Unpremeditated THOUGHTS Of the Knowledge of GOD, Whom to know, Is LIFE ETERNAL, WITH Some Discoveries of the Mysteries of the Creation, in the Six Days Work, and the Seventh Days Rest. To which is added, A Short Discourse concerning those Two Great Principles of Natural Philosophy, Matter and Motion.  
Humbly offered to Consideration, by One of the Philadelphia Society, who calls herself IRENA.  
London, Printed and Sold by T. Sowle, next Door to the Meetinghouse in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-Street, and at the Bible in Leaden Hall-Street, 1697.   

TO THE Most Illustrious And Excellent BENTIVOLIO My Unknown Friend.  
Illustrious Stranger,  
PArdon my giving You a Name, since You have not been pleased to make Yourself known to me by any: Pardon my not giving You a Name and Titles which might better suit Your High Quality: Possibly I might not see thorough Your Disguise. However, suffer me, Great SIR, to make Use of this Ignorance to cover my not knowing how to converse with a Person so much Above me: I take the Opportunity of Your Vailing Yourself, to Approach You: As we can better behold the Sun when it Vails itself, than when it breaks through the Clouds.  
Whatever might a little hid Your Greatness, no Outward Clothing could hinder me from seeing the Excellencies of Your Mind: The Idea I received of that, Encouraged me to pay the small Homage of Presenting these Papers. The Mixture that is of mine in them, shows the Darkness and Barrenness of my Mind; and greatly needs Your Charity and Humility to cover its Imperfection. What there is in them worthy Your Observation, is not mine, but as it is Freely Given, and Passively Received.  
If I have any sight at all, I tasted a little of the Honey of the Heavenly Canaan, and my Eyes are Enlightened; My blind Eyes have been Anointed with Eyesalve; and I see, tho' it be but little, Men as Trees.  
Excellent SIR,  
Accept this small Tribute; Accept it as an Expression of Gratitude for the most High and Noble Favours: Receive it as the Greatest Act of Charity and Humility You can Exercise; especially if You please to pardon my calling You my Friend, who am not Worthy to be  
The Meanest of Your Servants, IRENA.   

THE EPISTLE TO THE Reader,  
I Have no Great Man to present these few Sheets to, whose Name might make them pass into the World with more Grandeur: It may be with some this might gain a little Esteem or Applause; But this I seek not.  
What is mine in this Paper, is not worth Presenting to any Body; What is from GOD, it is most fit I should offer up to Him, with myself; Which I do Freely, Wholly, and Hearty.  
Receive from me, Lord, the All that Thou hast given me, which I humbly prostrate at Thy Sacred Feet; With a Thankoffering to Him that Lives and Reigns for ever and for ever.  
Reader,  
Thou knowest not who I am; And if thou didst know my Outward Person, thou wouldst know a poor vile contemptible sinful Creature. What Treasure I have, is in an Earthen Vessel, that the Power may be known to be of God.  
If thou receivest any Teaching in the Reading this Paper, if thou feelest any Quickening, give GOD all the Glory, who alone is Worthy.  
Dear Reader, I am Thine in our Blessed and Glorious JESUS.   

Unpremeditated THOUGHTS Of the Knowledge of GOD.  
IT is the Duty of all Mankind to know GOD, the blessed Creator and Former of all things; and there is in Man, in his Creation and Constitution, a Power innate or inherent, of knowing GOD; and therefore the very Heathens are left without excuse if they know Him not: For the holy Apostle St. Paul, exhorting them to feel after him, if haply they might find him, tells them, He is not far from us, for in him we live, move, and have our being: So that this is the first and most universal Way that God hath vouchsafed Mankind whereby to know him, this Principle of Light implanted by God in his Nature: And doubtless the Heathen by turning into this Light, do find it increase; and they being faithful to it, do receive a further Enlightening; as appears by several instances we have of such as have attained to great Knowledge of God, of Themselves, and of the Nature of Things. My scanty Reading affords me the knowledge o● but few of these Excellent Persons; but those I have a little knowledge of, I very much admire; as that Excellently Divine, tho' Heathen Philosopher Hermes Trismegistus, who had so early a Knowledge of God, as before the World was blest with (our Divinely Inspired) Moses his Writings, the Excellent Hermes had a profound Knowledge of God and Nature, as who reads his Book (turning in to the same Light) will find: I shall only instance in what he saith of holy Stillness and Silence, a thing which I fear many Christians are so unacquainted with, that they hardly know there is such a thing from their own Experience, tho' certainly it is the true ground of all Spiritual Activity. Another that occurs to my thoughts is the famed Aristotle, who certainly knew much of God, and Universal Nature; tho' some good and ingenious Men will hardly allow him any great Character. But to show their Skill in arguing, or sometimes for want of understanding the deep Philosophy of the Ancients, they impose their own imagination as the sense of such a Philosopher, which, it may be, was foreign from his thoughts; and this fancy of their own they ridicule, and bring the Unthinking World into an ill Opinion of the Author and his Writings, without just ground: As some Persons, Sir Charles Woolsley and others, writing against Atheism, do mention Aristotle's saying the World is Eternal, as a gross piece of Atheism; indeed to say it is Eternal, in the sense they make Aristotle speak, is irreligious and irrational; to say the World is Eternal in this mutable state of Causes and Effects, Generation and Corruption; but certainly the wise Ancients had a more deep sight than this, they saw the World had a Divine Eternal Original in God; and this and many more excellent Truths, they saw more clearly than many of us, who have the Happiness to be born in the Christian World, and to have the second and more excellent way of knowing God by the Revelation he hath made of himself in his written Word. We can never be enough thankful for the sacred Writ, that holy Men of old spoke as they were inspired by the Spirit of God, and instructed us in the knowledge of the Name, Nature, Attributes of God, in the mystery of the Creation, Production or Birth of the World; in Genesis, Chapter 1. and many other places of Scripture. The blessed Apostle St. Paul saith, quoting the Heathen Poets, We are his Offspring; the Holy Scriptures do also instruct us in the knowledge of God's Providence and Government of the World in many Ages and Generations, with the Admirable Connexion, Beauty and Harmony of his Works and Ways of Providence; an account of which the Scripture is full of throughout; and I might instance in very many particular places of Scripture, but this is done by excellent hands who discourse largely on this Subject, as Charnock and others: we have also in Holy Writ an account of Mankind, his divine Original, being made after the Image of God, in a Blessed State, a little lower than the Angels; and also of his Deplorable State that he by Disobedience fell into, and became worse than the beasts that perish: we have also an account of the most Admirable Work of the Redemption of Mankind by Jesus Christ our Lord; the methods our Blessed Jesus took (are discovered to us) by which this great Work was performed for us, and also the operation of his Spirit in us; all these admirable Mysteries are delivered to us with that Authority, Majesty, Sweetness and Love, that we can never be enough thankful for them: But O! How short are we in our understandings of them? How little acquainted with their Worth and Excellency till we receive the third and last Blessed Help afforded by God to poor Mankind, his own Holy Spirit, by whom our minds become Enlightened in the Knowledge of God and of ourselves, and by being Illuminated by the same Spirit which the Holy Penmen were Inspired with, we come to have the Scripture opened to us clearly; and indeed though of ourselves we know nothing as we ought to know, yet in this Spirit we come to know all things; for the Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God, and shows them unto us: our Blessed Saviour tells us in John 16. v. 12. & 13. I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now; howbeit, when the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all Truth, and he will show you things to come: Now it is our duty to attend to this Voice of God in us, to the Teachings of his holy Spirit, who is an Interpreter, one of a Thousand: Those things in St. Paul's Epistles, and other Scriptures, hard to be understood, are made easy by the teachings of this Spirit; the Lord did strive with the old World by his Spirit, in the minds of men; there was not many Preachers in those days; but Noah we read was a Preacher of righteousness, he preached by his Faith, which he shown forth by his Works: Tho' the Lord hath been from the beginning, striving with Mankind by his Spirit, yet this is the time when we have the greatest Encouragement to pray and wait for this great Blessing, as the Fruit and Effect of the Resurrection and Ascension of our blessed Saviour, who ascended up on high, that he might give Gifts unto men, this great Gift of the Father, his holy Spirit. Our Lord chose some to be Witnesses of his Resurrection and Ascension; he hath also made some able to witness to this effect of his Ascension; and to the Unworthiest, less than the least of all, is this grace given: He hath been pleased to open the still Eternity, and to show the ever-blessed Deity, in the most sweet harmonious Stillness, deep holy Silence, looking into his own Centre of Light, beholding his own Heart, the lovely Image of Himself, which caused that Joy and Desire of bringing forth his own lovely Image, and this Desire brought forth into manifestation the only begotten Son of God, the glorious Image of the Invisible God, and the express Character of his Person, who is God blessed for evermore; from the Love-Union and Co-Operation of God the Father, and God the Son, did proceed God the holy Ghost, from the Union and pure Mingling of the Awful Majestic Light of the Father, with the Refulgent bright Light of the Son, doth proceed the sweet meek peaceful Light of the holy Spirit; and these Three who bear Witness in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, agree in One; and all their Operations are conjunct, as well as distinct. As in the Creation and Production of the World, the holy Father and Son impowered and impregnated the blessed Spirit, in order to the production of this beautiful World, and the Spirit of God moved upon the Face of its own Waters, itself being the Principle of the Water; the Comparison of a Hen may not be unfitly used, who first produceth the Watery substance of the Egg, and then being impregnated, or filled with Life and Heat, she by moving upon, and hover over this moist substance, produceth her own form and resemblance: And herein it is that the pure immaculate Virgin Wisdom, the holy Spirit of the Eternal God, first performs the Office of a Mother, or Female; from this fruitful Womb it is that all Forms of Things are brought: By his Wisdom he form the Earth, and by his Spirit he garnished the Heavens. Hear what the Voice of our blessed Mother Wisdom saith of this concerning herself, in the Eighth of the Proverbs; begin at the 22th Verse, and read to the 29th. In the 21th verse, When he prepared the Heavens, I was there; when he set a Compass on the Face of the Depth, etc. Now as at first the World was made by Ruach Elohim, the Spirit, Wind, or Breath of God; so it is continued by the same Power; if he withdraws his Spirit and his Breath, we die, and come to nothing; he returns with his Spirit, and renews the face of all things. Now  

