth between his own Glory and the Glory of his Father, Luke 9 26. When the Son of Man cometh in his own Glory, and the Glory of his Father, and the Glory of his holy Angels. The Glory of the holy Angels is that of this Creation, which is subjected to them, in which they are according to the Language of the Scripture, Principalities, Powers, and Thrones. His own Glory, the proper Glory of Christ, which he calls his own Glory, is that of his Mediatory Form. The Glory of his Father transcendeth that, shining forth in the supreme Unity, and purest simplicity of the Godhead.  
This threefold Glory, Jesus Christ united in his own Person. Through this threefold Glory he ascended, taking up all with him into the highest Glory. He cometh again in the Spirit of Glory, and of God, as the Root of this threefold Glory, putting forth himself gradually in it, through the Saints, till by springing and forming himself in them, he bring them also to be where he is, to see the Glory of his Godhead, to see all Glories, and themselves also like him in that Glory.  
Thus Jesus Christ ascends, and sits down at the right hand of the Father, above all Principality, and Power, and Dominion, and above every Name that is named; not only in this World, but in that which is to come. This World is the World of Angels, and of their Glories. The Names of Principalities, Powers, Dominions, Thrones, are the Names of Angels, and Names named in this, their World. The World to come is the Mediatory World, the Kingdom of the Mediator, where Christ alone Reigns over all, and in all, where Christ hath his own proper Glory above the Glory of the Angels, beneath the Glory of the Father; where Christ alone is named in every Name, by Names above every Name, which is named in this World of Angels. This distinction between these two Worlds seemeth to appear plain in the comparison of this Scripture, with that Heb. 2. 5. For he hath not put that World to come, of which we speak, in subjection to Angels. Then this is confirmed by a citation of the Psalmist, vers. 7. Having made him a little lower than the Angels, thou hast crowned him with Glory and Honour, and set him over the Works of thine hands. Thou hast put all things, even the Angels themselves, with their World, and their Glory under his feet.  
In like manner th●… Ascension of our Lord Jesus is represented to us in great Majesty and Glory, with a great pomp and train of Glories, Eph. 4. 10. He that descends, is the same who also ascends far above all Heavens. Behold our Jesus ascending through all the Heavens of Angels, all the H●…hvens of his own Mediatory Form and Kingdom, leaving them all behind him. Behold himat the right hand of the Father, in the Bosom of the Father, in the purity and simplicity of the Godhead, entered into the Holy of Holies, ascended to an height above every name of Heavens, or Glories, or any thing named in any the highest Heavens, by any Glories, by any the highest and sweetest Names. Behold him, carrying along with him up to this height in his own Person, and by the Power of his Person and Spirit drawing up after him the long pomp and train of all these Heavens, and their several Glories. Here now Jesus sits down in his eternal Rest upon the Throne of Eternity, having nothing higher to which he may ascend.  
The Resurrection of Christ is the beginning of his Ascension, his Ascension is the finishing of his Resurrection. Now Jesus Christ is perfectly ascended thither where he was at first. The Godhead of Christ in his Mediatory Form shineth forth immediately, nakedly, but gradually; in answerable degrees the Humane Nature of Christ is Light in the Light of the Godhead, a clear, pure Light in the naked Bosom of that Light, but an increasing Light. Now in the Ascension of Christ, the Glory of the Father shines out, not only immediately and nakedly, but entirely, fully. The Union, the Communion, the Conformity of the Humane Nature with the Divine is complete, as in kind, so also in degree.  
God is now all in all in the Person of Christ, and in both Natures. God is totus, & totalitèr in toto Christo, & in qualibet parte Christi. God is entirely full, and fully in the whole Person of Christ, in the whole Manhood of Christ, and in every part. God is all with his whole Godhead, all in every kind, in every degree, in every way and manner, in all Christ, in all the humanity of Christ.  
The Humane Nature of Christ is now by a mutual, entire Union, Similitude, and Society married to its Idea, its heavenly Pattern, as it stood in the Mediatory Form of Christ, being an uncreated, and a created Spirit of Light, Glory, and Immortality in one Spirit. Now this created Spirit of Light, Glory, and Immortality itself, and the Humane Nature of Christ together with it, in it, lieth in the mutual embraces of its first Idea and Pattern, in the simplicity of the Godhead, in the high and holy place of Eternity, in its highest and purest simplicity, in its Idea and Pattern, its ever-flourishing Father and Husband. In this Bosom is the Marriage consummate: In this Light the Humane Nature seeth the Godhead eye to eye, is become like it, embraceth it, being embraced by it, as it is in its full Glories fully pouring forth themselves into its Bosom, after which, and beyond which there is no Glory. This is the sense of St. Paul, when he saith, Col. 2. 9 That in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; that is, substantially, entirely, distinctly.  
FINIS.