I'll sing the praise of the Eternal One  
I know besides Him there is none;  
No sort of Being that can say  
It hath its Life another way;  
But from this Deep Abyssal Ground.  
The Life of all things may be found,  
To Flow out from th' Eternal Source,  
As Springs do from their Watercourse.  
Spring's may wander, Sheep may stray,  
The Sun be clouded at Noonday:  
The Shepherd seeks the straggling Sheep,  
'Tis not the Clouds the Sun can keep  
From shining forth so glorious bright,  
As to dispel their Darksome Night.  
Great Rivers from the Sea do flow,  
And back into it swiftly go:  
So our Great Alpha's Omega too;  
Tho' we, like a Bird from her Nest flew,  
Wander about to find out Rest,  
We must Return ere we are Blest:  
And now I am inspired by Thee,  
Blessed Spirit, I'll praise the One, Two, Three.  
For in th' Eternal One doth lie  
The All-Mysterious Trinity.   
Oh that Men would praise the Lord for his wonderful Works to the Children of Men! All Creatures ought to praise the immense Fountain of their Lives.  
I cannot but put down here a Verse I read in Dr. Ingelo's Bentivolio.  
We thank thee, God, the Father of us All,  
And celebrate the World's Original.  
This is brought to my remembrance, and I am glad to receive help through the Vessel of another, to quicken me in this sweet work of praising God; nay, I should be glad to be stirred up by the chirping of a pretty little Bird, who in its kind sings its Creator's Praise: But O what cause hath Man to adore and praise the great good God, after whose Image he was made, in Righteousness and Holiness. Gen. 1.27. So God created Man in his own Image; in the Image of God created he him, Male and Female created he them: There is a great Mystery in these words, which none but the Spirit of God can unfold; not only Man, but 'tis obvious to us, many other Creatures were thus made, Male and Female; the very Lights of Heaven are so made, as saith Van Helmont, in a little Book of his. This I say not to show my Reading; no, I have done with that vainglorious Mind; but I am made to value the Teachings of God I receive from others, as also those which are more immediate to myself. The fiery Male Lights, as the Sun and others, and the cool and watery Lights, as Venus and the Moon, with their Female Lights, do by their various Motions, Conjunctions, and and the like, perform strange Wonders in the Heavens above, and in the Earth beneath, by their Influence and Effects; also our Terrestrial Sun and Moon, and other Watery Lights which inhabit our Earth, do also perform strange changes and alterrations in their workhouse the Caverns of the Earth; and doubtless had Man the Wisdom restored to him which he lost by the Fall, could he return to his Paradisical State, and regain his Empire over the Creatures, he might with his own hands, (by rightly applying Agent and Patient, these Fiery Active Lights, and Passive Cool Lights, our Sun and Moon, or our unripe Watery Moon) be enabled to perform Extraordinary Effects; such as might free himself and his Fellow-Creatures in a great measure from the Burden they groan under; I would not boast beyond my line, to say I have done much of this with my own hands; but I see something of it in the Spirit; and if it please the Great and Good God, the time may come when I may be enabled to do more, by receiving further Teachings, either immediately from the Illuminations of his Spirit, or by the Enlightenings of some Person so Taught: but I find it a hard thing to come out of the Fallen State, out of the World of Mixtures, out of the Wisdom of this World, so Purely, so Fully, as to be made Fit for the Blessed Teachings and Illuminations of the Spirit of God; though I know the Wisdom of this World is Foolishness with God; yet while any thing remains of the Fallen Nature, we are apt to be taken with that which we think a Fine Curious Image in us, or our own Reason and Imagination. But this must be broken to pieces; for I tell you, ye great Admirers of Reason, ye glory in your shame, for it is but the Principle of the fallen Nature: 'Tis said, God breathed into Man the Breath of Life, and he became a Living Soul: Man received immediately from God an Intellectual Light, and this Light was the Life of Man: Adam, while he stood, acted according to, or from this Principle: When the Creatures were brought before him, he did not enter into the Reasoning, why this should be Named so, and that otherwise; no, from his intellectual Sight and Knowledge, he saw their Natures, and gave them suitable Names immediately. Had Man stood, it is plain he had been governed according to this Principle, by immediate Revelation, and Positive Command, by the Sovereign Will and Wisdom of his Creator; as appears by the Command, And the Lord God commanded the Man, saying, Of every Tree of the Garden thou mayest eat, but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, thou shalt not eat of it; This Command is positive: But Woman, through the Subtlety of the Serpent entered into the Reasoning, why she should not eat; It was pleasant to the Eyes, and good for Food, and a Tree to be desired to make one wise; The why, wherefore, how, and for what, brought in the deplorable Fall. O how are the Mighty fallen! How are the Mighty fallen! How is our Gold become Dross! God made Man upright, but he hath sought out many Inventions; Vain Man would be wise, but he is like the wild Ass' Colt; snuffing up the East-Wind of Vanity and Emptiness. When Man would remove himself from the immediate Conduct of the Wisdom and Will of God, and would be guided by a Wisdom and Will of his own, by his own Reason, he broke himself off from God; and instead of a Branch of that Noble Vine, he became a degenerate Plant. And I tell you, Till we return back by the way we came out of this blessed Paradisical State, we cannot be happy; but this is a way the Vulture's Eye hath not seen, nor can Reason comprehend it; for the Natural Man perceiveth not the things of God, neither can he, they are spiritually discerned. But when a Man is brought to say, Lord, I feel myself in a bewildered fallen state of Darkness and the shadow of Death; I see thy lovely Image defaced, the Tabernacle of David fallen to the ground, thy Light in me vailed and covered; I feel myself broken off from thee my true Root and Original; I would fain return to thee, but I know not how; Reason cannot show me the way. Then the Lord comes and seals Instructions, gives his Spirit, enlightens the Man, and tells him, No, Reason cannot show the way to Me; it carried thee off from Me: But come now, lay down thy own Reason, thy own Wisdom and Will, lose thy own Life, that thou may'st save it; and I will show thee a way my Wisdom hath found, which thy Wisdom or Reason could not; for the Wisdom of this World is Foolishness with Me; but I have found out a way will cause in thee Wonder, Admiration, and Joy. Then the Lord Enlightens our Minds in the reading the Scriptures, the Revelation of the great work of Redemption of Man by Jesus Christ our Lord his Son, our Blessed Saviour; the Mysteries which are Revealed in the Sacred Scripture concerning our Blessed Saviour, from his Conception to his Ascension, are so Deep and Mysterious, that the Plummet Line of Reason cannot fathom them, but they are Revealed to Babes by the same Spirit in which they were written; there is certainly a great Mystery in the Conception of our Saviour: The Person chosen by God to have this Great Honour of being the Mother of our Lord, was a most Excellent Holy Woman and Pure Virgin; Marry, the Espoused Wife of Joseph; but Marry at first found difficulty to receive the Message the Angel brought, this Great and Mysterious Revelation of the Mind of God concerning her; and She was troubled at his Saying; and She cast or reasoned in her mind what manner of Salutation this should be; after the Angel had given her a further account of his Message, which was wonderful; She again asks, How can this thing be? in Luke 1.34. The Angel Condescends to Enlarge and to Discover the Mystery more clearly; and in v. 35. And the Angel answered, and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the Power of the Highest shall Overshadow thee. Therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. This answer Mary could only receive by Faith and Intellectual Light: And to strengthen her Faith, he further tells her, With God all things are possible: What our Belief, commonly called the Apostles Creed, saith of this Mystery, is very Excellent, that he was conceived by the Power of the holy Ghost, in the Womb of the Virgin Mary: Doubtless the Substance of the Virgins own Body was the purer for her being a Virgin, and a holy Woman, yet it was much purer when the holy Ghost came upon her, the Spirit of the living and Eternal God, the Virgin Wisdom, the true Virgin Mother, did not, as in the Birth of the World, produce the Substance purely from herself; this would have been Creation; but the holy Ghost did penetrate the Substance of the Virgin, and did purify and rarisy it, that it was a holy Thing indeed that was born of her: It was a great Honour and Privilege the Virgin Mary was made Partaker of; and doubtless a good measure of the Spirit of God did abide upon her; but this power of the Spirit did not rest upon her, but it did abide upon that holy thing which was born of her, our blessed Lord Jesus: Now this miraculous Work, the Conception of our Lord, is the second time the Spirit of God, the holy Ghost, performed the Office of a Mother in such an immediate and extraordinary manner; and as the Conception was wonderful, so doubtless the Thing conceived was extraordinary; the Body of our Lord was a very pure, and in a great measure a spiritual Body; and yet a true Body; for no Substance is the less true, but the more so, for being Spiritual: The World, and all things in it, as it came immediately from the Spirit of God, in its first Creation, was very good, and therefore true and substantial, for nothing can be Good, but what is True: And now I see how Truth, Being, and Goodness, are One: Words I have before heard, but never understood till now.  
After the Fall, Man and the whole Creation sunk more deep into Materiality, but thereby did not become a more real and substantial Being, but a more shadowy one, as it went farther from the Light. Now Matter, when it is most dark, shadowy, and at a distance, is capable of being reduced to a spiritual state, by the Power of God, through the Merits of Christ, by the Operation of his Spirit; for he shall change our vile Bodies, and make them like his glorious Body. Wonderful changes do pass upon Matter in this lower World, by Natural Productions and Alterations, and also by Artificial ways. As I myself have seen and handled Matter, changed from putrified, vile, stinking, to beautiful, sweet, and in a degree rarified and refined; and I believe far greater things of this kind may be performed, than I have yet seen. And I know Substances freed, in any degree, from the clogs of Materiality, may perform extraordinary things. How much more might the Body of our Saviour (that never was so strongly fettered) perform Wonders, while he was on Earth in the Body, after his Resurrection, and now since his Ascension, especially being in all these various states united to his Divinity: The Body of our blessed Saviour is now in the blessed State of Glorification, and I will not dispute what he can do; but I do not at all believe he will change this most glorious bright shining Body of his, into Flesh, Blood and Bone, and give it us to eat, and to drink, raw, whole, with I know not how many Absurdities, that some professed Christians dare to mention; but I hope this is far from any to believe, there is no need of this; the Flesh profits nothing, the Spirit quickens; and except we do eat the Spiritual Flesh, and drink the Spiritual Blood of Christ, we have no part in him: Not Flesh and Blood in a more gross sense than our Saviour ever had to give us, but in such a sense as a spiritual Man by a spiritual Discerning may receive; Lord evermore give me this Bread; not only two or three times a year, once a month, or once a week, or only in a piece of Bread so qualified and blest, do I desire it; but that it may be my daily Food, that I may live upon it: I can no more spiritually live without it a day, than I can live without my daily Bread: I desire continually to feed upon the hidden Manna, and to drink the Wine of the Kingdom, and to feel more of that blessed Promise made good in me, that our blessed Jesus gave forth to those that believe on him, That out of their Bellies shall flow Fountains of Living Waters: I would have my spiritual Senses always exercised about spiritual Objects; my Eye steadfastly fixed on my blessed Jesus. Here I must set down a Love-Desire and Breathing after Him.  

Ah blessed Jesus! Let me see thy Face!  
Let me draw near to thy most Holy Place:  
With Wings of Eagles let me mount on High,  
There to behold thy Bright Divinity.  
Tho' I am here encompassed with Clay,  
Let me behold the Dawning of thy Day.  
Shine forth, O Lord; from the Centre of my Heart  
Let Light Divine fill me in every part.  
O fill my Soul with thy Celestial Fire:  
With thy pure Spirit do thou me now inspire,  
That I may sing, and bless thy Holy Name,  
And may return to thee thy own pure Flame.  
I will return to thee, my Love, my All;  
Be always ready to obey thy Call.  
Writ in my Heart the Royal Law of Love,  
That whilst Below I may be like those Above;  
Whose blessed Employment is to love and sing  
Hallelujahs to their Heavenly King.  
Now I will join with this most blessed Choir;  
With them I'll Praise, with them I will Admire.  
O Holy, Holy is the Lord! for he  
Gives Life from Death, he sets the Prisoner free.  
Unbind my fettered Soul, that it may be  
Above the Earth, and Materiality, etc.   
Let all the People praise thee, O God, let all the People praise thee; thy Saints shall bless thee. While I have a being, my Soul shall magnify thy Name; thou hast done for me great things, and that my Soul knows right well: Tho' I am nothing, nor can do nothing, nor know nothing but in thee and by thee; I cannot praise thee without thee; thou art my Life; thou hast begotten me again to a lively hope; and through the Riches and free Grace of my God to a poor sinful Creature, a worthless Worm, to me is this Grace given, to become the Child of God, and to know this third and last Work of the Spirit of God, in performing the Office of a Mother, in making me partaker of the New Birth, and to know what it is to be born again, not of Water, nor of Blood, but of the Spirit of the living and true God: Words are empty things, and perish in their own sound; but it is a blessed thing to be enabled with the holy Apostles, to say, What we have seen, what our hands have handled, that declare we unto you, that ye may have Fellowship with us; and truly our Fellowship is with the Father, and with the Son, through the Holy Spirit. I tell ye from the Scriptures of Truth, from my own Experience, from the Witness of the Water, the Blood, and the Spirit, and these three agree in one, to bear witness on Earth, That there is no coming to God, nor being Partakers of the Redemption purchased by Jesus Christ, but by the Illumination and Operation of the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit of God may 〈◊〉 the Office of a Holy Mother in us, to bring forth Jesus in Spirit in us, that Christ may be form in us: The Spirit of God is the Jerusalem that is from Above, that is Free, the Mother of us all, spoken of in the Revelations; this is the New Jerusalem that comes down from God out of Heaven, the Bride, the Lamb's Wife, that had made herself ready. When the Spirit of God hath finished the Work upon the whole Church of God throughout, making it appear in the Eye of our Lord in Beauty, Unity, Purity, then will it be presented as a Chaste Virgin to Jesus Christ. Then she will appear Fair as the Moon, Clear as the Sun, Terrible as an Army with Banners. She will then partake of the supercelestial Sun and Moon, and of the Seven Stars, the Seven Properties of God. When the Church is thus Beautified and Adorned, our Lord will say, Arise, my Fair One, and come away. Now this Work cannot be accomplished in the whole Church, till it is first performed in particular Persons, by the Uniting of whom, this Work is completed: Therefore we must all look to it, that this Work may be performed in ourselves, that the great threefold Work of the Spirit may be wrought out in us, the Dispensation of the Water, the Blood, and the Fire. First, We must know the Washing with pure Water, the Purging our Consciences from dead works, that we may serve the living God: We must know also the shedding of Blood in us, as well as for us, the slaying our own Thoughts and Imaginations; we must not spare any thing of self-hood, not Agag and the choicest beasts; we must also witness the Spirit of Judgement and Burning, the Spirit sitting like a Refiners Fire, till at last we shall find and feel a Refreshing Warmth and Heat: a being Baptised with the Holy Ghost and with Fire; this we must feel before we can come to dwell with Everlasting Burning, for our God is a Consuming Fire; shall we set the Hay and Stubble in Battle Array against Him, He will pass through and Burn it, nothing but what is Pure must Remain; if we would dwell in the Holy Hill of God, and abide in his Tabernacle, we must have Clean Hands & Pure Hearts. The three great Dispensations of God with the great World, doth agree with the workings of his Spirit in us; the Deluge of Water was the First of these, the Apostle speaking of it, saith, The like figure whereunto is Baptism, not only outward Baptism with water which taketh away the filthiness of the Flesh: but it signifies the being Baptised into Christ, into his Death and Sufferings, that being Buried with him in Baptism, being Dead with Christ we also may Arise with him, and know the Power of his Resurrection, that we being Risen with Christ, may seek those things which are Above, where Christ is at the right hand of God: The Second Great Dispensation with the Great World was, The Slaying of Beasts, the Shedding of Blood, without which there is no Remission; but this was not only the Blood of Bulls and Goats, that would not do; for the Law is but a Shadow of Good Things to come; for it is impossible that the Blood of Bulls and Goats should take away Sins; but this great work was done by the Shedding the Precious Blood of Christ; the First was done away, that he might establish the Second; the Sacrifice of the Law, could not make the comers thereunto Perfect, but Christ by one Offering hath Perfected for ever them that are Sanctified; by the will of God we are Sanctified, through the Offering of the Body of Jesus, and those that are Members of his Body, must also be Perfected through Sufferings, when we come to know what it is to have the word of God Quick and Powerful in us, Dividing between the Marrow and the Bone, we shall know what this means; there will be Cutting off Right Hands, Plucking out Right Eyes, Slaying and Crucifying the Old Man, with the Affection and Lusts; This is hard work: Ah my God let me give up all to it, I would not spare any thing in me; let this work go on in me to the making an end of Sin, and the Finishing transgression, that every thought may be brought into Subjection to Jesus Christ, who I would have to Rule and Reign till all his Enemies are brought under: I Bless and Praise thy Great and Glorious Name O Lord my God, for what thou hast done for me and in me; I Bow before Thee, and Adore him that Sits upon the Throne, and the Lamb that was Slain, who was Dead and is Alive, and Lives and Reigns for Ever. The Third and Last Great and Universal Dispensation of God with the Great World, will be the Fiery Trial, when the Elements shall Melt with Fervent Heat, and the Earth and all things in it that is Cumbustible, shall be Burnt up; that which is Pure will Remain, when the Goldsmith puts the Drossy Gold into the Fire, some that may not know the nature of it, may wonder that he should burn his Gold, but he knows though the Dross will be burnt, the Gold will remain and come forth more bright; so will it be with the works of God, not only his Throne, but that which now is his Footstool, shall be Pure Gold, Clear as Crystal; he that reads let him understand what the Spirit saith. But our great Work is to Cry to the Lord, that the Fiery Work of his Spirit may pass upon us, before this great and terrible day of the Lord come; for this Day will try every Man's Work, of what sort it is; and the Hay and Stubble must be burnt up, when our Lord shall appear in Flames of Fire, to render Vengeance on all those that know him not, and obey not the Gospel. To fit us for this great Day, the Lord sends his Spirit of Judgement and Burning into us; and this Day of the Lord burns like an Oven; his Eyes are a Flame of Fire, who looks into us; and we are all naked and bare before the Eyes of him with whom we have to do: Let us not like Adam hid ourselves, but cry out, Search me and try me, O God. Let us with Moses enter into the Darkness, and the Fire; God is in the Fire, and tho' it may be terrible, shrink not at it, and endure, as seeing him that is invisible, who will appear to be with thee in it, as with the Three Children in the fiery Furnace, when thou art brought to endure, as they did. Elijah was able to endure the fiery Chariot, having been filled with the Spirit of the Lord, that pure fiery Spirit had Tinctured him throughout, and made him able to endure the fire. Ah my God, I am now in thy Furnace, and have been some time: Let me not think it strange concerning the Fiery Trial, as if some strange thing happened to me; make me to endure the time and degree of heat thou seest best for me: I would be Gold seven times refined; this I know cannot be done, without entering into the Furnace again and again: Lord continue this Work, till thou hast finished Sin, and made an end of Transgression: Purge me, that I may bring forth more Fruit, Fruits of Righteousness, Fruits of Renown, that there may be Plants in me of thy own Right Hand Planting, that I may be ready to every good Word and Work. This do thou do for me, and do not forsake me.  

A Breathing after the holy Spirit of God.  
Spring up, O Well, now spring in me,  
Let me Refreshed by thy Waters be.  
I feel thy Holy Quickening Breath,  
Which brings me from the Gates of Death:  
Thy Wind blows freely, thy Water's sweet;  
The Power of thy Flames are great.  
Thy Breath, thy Fire, thy Waterspring.  
Is the Life, the Birth of every thing:  
Outward and Inward, both do grow  
y thy Pure Water's Overflow.  
If thou with drawest thy Quickening Breath,  
There's nought remains in me but Death.  
Do thou with Fire me now baptise,  
That I may be a whole  Sacrifice.  
And into Ashes I would turn,  
If thou, O Lord, wouldst be my Urn.   
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, by the holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen, Amen.  
Some may ask me, What Right hast thou to Worship before the Altar, to speak or write of Divine Things? Thou art not qualified with Learning, and Ordination of some great learned Man. I say, 'Tis true, I am neither Prophet, nor Prophet's Son, in this sense; I am not of the Aaronical or Levitical Priesthood, nor capable of it: However, my God hath made me a King and a Priest to him, in some degree; and I doubt not, but in my blessed Jesus, by his Spirit, I may offer some acceptable Sacrifice; The Sacrifice of a broken and a contrite Heart, thou wilt not despise, O my God. My blessed and glorious Jesus, was not a Priest after the Order of the Aaronical and Levitical Priesthood, but after the Order of Melchizedeck, who was Priest of the most high God, to whom Aaron paid Tithes in the Loins of his Father Abraham: And this Melchizedeck was King of Righteousness, King of Peace; 'tis an excellent introduction to the Priesthood, to be made so within ourselves; this Temper of Mind, doth not only introduce, but always accompany the True Priesthood, who are made Priests unto God by Jesus Christ our Saviour, who was made a Priest after the Order of Melchisedeck, and bore a resemblance with him as he was without Father and without Mother. Which words, wherein Melchizedeck was a type of Christ, I have not upon me to explain as it relates to our Saviour; but in this sense, as it respects myself, I am without Father, to appoint me to the Priesthood, I mean without Man to do this; without Mother, as any Visible Church (for aught I know) that will own me; yet I am not very solicitous for this, if I may be of the Church of the First Born, whose Names are written in Heaven; I would act as a Free-Denison of this City, who is my True Mother; I would act by that Free Spirit that Teaches and Guides her Children. And it is a Promise to her, that all her Children shall be Taught of God, and Great shall be the Peace of her Children. O my God, do thou thus Guide me and Teach me, that being Born of the Spirit, I may be led by the Spirit, and know the Truth as it is in Jesus; though I am in a Wilderness, full of Difficulties, let me not be without a Guide; if Thou leavest me a moment, I Slip, I Fall. I find the way Straight; the farther I go in it, the more Straight, but also Pleasant; I can Truly, Feelingly say, Lord, All thy ways are pleasantness, and all thy paths are peace. I would not wander about to change my way: do Thou help me to make straight steps to my feet; help me to Travel onward through all Difficulties, having my Loins girt, my Lamp trimmed, ready to meet my Lord, in that City of Solemnities where I would always Praise thee, always Adore thee, always Love thee, Thou Great God of Sabbaths for ever.  
Some may say, they fear I do not enough Value Ordianances, I seem so indifferent about Ordination: I say, the Spirit of the Prophets, are subject to the Prophets; there are Babes in Christ, there are also Young Men and Fathers or Elders, such whose Age, Long Experience in the things of God, being filled with the Spirit of Wisdom, Understanding and a Sound Mind, makes them very Venerable; such who have known him that is from the Beginning, who have the Spirit of the Holy God living in them, who can Unfold Mysteries and Reveal Secrets; such who not only Speak, but by the Power of God are Enabled to Effect something in the minds of Men, to convey of the same Spirit they have Received. It is a Natural Maxim, Every Like produceth its Like: It is true in Spiritual Things, the Apostles and Prophets had this Power, and I doubt not but there are some have the same Qualifications now; such indeed who feel themselves empty of such Power and Virtue, are ready to doubt of this, and positively sometimes to say, these Things are Ceased, we must not expect them now; this apprehension of theirs must needs hinder their receiving this Great Blessing; and I know no ground they have for it from Scripture; our Saviour tells his People, He will be with them always to the end of the World; He promised the Spirit to Teach them, to Guide them, to Assist them to do Great and Mighty Works; our Saviour no where says, he will take away this Blessing again; the Prophets had the Spirit in an extraordinary manner under the Dispensation of the Law, they performed Wonders, they had Servants, and such as were called Sons of the Prophets under their Tuition, whom they Instructed in the Sacred Mysteries, to whom they conveyed much of the Spirit, as Elijah to Elisha, by casting his Mantle upon him: let not the pretensions of any (in our time) to this, who have not been real Possessors of it, make us doubt the thing, no more than we doubt of the Truth of Christian Religion, because we see so many who in Words Profess Christ, but in Works Deny him. This is a certain sign of a True Prophet, He is one who fears God, hates Covetousness; he Feeds the People with Knowledge and Understanding; the Love of Money is the root of all Evil: now let all Christians, especially such as profess to be Prophets, desire that the Axe may be laid to this Root of the Tree; I greatly Value the Sage Advice, Counsel, Blessing of such a Person; I expect their Blessing should convey foam real Advantage as the Patriarches of old did; if such should deliver a Person up to Satan, he may expect to feel the Effects of it; but when Sentence is pronounced by such as have Word without Power, upon a mistaken ground; a Person against whom such a Sentence is pronounced, feels not the sad Effect, but it may be the contrary, more of the Spirit of God then ever. But if I am overtaken with a fault, I hope one that is Spiritual may Restore me again in the Spirit of Meekness; if a Spiritual Man who hath a Discerning, desire me to Speak or Writ, it hath a great Authority with me; if such an one say to me forbear, it hath great Power; however I have not Consulted any in the beginning of these Writings, nor had either Counsel or Assistance of any Man, yet when I have written, I submit them to the Judgement of such; if such a one gives me a piece of Bread, a Cup of Wine, or of Cold Water, I believe he will have a Disciples Reward, and I a Disciples Blessing; if such an one goes about to instruct me in Sacred Mysteries, I harken with great Attention, knowing he hath a deep sight into the Wonders of God manifested in the Creatures, for by the things that are made, are seen his Eternal Power and Godhead.  
Such Persons live not in this World, so full of Wisdom and Beauty, only to look on the outsides of things, and only to reason about them; why this is so, and that so; this Hot and that Cold, only for Discourse sake; no, they Live in the World as Priests in a Temple, and Praise God for the things that are, as Hermes speaks; they have an Eye opened by the Spirit of God, by which they have an Intellectual Sight into the Creatures; and thereby have a power given also to alter and change them, and to turn their Insides Out; to make the Light which was hid in the Centre, appear through its outward Shell, the dark Veil and Shadowy Covering, it hath upon it; and thereby regain the Honourable Authority Man had given him at first of Subjecting the Creatures to his Rule, and making them serve his Necessities; though at present, Persons thus Highly Endowed with Wisdom Divine & Natural (if I may use that distinction at all, both coming from one root) are obscure and not much known in the World; yet I firmly believe the time is very near, when the World shall be Blest with the knowledge of their Persons, and the opening the Treasures Wisdom hath furnished them with: Now to the Honourable Fathers and Worthy Brothers of this Happy Society, who are thus Led and Taught, wherever you are through the whole World, I send greeting; you are all my Fathers, you are all my Masters and Brothers, particularly my Master T. S. I humbly desire to be received by you as a Pupil, as a Servant to Wash your feet: however, suffer this Word of Exhortation from me at present; let us all sing the Hymn of Silence within ourselves, till we are permitted to utter the Praise of the Great Jehovah in the Great Congregation, so that our Voice may be heard through the whole earth, for the whole World is our Temple, our Church; and we desire to join with every Creature, things in Heaven, things on Earth, and under the Earth, to praise the All-glorious GOD that created all things; by whom and through whom are all things. To whom be all Glory, World without End. Amen.  

My Soul shall sing Jehovah's Praise;  
Let that Great Name my Spirit raise;  
That I may with the Angels join,  
To sing a Hymn that is Divine.  
That I may reach the Seraphic Choir,  
Being quickened with the same pure Fire  
That makes them sing, and makes them love,  
In their Harmonious Orbs above.  
Let such high Praise in Heaven abound,  
May make Earth echo to the sound;  
That all the Creatures her below,  
The Mighty Power of Love may know.  
Good Will to Man so doth appear,  
As makes him know his GOD is near,  
To save poor Mankinded fallen Race,  
And bring him to his Native Place.    

The Second Part.  
SOME Discoveries of the Mysteries of the Creation in the Six Days Work, and the Seventh Days Rest.  
O Eternal Father of Life and Power, how sweet a Sabbath hast thou made this to me, in giving my Soul Rest and Repose in thyself! Blessed God of Sabaoth! I find Rest in thee is sweet, since thou hast made that blessed Promise good, to such as are weary and heavy laden, that in coming to thee they find rest to their Souls. Dear and blessed JESUS! thou Shepherd and Bishop of my Soul, lead me in thy green Pastures, by the still Waters of Quietness, till thou dost make me to know where thou makest thy Flocks to rest at Noon; that the hottest Affliction, the most fiery Trial, may not interrupt my sweet Repose in thee: Let me no more seek Rest and Satisfaction in the Creature, where it is not to be had; let me no more seek the Living amongst the Dead, but as the World is crucified unto me, let me be crucified unto the World. Lord help me to die daily, to live continually in holy Resignation, that when thou shalt call me to lay down this house of Clay, this Earthly Tabernacle, I may be enabled to say with my blessed Saviour, No man takes away my Life; if it is by the hand of Man, or whatever other way, I may freely lay down my Life, and be willing to be Unclothed, that I may be Clothed upon with my House from Heaven, that being Clothed upon, I may not be found Naked; but may be ready to enter into the Rest that remains for the People of God; into that good Land, the heavenly Canaan, where sorrow and sighing shall flee away, where I may sing the Song of Moses and of the Lamb, who is worthy of Praise and Adoration for ever.  
The 29th of July 1688. I may say with the holy St. John, I was in the Spirit on the Sabbath Day, on the Lords Day; & he was pleased to show me, as before I had seen, how Stillness and Rest is the true ground of Motion, in God himself, and of all true, good, regular Motion of the Creature, so all such Motion is in order to Rest: God himself, after the six Days Work, rested on the Seventh Day; so the Lord blessed the Seventh Day. And it is a blessed thing indeed, when we come in any degree to this perfect Number Seven: The Number of the Beast is Six hundred Sixty Six; and if you add more Six, it is but the Number of the Beast, or at most but the Number of a Man, it cannot be a perfect Number; no, it is the Number Seven is the perfect Number, when we come to know in our own Souls the sweet Rest, to rest from our Labours, as God did from his, when we die in the Lord, and rest from our Labours, and our Works do follow us. He that can understand, let him understand. This 30th of July the sweet Teachings abide upon me, and I must follow my Guide, who now shows me something of the Six Days work, in opening the First Chapter of Genesis to me, thus: In the beginning, In principio, in the beginning or first Manifestation of this Principle, Elohim the Mighty God of Power, Created, made out of Nothing, some say: I know not what Nothing their Imagination's frame to them; but I am sure, when about Seventeen or Eighteen years of Age, I looked into their Expositions, Annotations, Commentaries, all I could find, no other account was given; but made out of Nothing, which left me not at all satisfied; but the Lord is pleased to open to me one Scripture by another, The things that are made are not made of things that do appear; they are made of Nothing that does appear, but of Something that doth not appear, viz. of that which is invisible. In the beginning, God made, created, produced the Heavens and the Earth; the substance of which both were form, but the Earth was then without Form, and Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep: Some represent this Chaos methinks but oddly, calling it rude Chaos, where all things lay, they say, confsed: I will not cavil about Words, but this gives a strange Representation of this Principle, out of which such a beautiful and orderly World was produced. Now to me, this very Chaos hath a Beauty in it: I cannot but say, O beautiful Darkness! O holy Night! The Mother of all things! In this dark Chariot doth the Omnipotent Creator, the Great Jehovah, ride forth magnificently; and when the Veil was drawn away, the Light appeared; And God said, Let there be Light, and there was Light: This Light was before hid in the Darkness, till it it was manifested at the Command of God; the Light was mingled with the Darkness in the Chaos, and innumerable other seeming Contrarieties; but not confused, none of God's Creatures can be so; for God is a God of Order, not of Confusion; his Works are performed with the swift motion, agility, powerful operation of a most glorious Spirit; and also as a wise Architect with order, weight and sure proportionates all things, and made the lower Orders of things answer to their Patterns in the Heavenly: A man doth not make any thing but what hath some sort of spiritual existence in his Mind, before it can be produced into Out-working with his hands: Infinitely, transcendently more hath all things substantially, really a being in the Eternal Ideas in the Divine Mind. Man hath power over the Creatures, to change and alter the Substance, but he hath not power to make the substance, not the least part of it, but God produceth the substance & form, and all from himself: The Light of this Creation is a Reflection of the Supercelestial Light. And God saw the Light that it was good, and God divided the Light from the Darkness; and God called the Light Day, and the Darkness he called Night; and the Evening and the Morning were the first Day. When the Light was separated from the Darkness, and brought forth into a distinct Existence, this was the end of the First Day's Work: There is a Philosophical Work which is an Excellent Figure of this First Days Work; When an enlightened Man, a wise Man, takes some part of the Creation, of the Substance or Matter, and causeth it to pass into Death and Putrefaction, it comes to be like the Chaos, of which it was once a part, it goes into a state of Darkness and Blackness; but the wise Man is not frighted at this sight, but knows this doth necessarily precede the Light, and that it doth include the Light; and if he continues his Operation, he knows he shall certainly see a bright white Light appear, and there will be a separation between this Light and Darkness, which is an end of his first Days Work. This also is a Figure of the New Creation, which God works in bringing Man to himself out of the fallen state, which is done by bringing Man to a state of Dying; he must be brought to a state of Contrition, Crucifixion, a spiritual Dying with Christ, Dying to Sin, Dying to Self; now this is a state of Darkness and of the Shadow of Death indeed: But the Spirit of God moves upon these dark Waters, upon this Deep, and causeth the Light to appear, he illuminates the Man, causeth the Light to shine out of Obsecurity; for this Light is in the Darkness, though the Darkness comprehendeth it not: Now this Enlightening, this separation of the Light from the Darkness, is the First Day's Work of the Spirit of God in the Minds of Men. Thus there is an Excellent Agreement and Harmony in all the Works and Ways of God. Let none think it strange, that I make use of Natural and Artificial things, to explain Divine: Our Lord Jesus made use not only of Natural Productions, but of Artificial Employments, as Metaphors; he mentions the Sour of Seed, the Vine-Dresser, the Woman's hiding her Leaven in three Measures of Meal till all is leavened. This last Parable hath an excellent Significancy in it of things Divine, Natural, and Philosophical, or Artificial; but it is now, as it was then, to some it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom, to others it is not given. But there are some now who think so high of themselves, that it is below them to look into the Creatures; notwithstanding the Great and Mighty Jehovah did condescend to make them, and doth preserve them every moment; and takes such care, that the meanest of them falls not to the ground without the Will of our heavenly Father.  
I am now to say something of the Second Day's Work of Creation. And God said, Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters, and let it divide the Waters from the Waters; and God made the Firmament, and divided the Waters which were under the Firmament, from the Waters which were above the Firmament, and it was so; and God called the Firmament Heaven: And the Evening and the Morning were the Second Day.  
After the Light was separated from the Darkness, in the First Day's Work, the Second Day the Light was Rarified and Expanded, it was extended or spread forth to a wonderful Circumference, and so it became the Firmament, which God called Heaven. It is said, The Lord stretched out the Heavens as a Curtain, as a Tent to dwell in: Thus as a wise Builder, a curious Architect, the Lord covers the top of the Structure before he finisheth the curious In works: The Chaos was a Watery Substance, an Unctuous Humidity, the Principle of the Water was predominant; therefore the Scripture here calls it Water, saying, The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters. Fire and Water are the two most substantial Principles, Earth and Air are produced from them; Water is the Root and Beginning, Fire the Perfection and End of all things. The Unctuousness, Oiliness of the Chaos, produced the Light, or rather was the Light and Fire; the Water was in this beginning of things the greatest quantity, till the Fire gets the Predominancy; the Firmament, the Light and Heat divided the Waters from the Waters; thus a vast quantity of Waters was most wisely placed, part of it below the Fire, that its piercing substance might not with its fiery heat penetrate the Earth too swiftly with its quick motion, till the Earth was brought more towards a state of Perfection; the Firmament was placed between the Waters to Concoct and Ripen them, and to bring their Watery into a Fiery Substance; the Oleous Quality of the Chaos was Fire, but when it was expanded into the Firmament, it much lost its force, and became more properly Light and Heat, than Fire, as it is now placed; so that we here see the meaning of that word, The Voice of the Lord divideth the Flames of Fire; the most compact Body of Fire is divided till it comes to be hardly any longer Fire: Bodies are divisible, Spirits not; the nearer any Body is to Spirit, the more hard to have its parts divided: Fire is that wonderful Substance, I must not, I dare not at this time say any more of the Nature of it. But notwithstanding the Fire is brought into this peaceful Temperature, in the making the Firmament, yet it retains so much the Nature of Fire, that if it is agitated and contracted, it becomes Fire again; as we see by a common Experiment, it is done by the Burning-Glass: But it is made out Excellently and Clearly, by the account we have of the Last Great Conflagration; in the Scriptures it is said, The Element shall melt with fervent heat; and that it shall be wrapped up like a Scroul; which passage explains the former; it's being wrapped up, contracted, and brought into a narrower compass, will so increase the intense heat, that the Element shall melt, and the Earth and all things in it shall be burnt up. And thus it is showed more the Conflagration, burning the Earth by Fire, shall in some respects resemble the Deluge by Water; then the Windows of Heaven were opened, and the Fountains of the great Deeps were broken up: So in the Dispensation of Fire, the Element shall perform its Office of Burning, as hath been a little before described; also the imprisoned Fires in the powel's of the Earth, shall be set at liberty; their Deep shall be broken up, that they may meet their beloved upper Flames, to which they always tend. And it appears to me, that as the World grows nearer its period, nearer this Dispensation of Fire, the Central Fires do more break their Prisons, make their way out of the Earth, gain Victory over the Waters under the Earth, and sometimes above the Surface of the Earth; as is seen by Vesuvius, Aetna, and other Burn, that in our time have wonderfully issued forth, and shown their Conquest over the Water, by sad Effects: And Earthquakes may be sometimes caused by the strife of Fire and Water, which when Fire gets the predominancy, causes the Earth to open; for we commonly see the excess of Dryness makes the Earth chap and gape, Moisture makes it more continuous, or clinging together.  
Now I cannot but return with Admiration to behold the Beauty and Wisdom of this Second Day's Work, and say, 'tis was very good: And the Evening and the Morning was the Second Day.  
O Admirable Order of things! How am I ravished with the sight! Who can enter into the deep of this one Sentence, The Evening and the Morning was the Second Day!  
According to my scanty measure, I shall describe the Philosophers Second Day's Work. It is not to be wondered if I do it not so exactly as some others, who have more of the Spirit of Wisdom, and are Possessors of her Treasures, while I profess to be only a Seeker and Lover: It appears to me that the Philosopher's Firmament is spread out like a Molten Looking-Glass; and to me none but a wise Man can well understand this Passage, he hath seen his Light arise out of the Darkness, and expatiate itself to the filling his Recipient, how large soever it be, his Firmament is Light, hath the Nature of Fire in it, which is encompassed with Water above, and underneath the Water is predominant; in the beginning of his Work is the greatest quantity, that he is ready to call it Superfluous Humidity; but as his Work grows towards a state of Perfection, the Fire prevails, it becomes a Child of the Fire, lives in the Fire, feeds on the Fire; I mean not Devouring Fire; this appears not to be in it, unless it is agitated and stirred up by too violent motion: But Light or Fire so mingled by gentle procedure, with the Water that it partakes of, the Meek Peaceful Nature of the Water, and gives forth so much of its own permanent compact Substance, that they become one excellently qualified Essence, Fire being in this state of Perfection predominant; but such a Fire as is before described, that doth not destroy, but exalt the Substance to a more fixed, pure, permanent state: I say something of this Work, as it is at the conclusion in this Second Day's Work, because Light and Heat, whereof the Firmament consists, are powerful Agents to begin and end the Work withal: But the spreading forth the Light into a Beautiful Mirror, is the end of his Second Day's Work.  
Now there is an admirable Teaching in this, it is a Figure of the Work of the Spirit of God in illuminating the Minds of Men; which is a Translating them out of the Kingdom of Darkness, into the Kingdom of the dear Son of God: This is done in some measure in the beginning, in the first Day's Work, but is greatly increased in the Second, till we are brought into his Marvellous Light. When the Light Centre is open in us, which was shut and vailed in the Fall, it is a blessed thing; but when it spreads itself, that the Understanding is enlightened in the Knowledge of God, of himself, and in some degree of the Creation round about him, he comes again to be but a little lower than the Angels, who are Intelligences, who are Fire; He maketh his Angel's Spirits, and those Ministers of his Flames of Fire: Nay, Man in his first Creation was an Excellently Noble Creature, he was the Epitome of the whole World; he was the Little World, in which the Great was comprised; he had the Elements and all Creatures within himself. We may well say, We are fearfully and wonderfully made, with holy David, who had his Eyes opened to see his own Excellent Make. But if the first Creation was glorious, how much more is the Second, the New Creation in Man, when old things shall pass away, and all things become new? And one admirable part of this Work, is the bringing forth the New Heaven in us, the New Firmament, wherein is Light, Serenity, Calmness; the Fire being tempered with the meek Waters of Quietness, so that the wrathful property of the Fire, is changed into a sweet peaceful Light; but this Light Centre cannot be opened in us, but by our blessed JESUS, who hath the Key of David, who opens and no Man shuts; and shuts, and no Man opens: O! 'tis our blessed JESUS, who opens his own Light in us by his Spirit; he causeth his glorious Light to shine out of the Darkness, and to arise, and to enlarge itself, till our whole Body is full of Light: There is a certain sign given, to know whether the whole Body is full of Light; If thy Eye is single, our dear Lord tells us, our whole Body is full of Light: The single Eye is, when we fix our Eye upon the Light, on the Good, first in God himself, and in all the Creatures where it is scattered up and down, but all from the same Root. Now God himself beholds the Evil and the Good, but he dwells in the Light: So, tho' we may see the Evil, we must shut our Eye to it, and open it to the Good; thus steadfastly beholding the Light, we shall be transformed into its Likeness. However, every thing is beautiful in its Season: The Evening as well as the Morning is the Second Day.  
And God said again, Let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry Land appear; and it was so: Then God said, Let the Earth bring forth the Bud of the Herb that seedeth Seed, the fruitful Tree that beareth Fruit, etc. and it was so. And God saw that it was good: And the Evening and the Morning were the Third Day.  
In this Third Day's Work, there was a gathering together of vast quantities of Waters that made the Seas, those mighty Oceans, where the Wonders of God are seen by those who go down into the Deep in Ships. Surely the Waters were at first the greatest part of this Globe of the lower World: They yet remain very great, tho' more Ground hath been gained since the first Creation, as is plain in many parts of the World. There remains in the Sea such a quantity of the Oleous Light, or fiery part of the Chaos, as ripens them, and sometimes gains advantage, and a little dries them up, and lessens their Quantity. This Substance when it is agirated, makes the Sea boil like a Pot; it often appears like Fire: And who know the Nature of Salt, especially Sea-Salt, will know that this is so; and they will know the meaning of that word, Every Sacrifice shall be seasoned with Fire, and salted with Salt, which are equivalent terms. Now in the separation of the Elements, when the Light was carried upwards, and much Water with it, and the Waters were gathered together in this Globe, the dry Land appeared; the Light and Waters being separated from it, the Earth appeared but a Caput Mortuum, a Dead Earth, till the Prolific Virtue was called forth by the Word of God; and than it appeared that Heaven had not left the Earth, without first imprinting alovely Image upon it: There was left in it so much Life and Heat as quickened it to bring forth innumerable Vegetable Substances of various Size, Shape, Colour; Fruits, and Herbs, and Flowers, with great Variety of Taste, and Fragrancy of Smell; all to show forth the Bounty and Magnificence of our Great Creator: How freely did the Teeming Earth, in this Virgin-state of Purity, bring forth the various beautiful Forms of Vegetable Substances, before it was Clogged and Burdened with the Curse? The Earth we tread on, as Contemptible as we are apt to think of it, notwithstanding the Disadvantage it hath by the Fall of Man, which brought the Curse upon it, there is that Lustre, Beauty, Excellency in it, that if the same Spirit that made it, please to open our Eyes to see, we shall behold with wonder. Sure such Wisdom is worth our seeking and praying for, which we have great Enconragement to do, when we read of the great Wisdom of Solomon, who knew the Nature of all Vegetables, from the Tall Cedar, to the Low but Sweet Hyssop: The residue of the Spirit is with the Lord, but for these things he will be sought unto; and they that seek, shall find a measure of Wisdom, if not so great: But we must dig deep for it, as for hid Treasures, and be thankful for a little. It is a great blessing to have the Scriptures, and any degree of the Spirit of God to open them to us, in showing to us the Wonders of God in the Creatures; particularly in the gathering together of the Waters, and setting bounds to their proud Waves, saying, Hither to and no further; in causing the dry Land to appear, and at the Command of God to appear with an admirable Verdure, a beautiful Clothing, which was the end of the Third Day's Work: And the Evening and the Morning were the Third Day.  
The Philosopher's Third Day's Work is a Separation of the Elements, that his Dry Ground appears with a Vegetative Life in it, which, if he pleases, will spring up in his Glass: There is in his Ground Beautiful Colours, Pleasant Scents, and his Earth while in this state may not be Unprofitable or Unfruitful, but may be made to bring forth Increase in not Unprofitable Fruits, nor is his Verdure unpleasant to behold. This is a short Account of the Philosopher's Third Day's Work. A better Hand may supply the shortness and imperfection of it.  
The Third Day's Work, as it is wrought Internally, in bringing forth the Fruits of the Spirit, is excellently described in the Scripture: There is the good Ground spoken of, that brings forth Fruit abundantly, some fifty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold: It is a blessed thing to have the good Ground in us, the Ground that stands out of Dying, out of Repentance, tho' it was once covered with the Waters, it is not now laying again this Foundation of Repentance, but they go on to bring forth other good Fruits, that they may be rooted and grounded in Love; that they may take Root downwards, and bring forth Fruit upwards; Fruits of Righteousness, Fruits of Renown; that they may be as Trees planted by the Rivers of Waters, bringing forth Fruit in due season. How short are many Christians of this Work? How then shall we attain to the Seventh Day, the Sabbath of Rest? However, the Work of this Day is very good: And the Evening and the Morning is the Third Day.  
Now the Fourth Day's Admirable Brightness appears before me with such Splendour, as is ready to dazzle my weak sight: wonderful Brightness hinders our sight as much almost as Darkness. O glorious Sun of Righteousness, arise in my Soul! Enlighten my Darkness: Let the Shadows flee away: In thy Light let me see Light: Strengthen my Optic Faculty, that I may look within the Veil, and behold Thee, Thou Sun of Suns; the Brightness of the Father's Glory: I can see but little of Thee; I can know but little of Thee; I cannot Comprehend Thee; do thou Comprehend me, Surround me with thy Brightness, Gather me up into thyself, that Inferior Lights may be under my feet, that I may no longer be governed by their Influences, but may be under the immediate Conduct of thy Light World, where they need not the Light of the Sun, for thyself is the Light thereof: When shall it be said to thy Church, Arise and shine, for thy Light is come? Even so, come Lord JESUS, come quickly.  
And God said, Let there be Lights in the Firmament of the Heaven to separate the Day from the Night; and let them be for Signs and for Seasons, etc. and let them give Light on the Earth. And God made two great Lights, the greater Light to rule the Day, the lesser Light to rule the Night; He made also the Stars; and God set them in the Firmament to shine upon the Earth, and to rule the Night and the Day, and separate the Light from the Darkness: And God saw that it was good.  
God by his Spirit made the Heavens, and by his Spirit he garnished and embellished the Heavens: The Firmament was before a beautiful Looking-Glass, it was an admirable one indeed, when the lovely Forms of Bodies of Light were to be seen in it. God said, Let there be Lights in the Firmament: This was not only to Adorn, but for many admirable Uses, for Signs and for Seasons; They sign and signify out much to the Inhabitants of this lower World; they have a Voice to us, if we could understand it; there is no Tongue nor Language where their Voice is not heard, but how few understand the Language? They were to give Light on the Earth, Light is one of the most comfortable Blessings we have; it is one of the good Gifts that comes from the Father of Lights. If it were asked, Hath the Light a Father? As Job was asked concerning the Rain: We might answer, It hath a Divine Original: For the Firmament is a Mirror, as it shows to us the Births and Representations of the upper Light World, the Supercelestial Sun and Moon, and Stars, the seven Spirits of God, the seven Golden Lamps show themselves in their various Lights, and put forth their Influences in the visible Heavens, from thence they are conveyed down to our lower World, and we have our Sun, and Moon, and Stars in the Earth, we have our Sun Centralis, as some Philosopher calls it, I think Sandivogius: Some other Enlightened Person saith, There is Heaven above, and Heaven beneath; know this, and be happy. I mention this in this place, because the Mineral Kingdom hath some share in this Fourth Days Work; for when the Lights of the Firmament were made to shine forth, being a Reflection from the most glorious Upper Light World, they did not rest there so, but that they put forth Themselves into a Birth, into a Reflection or Mirror in this Lower World; but here the Crystal is so thick, it is hard seeing through it, the Fall hath so much mudded this Principle, this Lower Earth: Besides, our Sun and Moon are but the Reflection of a Reflection, the Shadow of a Shadow: Therefore we must dig deep for this Wisdom as for hid Treasures, and we shall see Wisdom hath builded her House, so as to lay her seven Pillars deep in the very Foundation, in the very Centre of all things. I was ready to wonder that the Mineral Kingdom was not described, as well as the Creation of the Vegetable and Animal, in this first Chapter of Genesis, till my Eyes were opened, to see it did belong to this Fourth Day's Work. And now I see more clearly the deep Significancy of Joseph's Blessing, which hath contained in it the Sweetness of Heaven above, and the Deep lying beneath, the sweet Increase of the Sun and of the Moon. Lord, after this sight, let me no more think any of thy Creatures mean or little; let me be always thankful for the least of thy Favours: Nothing can be little that comes from Thee, thou Being of all Being's: Thou hast nothing little to give: All thy Works are wonderful, in Wisdom hast thou made them all: Thy Footsteps are glorious, thy Footstool is richly adorned: All thy Ways are Pleasantness, all thy Paths are Peace. I desire to be in Subjection to Thee, thou Father of my Spirit, that I may live, that I may live to praise, live to love, and to adore thee for ever. The lower Sun, Moon and Stars, that inhabit our Earth, are for the use of Man; especially a wise Man, who knows their Original Nature and Use, and when he intends to improve them for the health of his Body, or benefit of his Estate, he makes them to shine in his Firmament; and they are to him for Signs and Seasons, by which to govern his Work; they are to enlighten his Earth, to make it fruitful, to bring forth their own bright Forms, till his uéry Earth is throughout enlightened, and comes to be itself a bright shining Sun. This Fourth Day's Work is figured out in Man, who is the Little World in the Frame of his outward Body, as is said in the 12th of the Ecclesiastes, Whilst the Sun is not dark, nor the Light, nor the Moon, nor the Stars: The Fall of Man Eclipsed the Lights, and laid them liable to Darkness: It entied into the very Soul and Spirit, and darkened the Light there. But when the Spirit of the Lord comes to work the New Birth, the New Creation, this Fourth Day's Work comes to be known in the Soul, O who can express the glorious Splendour if it! When the Lord himself comes to be a Sun and a Shield! When the Sun of Righteousness doth arise with Healing in his Wings! The Dawning of this Day, the Morning Redness, the Sun Rising: Who can express the unutterable Sweetness and Strength that is felt in the happy Soul that is thus shined upon! But to have this Sun shine brighter and brighter, to the perfect Day, to increase into the Light of seven Days! O may a poor low humble Soul that feels a little Refreshment from the Beams of this Sun, lie prostrate till it feels that it is throughout penetrated and filled, till it is clothed with the Sun, and hath the Moon under its Feet, that it may go forth in the power of this Sun as a Giant refreshed with Wine, and as a strong Man to run a Race. O my Soul, lie low; prostrate thyself at the Feet of thy JESUS; in silence wait his pleasure; stir not up thy Beloved till he please. He hath sometimes visited a Soul with such Favours as hath made it sing.  


silent Waiting I do find  
A Treasure opens in my Mind:  
Turn in, my Soul, turn in and see  
The fullness of this Treasury.  
'Twas placed here by thee, O Lord,  
'Tis opened by thy Living Word?  
'Tis he himself doth keep the Key  
Of all th● hidden Mystery.  
He is my Sun of Righteousness,  
Who my whole Person doth possess:  
He is my Gold tried in the Fire,  
He is my Clothing, my Attire:  
He is my Food, on him I feed,  
And find him to be Meat indeed.   

Now prostrate Soul, do thou arise,  
For thou hast won the glorious Prize:  
Do not sit sighing here alone,  
Since thou this happy Day hast known.  
The Lovely Garland thou hast won,  
Thy Head is wreathed with the Sun.    
The Fifth Day's Work of Creation was, The Lord's calling forth the Prolific Virtue of the Water and Air, which was immediately obeyed, and they brought forth abundantly. And God said, Let the Waters bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath life, and Fowl that may fly above the Earth, in the open Firmament of Heaven. And God created great Whales, etc. This word abundantly is twice used in the account of the Fifth Day's Work; this shows the abundant quantity of Water that there was to bring forth, and the abundance of Creatures that were brought forth of Fish and Fowl, which are innumerable, and wonderfully various in their size, shape, and other qualities; their Number being so wonderful, and beyond comprehension, their disproportion of size was wisely made the most vastly disproportionate of any of the other Creatures; the Whale being of the largest Bulk of all living Creatures; and therefore may be called the Chief of all the ways and works of God; and as Mr. boil observes, in his Excellent Book of Natural Philosophy, There is bred in a liquid substance, in Vinegar, the smallest Creature; so that there is room left for wonderful Variety to come between, which is admirably filled up with great Variety. O blessed Eternity! that will give Time and Capacity to see the Wonders of the Ways and Works of God To see them in their Original, not only in a Glass, in shadowy Representations; the great quantity and prolific Virtue of the Waters, is seen in their wonderful Increase, which is seen now in their Spawning and bringing forth Multitudes at once; one Fish bringing forth a greater Number at one time, than any other Creature doth produce in many years. The Fowls, those curious Aerial Inhabitants, are very admirable; they also were the Fifth Day's Work, and tho' they inhabit the Air, the Water is only mentioned as the cause of their Production, by the power of God; which proves what I have before said of the affinity between the Water and Air; and there were some of these Creatures made, as it were, of a Middle Nature, as Fish that fly, and Fowl that swim. These Inhabitants of the Aerial Region are very worthy Contemplation, their excellent Situation, curious Make, variety of Colour, pleasant Employment, admirable Oeconomy or Government, are all cause of much Wonder. There is no sort of sublunary Creatures I would so soon change my Make with, as these: Their Aerial Bodies are so light, their motion is swift. David was ready to envy their getting so near the Altars, he desired the Wings of a Dove, to fly away, and be at rest: Their Employment is pleasant, cheerfully singing their Creator's praise: They are immediately under their Creator's bountiful Care and Provision; they sow not, nor reap, yet are taken care of, and have their Meat in due season: I cannot but particularly admire the Bee, that pretty little Chemist, that knows how to separate the Substances: We may learn Natural and Moral Philosophy from this little Insect: It industriously works, and wisely improves the matter that it works upon, by separating the Precious from the Vile: Their Government is Excellent; there is Superiority for Orders sake, and yet love makes an Equality; they dwell in their little Houses one by another without encroaching, and yet communicating; tho' there is something of particularity, it hath one Foundation, and is closely joined, so that it increases into a common stock. I cannot but much admire this Order of Being's, the winged Choristers. If I could understand the Language of Nature, they would all teach me much to know the God of Nature, who hath made them, and taught them, and taketh care of them continually.  
In the Philosopher's Fifth Day's Work, there is the Exaltation of Eagles, the Doves of Diana, whose meek Natures might teach their Master's Patience; their Phoenix is their most Noble Bird, for out of its Ashes is produced and doth arise a young One more Noble.  
In the Inword Work upon the Minds of Men, there is a great Advance of the Work, towards a finishing the New Creation, the New Birth, and may be called the Fifth Day's Work, when we are made to mount up with Wings as Eagles. It is a blessed thing to know this Fifth Number to be accomplished in us, when we come to be above the perturbation of the Elements, when we dwell in the Upper Region, in Serenity and Stillness, in the One pure Element. If we have Faith as a grain of Mustardseed, it will grow up till at last it will become a great Tree, that the Fowls of the Air shall lodge in the Branches, our own Spirits will come to dwell in this beautiful Tree of Faith, which is another Life than we knew before; and other good Spirits will inhabit with us, that we shall say with the Spouse, The time of the singing of Birds is come, and the Voice of the Turtle is heard in our Land: We shall join with Quires of Angels, to sing Hymns of Praise to our God and King; Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Some Souls are redeemed, and brought to this state; but O when shall the Church be brought from amongst the Pots, from amongst the soil and impurity that cleaves to them? When shall she arise like a Bird of Paradise, with her Wings of yellow Gold? O my Soul, wrestle in secret with thy God, that this may be accomplished, that there may be a going on to the Sixth Day's Work.  
Moreover the Lord said, Let the Earth bring forth the living thing after its kind,  and every creeping thing, etc. And it was so. Furthermore, God said, Let us make Man in our Image, etc. Read to the end of the Chapter. The Lord may open more to thee (whoever thou art) than to me, who know nothing, but am a little Child; I am become a Fool, that I may be made Wise: I desire that my blessed Jesus may be made of God to me Wisdom. 'Tis the Fools and simple Ones to whom Wisdom cries: She lifts up her Voice, and saith, Whoso is simple, turn in hither: And to a poor simple One, as I am, she may show the Excellency of the Six Day's Work of Creation.  
And the Lord said, Let the Earth bring forth: This was a pure Earth, as it came forth immediately from the Lord, as it was the immediate Product or Birth of his Spirit: And when the dry Land did appear at the Command of God, the Lord saw that it was good: And tho' at the first appearance the dry Earth had not so great a Lustre as afterwards, when it was beautified and adorned, but was partly like a calcined Earth; the Fire, and Water, and Air, being in a great degree separated from it; yet when the Lord by his powerful Word called forth its Virtue, it showed itself to have an admirable Life in it: And indeed the Earth itself was exceedingly more pure, beautiful, lovely, than since the Curse: It did far excel in Colour, Virtue, Clarity and Brightness; that all the Creatures that were then the immediate product of this Earth, were like itself, very good, very lovely, and transparent; such were then the Plants, the Beasts, and the Man, whose Name signifies the Red Earth of which he was made. Whosoever hath his Eyes opened by the Lord to see the Paradisical State of things, they will see the Plants to appear Crystalline, like precious Stones, and all other things proportionably advanced to a most Noble Excellent state; which I doubt not some Persons have seen while in the Body, more clearly than myself. Can we see, or else believe, that the Beasts were ever such Excellent Creatures, and capable of being made so again, there would not be such cruelty used towards our fellow-Creatures as there is, when we see they are part of the same Day's Work with ourselves, of the Sixth Day's Work; and that they were very Excellent in their Make; and that by the Fall of Mankind, who was made the Lord of them, the poor Creatures came to sink with him into a low deplorable state of Misery: sure we shall commiserate them, we shall gain the true Empire over them by behaving ourselves towards them with much love, and some respect, tho' as to inferior Creatures; yet this love will gain our true Empire over the Creatures. When this Spirit of Love goes forth, that Promise shall be made good, That the Lion shall lie down with the Lamb, and a little Child shall lead them: While we are wrathful toward the Creatures, it stirs up wrath and enmity in them; but when we rule them in love, with wisdom, they easily subject themselves to us; when we rule more from a Spirit given us of God to govern, than from a desire in us, or a will to have Superiority over our fellow-Creatures.  
Lord, Let not my Sins, my Struggle with thy Will, any longer hinder thy great Blessings from going forth in the Earth, to the Release of the poor groaning Creatures, Man and Beast; but help me to groan with them, for the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God. And if an evening must go before this morning, help me to submit to it, and help all thy People to submit in holy Resignation to thy Divine Will, thou Sovereign Lord of Lords, and King of Kings; to whom be ascribed all Power, Might, and Dominion for ever.  
Thus have I been enabled to say something of the first part of the Sixth Day's Work. Now the Lord help me to know myself; such Knowledge it too wonderful for me.  
So God created Man in his own Image: O that the Veil might be more perfectly drawn away, that clouds this Image in me, that I may see its brightness so clearly shine forth in me, that what I see and feel I may declare. Surely this Image doth consist in Rectitude and Order, in the Union of Truth, Being, and Goodness; God made Man upright, he was made sincere, in simplicity and integrity: the uprightness of Man is the Image of God, as he is a pure Unity, the One from whom all Variety flows; and this Image of God is most admirable, most lovely; thus God himself characterizeth Job, Hast thou considered my Servant Job, a Perfect Man, and Upright? When the Lord had thus described Job, presently he was set up as a Mark for the Enemy of Mankind to shoot at: Also Job's Friends and others try their Skill upon the good Man, being stirred up by the Evil One. There is nothing so much hated by the Evil One, nor wicked Men; as Integrity and Uprightness: There is nothing to which they are so much contrary, because all sin is a breach of the Unity: It dwells in Contrariety, Disorder, Confusion; but when we once gain the blessed Image again of Uprightness, there is nothing so secures a Soul from evil Spirits, and Men, and from the strife of Tongues, as this. There is a passage in the Scriptures, Integrity and Uprightness shall preserve me: or to that purpose. Mark the Perfect man, and behold the Upright, for the end of that man is Peace: from this Root an Admirable Variety doth flow: God made Man Upright; upon this Tree in the midst of the Garden did grow Twelve manner of Fruits; Righteousness, Holiness, Love, Peace, Joy, Humility, Patience, and other excellent Fruits: here grows forth a numerous variety; but all in a Beautiful Order and Harmony; in the Tree of Mixture of Good and Evil, there is Contrariety and Disorder, there is Breaking in pieces and Confusion; but where there is Integrity, we shall be as Mount-Sion that cannot be moved: Man was made in this blessed state of Rectitude and and Order, Uprightness and Integrity of Spirit and Soul; and also his very Body was of an Excellent Proportion, Transparent Brightness, Admirable Colours, to set out this Curious Structure; we shall know more of this, when we shall be made to return into the Paradisical State more fully; that the very Body may partake of it, and the Youth be Renewed like the Eagles: it is but few yet know any thing of this; some there are, though I am but waiting for the Redemption of the Body.  
In the Image of God Created he him, Male and Female Created he them: Man was in every respect made after the Image of God, the Female as well as the Male.  
I do not see that Adam sinned in desiring to bring forth his Female Self: It was before the Fall, and was no part of the Fall; it was a Variety, but not Contrariety; it was a Pattern of things in the Heavenly; Distinction is consistent with Unity: Marriage is Honourable, and the Bed Undefiled: True Marriage is very Honourable. The Apostle saith it represents Christ and the Church, who when the Spirit of God hath made ready, she will be the Bride, the Lamb's Wife. After these Considerations, methinks none should dare to profane that State.  
And the Lord blessed them, and said, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the Earth, and subdue it, and have Dominion, etc. This Authority was given to the Female as well as to the Male; therefore it is unjust in any to say they are not capable to Rule; they are in most cases certainly to give Man the Superiority; yet the Woman is capable to receive a Spirit of Government when the Lord pleases to give it: But it is certainly more happy to be Governed, than to Govern, unless God calls for such a Service. The subordinate Station of a Woman in Governing a Family, which is usually allowed them, is Honourable and Comfortable, if it is faithfully and prudently managed. But Women are capable of other Employments than these: Their Mother Wisdom who hath builded her House, and hewn out her seven Pillars; hath called simple ones to come in hither; and she doth not exclude Females, but they may receive the Law from her Mouth; she will open her hid Treasures to them, and show them that Wisdom is better than Gold, yea, than much fine Gold, better than Rubies; that the Merchandise is better than Silver, and the gain thereof than much fine Gold: If Man did but know himself, he would soon find Wisdom's Golden Mine: If Man did but know and would consider his Divine Original, his admirable Make in his Paradisical state, that his outward Form: was so lovely, his Noble Soul was easily seen through it, surely he would not behave himself unseemly towards his own Body, which is a Temple for the holy Ghost to dwell in, as the blessed Apostle tells us. And did Man and Woman consider, though now they are in a distinct Existence, they were once One, and when they are United in Marriage come to be so again; surely they would behave themselves well in that Relation, each in love and honour esteeming the other; especially let the Woman be careful to perform her Duty, for she was first in the Transgression, she hath the more need to watch and pray, that she enter not into Temptation. When this Relation is thus lived in, with this regard to themselves, and one towards another, it is a holy happy state; and if ye be holy, the Apostle tells us, then are your Children also holy Jacob Behm, that enlightened man, saith, Endeavour to get your Children good Souls. This state so lived in, is not unbecoming a Paradisical state, and certainly entails a great Blessing upon Posterity. But notwithstanding there is an Excellency in the Paradisical state, yet the Heavenly is most Excellent, wherein there is neither Male nor Female, Bond nor Free, but we are all one in Christ Jesus. Our blessed Saviour tells us, In Heaven there is neither Marrying, nor giving in Marriage, but we shall be like the Angels in Heaven. And as all Variety proceeds from Unity, so they must return to Unity again. Christ himself shall deliver up the Kingdom to the Father, and God shall be all in all. Unity is the Beginning and End of all things, and Rest is the Beginning and End of all things; which leads me to the Seventh Day's Rest: The Evening and the Morning was the Sixth Day.  
Now let all Creatures praise the Lord, my Soul shall bless him while I have a being. Glory to him that sits upon the Throne for ever and ever, Amen, Hallelujah. The Lord Omnipotent reigns: Let the Earth rejoice, and the multitude of Isles be glad. Rejoice, O my Soul; Rejoice in the Lord evermore.  
The Wise Man's Sixth Day, is, When his Work comes to, Animality, shall I say? It hath then a Paradisical Body, and rather more than so, for it can penetrate Bodies; and it is not the Property of Bodies to have Penetration of Dimensions. But draw a Veil here, lest Unhallowed Hands Touch, or their Eyes See: Whoever is a thirst, let him come: If he is not athirst for Gold, but for Wisdom, he will find Wisdom's House Open to Receive the Hungry and Thirsty; And for such she hath prepared a Feast, she hath mingled her Wine, and made ready her Delicacies.  
The Internal Sixth Day's Work is, When we come to the state of Manhood: To be a Man in Christ Jesus, is a blessed happy state; nay, to be a Babe in Christ is so, but much more to be a strong Man: There is Food prepared for all these states, Milk for Babes, Meat for Men, strong Meat for strong Men, when we grow up to the measure of the stature appointed to us in Christ Jesus. All true Life and growth is from our being united to Jesus Christ our Head, who will perfect and complete his Body.  
Now to our blessed and glorious JESUS, who is able to perfect what concerns us, and to sanctify us wholly in Soul, Body and Spirit: To Him be Glory, Honour and Praise for ever. He will in his own time bring us to the Day of Rest, the perfect Number Seven.  
And God Rested the Seventh Day: So God blessed the Seventh Day, and hallowed it. This Seventh Day was a Day without Clouds; It is not said of the Seventh Day, The Evening and the Morning were that Day, as it was said of the First, and so on to the Sixth: Indeed the Natural Day that appears to this lower World, is as other Days; and to those who dwell in the mixtures of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil; nay, they love Darkness rather than Light; to them this Day hath not much more in it than other Days. But the All-glorious God, tho' he condescended to work and operate in this Principle, wherein is some mixture of Darkness, and we cannot but say God was in the Darkness; yet he dwells not in the Darkness, he dwells in the Light, he Rests there; he entered into his own Light Principle, and Rests there: God is Light, and in him is no Darkness at all: He is Love, Anger is his strange Work; so it should be with his Children: Anger rests in the Bosom of Fools. If a Prophet or Prophetess have a Command from God to go forth with a Message of Wrath, a Denunciation of Threatening, they must be obedient; but they must not rest in it, they must not stir up the Wrath, they must rather qualify it with the Meek Love of JESUS; there they may Rest, in him they find Rest to their Souls.  
I did in the beginning of my Writings say something, as I was enabled, of the Rest and Repose of the glorious Deity, before his going forth into Manifestation or Operation: It was then, and is now an harmonious Stillness, a sweet Repose; only now there is an Additional Joy, The Lord saw his Works, and they were all very good: He was pleased to behold his Works, having so much of his own Image of Goodness in them; this causeth Joy in God himself: And tho' Sin did Cloud and Vail this Image, yet the Lord, in infinite Mercy and Wisdom, did by Jesus Christ, restore the fallen Creation of Man, break down the middle Wall of Partition, not only between Jew and Gentile, but between God and Man: And our blessed Lord Jesus himself is the New and Living Way, by which we enter in within the Veil now. When one Sinner returns, there is Joy in Heaven over one Sinner that reputes, and the Father receives the Prodigal with Joy, till at last the whole Work shall be accomplished, and every Creature, of things in Heaven, things on Earth, and under the Earth, shall bless and praise the Lord for ever. O what a blessed Sabbath will that be! But who can express any thing of it? Only the Lord makes a poor weary heavy laden Soul to feel something of it in himself, when we die in the Lord, and rest from our Labours: When we die into the Lord, out of all things besides, we shall know what it is to Rest, and to rejoice with Joy unspeakable and glorious. To rest from our Labours, and to have our Works follow us, this is not a working for Life by Legal Performances; it is rather a working from a Principle of Life, where the Works follow, and go not before the Life. But there is something more than this, there is a State of Rest and Joy, wherein the Works of the Spirit that are wrought in us, when the Lord works in us to Will and to Do, follow us, and are set before us, to cause in us Joy and Rejoicing. To look back upon our own Works, which are performed from a Legal Selfish Principle, causeth no true Joy nor Rest, but rather lifting up in Pride and Self-will: But in the true Work of the Spirit, tho' we may go forth weeping, bearing precious seed, we shall return rejoicing, bringing our Sheaves with us. These Fruits of the Spirit, Love, Joy, Peace, follow such a Soul into the Rest and sweet Repose it attains here, and also into the Rest which remains for the People of God.  
Lord, Let me know such a lasting, permanent, sixth Rest, as may not have Evening nor Morning, but may be a Day without a Cloud, that I may have thy Light shining in me brighter and brighter, to the perfect Day, when thou wilt be my Light for ever.  
The Wise Men, whom God himself hath Enlightened, are the only Wise Men, and the most Happy; having the inward Repose which the World cannot give, nor take away: Wisdom enables them to work, and when their Work is come to the Seventh Day of Perfection, they rest from their Labours; their Work which was bulky and laborious, comes to be easily portable pleasant Employment, which they account rather Rest than Labour; and the effects of their Works, and the Work itself, follows them wherever they go; and so mighty Works show forth themselves in them, as in their glorious Lord and Master, who promised that the Works that he did, they should do also: Now these Works show forth themselves in them, more in their Patience, Stillness and Rest, than in all their busy Working. 'Tis but little Man hath to do in inward or outward Working, when he hath committed himself and all his ways to the Lord. Now it is a blessed thing to feel any beginnings of this sweet Day, this holy happy state of Rest, within; tho' it may not be brought forth through the whole Person: But the Lord is the Rock, and his Work is perfect; He will perfect what concerns those that trust in him.  
Wait patiently on the Lord, O my Soul, for he will give thee Rest for the Days wherein he hath afflicted thee: O that the Peace of God, that passeth all Understanding, may guard my Heart and Mind, that no Storm nor Tempest may break in; that I could retire into my strong Hold, as a Prisoner of Hope, waiting for the Redemption of my Body; and not mine only, but of the whole groaning Creation, that the Year of Jubilee may be known to them, when there shall be proclaimed Liberty for the Captives, that the Creation may be brought forth into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God.  
O happy time, when Jerusalem shall become the Praise of the whole Earth; when the Lord shall set his King upon the holy Hill of Zion; when our King shall be exalted by and upon a People who are as a barren Mountain, nothing in themselves; that so our King and our God, the blessed JESUS, may Reign, to whom all Power in Heaven and Earth is given, and of whose Dominion there is no End: To whom be Glory, and Honour, and Blessing, and Praise, for ever, and for ever, Amen, Hallelujah.  


Great Lord of Lords, and King of Kings,  
Thou makest my dry and thirsty Earth to sing,  
And in the Desert causeth a New Spring.   

Awake, my Soul, and sing Jehovah's Praise,  
Who giveth Life, and from the Dead doth raise:  
Mercy and Goodness are in all his Ways.    

Hymns.  

IN lowly Meekness I will dwell,  
The Lily of the Vale is sweet;  
Ofttimes the loftiest Cedars fall,  
And then alas their fall is great.   

The Spirit that in the Myrtles moved,  
Is a pure breath of holy Air;  
Sometimes these Shrubs are visited  
Whilst higher Trees neglected are.   

Come my Beloved o'er Mountain top,  
Come skipping o'er the highest Hill;  
Let thy Winds on my Garden blow,  
Do thou with sweets my Spices fill.   

When thou bright Sun vouchsaf'st to shine  
On my Beloved Sharon Rose,  
It hath its sweetness all from thee,  
And with thee takes a sweet Repose;   

It opens as the Morning fair,  
When thou bright Sun art pleased to appear,  
Then shuts up all its hidden store,  
Till thy Sight does again draw near.   

Thus I'm a Garden closed to all,  
A Fountain sealed to all but thee,  
Lest little Foxes should spoil my Vine,  
The tender Grape planted by thee.   

And lest the Silver-running Stream,  
That is pure as it comes from thee,  
Should mingle, with the muddy Earth  
Partake of its impurity.    

Hymns.  

OH how shall I the praises sing  
Of our great God and glorious King,  
Unless his Spirit doth indite,  
What I should sing, what I should write!  
His Spirit doth Secrets Reveal,  
He opens the Mystic seventh Seal,  
The seventh Seal, the seventh Thunder  
Opens in me, a sacred Wonder.  
He leads me to the Centre deep,  
Where Spirits dark their Prison keep.  
Yet in this doleful Night does dwell  
A Light, that Conquers Death and Hell.  
For from the dark and hidden Ground,  
The Light arising may be found,  
I have seen a darksome gloomy shade  
Awful and Majestic made,  
But at Sunrising with his light,  
Hath been more pleasing to the sight,  
With the sweet and lovely Green,  
Guilded with the Sun between.  
So have I seen a Picture fair,  
Made by Artists Hand more rare,  
When from darkest shades I see,  
The Light arising to a degree,  
Most perfect, pleasing, and most sweet,  
Made from Variety so great.  
So have I heard a pleasing sound  
Arising from deep Gamuts ground;  
But Oh my spirits, how they fail,  
When I in this vast Ocean sail.  
Now I've a deep and hidden sense,  
From the Centre to the Circumference.  
Most holy Spirit keep me still,  
I may be guided by thy will.  
Oh how can I describe the fall  
Myself, so great a Criminal,  
Darker than night, darker than shade,  
Or all things else that have been made;  
More sad than Music's deepest ground,  
I must my Lamentation sound.  
And from this doleful dismal Cry,  
I would call all the standers by,  
To see this sad and tragic sight,  
Which may the hardest Spirits fright.  
Here you may see a Lamb lie slain,  
With the deepest, sharpest pain;  
There you see Spirits Captive led,  
Sure they are free amongst the dead.  
Here are Spirits led in Chains,  
Under cruel torturing pains;  
There lie dry and ghastly Bones,  
With hearts more hard than hardest stones;  
Here lies shrieking, tortured Souls  
Under ugly Spirits Controls.  
Now those that through all this can see  
A lovely, beauteous Harmony,  
Must be Baptised of the Spirit,  
And his Tincturing Love inherit.  
The Lamb is made a Sacrifice,  
But out of Death he does arise,  
And in his rising gives a Spring  
Of Light and Life to every thing;  
The Captived Soul he did set free,  
In Life and Immortality;  
Such as in darkest Chains are led,  
Are now arising from the dead;  
To dry and ghastly Bones does give,  
Power to Arise and Live;  
The Tortured Souls he does unbind,  
The foulest Spirits are calcined.  
But now my Soul fall down and praise,  
Before the Ancient of Days;  
The Praises of the Lamb proclaim,  
Exalt and magnify his Name.  
The Holy Spirit do thou adore,  
Who opens thus his hidden store.  
The Three in One I'll Celebrate,  
All things in Love he did Create.  
Those who are Objects now of woe,  
They may have Cause to think it so.  
All Creatures now bow down and fall,  
Before the Father of us all,  
And his high Praises with me sing,  
Who is our Everlasting King.    

A Short Discourse Concerning those Two Great Principles of Natural Philosophy, Matter and Motion.  
IT is the fault of many Ingenious Persons in their Discourses of Natural Things, that they only Speak or Writ of them in their Second Causes, and not ab Origine, in their first Root and Fountain, the Divine Being, who is the Source of all Being, Blessedness and Happiness; and I doubt not this hath been the fault of some, who have had in their Minds a high Adoration of the Ever Blessed God: Yet this neglect hath been a great Evil in Three Respects.  
First, That they have not as they ought acknowledged God in all their Ways, and did not begin with him who is the Beginning of all things.  
Secondly, By this they may have misled some of the Illiterate and Unthinking World, in making some ready to doubt of the First Cause, because these Men who they value mention nothing of it, others think ill of the Men, and the Truths they Discourse of, because the Ground of all Truth is left out in their Writings.  
Thirdly, This kind of Philosophy cannot be solid and substantial, wanting a good Foundation. I hope in what I have to say about Matter, and its Diversification, about Motion, and the Origine, Order and End of it, will be all plainly deduced from the Almighty Goodness, the beginning of them, and returned to him who is their Rest. The Learned Mr. boil tells us, in his Book, called, The Origine of Forms and Qualities, that the World is made of one Universal and Catholic Matter, which is a great Truth, but few or none tells us, what this Matter is; much less, what it was; indeed some tells us, it was Nothing, why then it is so still, 'tis not better than in the Paradisical State of things; indeed it is nothing, compared with its Original; it is nothing, if it were possible to separate it from its Root, but since that cannot be, I will write of it as something, or else my Discourse would soon be at an end, for of nothing. It should have but little to say; Matter is a continued Emanation from the Visible Heavens, which are a kind of middle Natures, between Spirit and Matter, they are Spirit compared with Matter, and Matter compared with Spirit: What Communications are between these middle Natures, and the Glorious upper Light World, I will not now Discourse, but I am sure they have their Life, Light, Power, Virtue, all from thence, which if the Visible Heavens did not convey to this Lower World, it would be brought almost as near nothing, as some Men imagine it once to have been. The Scriptures teach us the best Natural Philosophy, when they tell us, the Light is the Life of Man, and doubtless it is so of all other Creatures; not by shining upon them, but by shining in them, being their substantial Root and Original; the Sun as a second Cause, was not made only to Illuminate the World to shine upon it, but to be the Parent or Father of Vegetables, and other Creatures that do inhabit the Earth; the Sun doth impregnate and stir up the Vegetive Faculty of the Earth, and causes it to bring forth first the Root of an Opacous Colour like the Earth, in which it is fixed lighter than that, the Stalk grows up out of the mixture of the Nitrous Azure Air, and the Sulphureous Yellow Earth, which being mingled, causes the Verdant Stalk and Leaves, and by a greater Maturation and Ripening of the Substances, is produced the lovely Red or Purple, the Glory of the Vegetable Kingdom. How the Sun, and other Luminous Bodies do produce Minerals, and and are Conducive to Animal Births, I shall not now Discourse, each part would make a large Tract, that these Congregate Bodies of Light are Conducive to the Production of things, and are the most excellent, active Second Causes, is obvious almost to our very outward Senses; but there was a time when these bright Bodies had not a Being, as they now have, and then they could not produce other Being's, nor give Being to themselves; the Light that is the Life of Man, is also the Light and Life of these Creatures, (of this bright Sun and Moon) he is a Wise and  Agent who gave them their shining, and when he withdraws his Influences, the Sun shall be turned into Darkness, and the Moon into Blood, before the great and notable Day of the Lord come, as the Holy Scriptures tell us: And though we have not seen this particular change here mentioned, we know not how soon it may be; and however, we have seen enough Alterations upon the whole Face of Visible Things, to make us know they are not perfect Being's, and did not make themselves, but are made and governed by a Perfect and Intelligent Being  
The Second Principle to be Discoursed of about Matter, is, That the great Bodies of Light, and other Creatures of Bulk, do consist, and are made up of lesser Bodies, which we may call Atoms, Corpuscles or Particles; these little parts of Matter have their determinate size, shape, situation, colour, in order to constitute something of greater Bulk, Beauty, and Service; the Texture and Joining together of these are contrived by a Wise Agent, to conduce to a Noble End. The motion or moving of these little Particles, did at first conduce, as a Second Cause, to the making Varieties of Creatures; and it is now highly conducing to the Changes that pass upon all material things; which brings me to the Second Head of Discourse I principally intended, which is to say something of Motion; Matter had an Occult Principle of Motion hid in its Nature, not being made of a dull insensible nothing, out of I know not what imaginary, empty space, but was made of an active Substance; yet it did not actually move in a regular determinate Motion, till the Spirit of the Living God, Moved upon it, and thereby put it into its right order of moving, and established the Laws of its Motion, in which course of moving it remains to this Day, only to show that he is a Wise and Free Agent that moved it at first, and continues present with it to direct all its Motions; the usual Course of it hath sometimes been a little altered, and new Workmanship hath been made to appear, to show the Sovereignty, Wisdom and Power of the Maker and Mover of all things. Some have compared this World to a Clockwork; that kind of Work, may a little explain to us the Matter and Motion of this great Machine or Engine, the great World; but in this they greatly differ, the little Clocks and Watches are made and put into Motion, but left by the Maker to move a determinate time without him; or he leaves it to some other Agent to carry on the Motions: But if by Accident, or some Ignorant Hand, something should come in between the Wheels, it would wholly stop or disorder the whole Frame; but if the Wise Artist brings in any new Movements, they may be for Ornament and Use in the Work; this hath been done in the upper Wheels of the great Clockwork our Visible Heavens, which proves what I before asserted, the presence of an Omniscient Mover: And as the Visible Heavens may be discoursed of, as the upper Wheels of a Clock, for their Circular Motion, so may the Earth, and its Motion, be a little explained, by comparing it with the Pendulum, that ponderates and gravitates the Motion of the Earth, being somewhat like this; not as some have supposed, whirling about its Axis, but moving, as we call it, forward and backward, Eastward and Westward, which causes the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea; which whirls not about like a Whirlpool, but moves constantly East and West; the cause of which I shall by and by intimate a little more fully, that the Visible Heavens are kept in their Beauty, Order, Motion, by the Power of Attraction, of Divine Energy, Power, Virtue, from the upper Light World, I am well assured, but how this is performed. I shall not more largely express at present, such Knowledge is too wonderful for me; yet sometimes such a little Living Engine as myself, in its moving up and down this great World, feels something of the Divine Magnetism and Attraction in such a manner, as no words can express fully; yet it is such as gives a little Knowledge of such Powers and Virtues in their various Degrees and Measures through the whole Universe: But to speak of Motion, as it is performed by Second Causes, it is performed in the great World, by the Attraction or Magnetism of Light and Fire; that Fire draws Fiery Substances, is obvious to common Understanding and Experience. The Lights and Fires of the Visible Heavens are placed quite round the Earth, and so draw and Attract strongly the Internal Heat and Fire contained in the Earth; drawing thus every way, as a Second Cause, keeps the Earth and Water (whereof the whole Globe consists) in equalibrio, but at the Rising of the Sun, which is a large Aggregate of Light and Fire, the Earth inclines that way, and at the Setting, the other; but that it Constantly keeps not this Motion, and no other, is from the interveening of the Moon, and other Heavenly Bodies, which also have the strong Power of Attraction: And there is also in the Earth some large Orifices, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which more strongly may attract, and so move and incline the Earth; but in what part of the Globe these are placed, I either have not read in my little Knowledge of Geography, or have forgot these hints; if worthy consideration may put some more fit Person upon the Enquiry, and they may express their Thoughts in a better Method: Some may say these indeed are some Theoretical Discourses, Particular Opinions or Apprehensions of Things, but of what use we know not, either to the Minds of Men, or their outward Condition: Whether these Considerations may be useful in the Mechanics, I know not; to such as have been long Studying to make some Engine with a Perpetual Motion; what they mean 〈◊〉 perpetual, I know not; I suppose only a long Duration; I am apt to think something of this kind may be made, that by the Power of Magnetism, may continue longer moving than any thing else hath been found: But though I see something how this may be done, yet not so as to give a perfect Model to any Body; nor can I at present work it with my own Hands, I know not what time may produce of this kind; I am not yet any good Mathematician.  
Secondly, These two Principles of Philosophy, Matter and Motion simply considered, may, if made use of, produce things useful to the Health of Mankind, and may cause strange Changes in many Substances; I will instance only in an Experiment, I think called the Torecellian Experiment, performed in the King of Denmark's Laboratory, where the Compact Body of Gold being for a considerable time ground in a Gold or Steel Mill, was so opened and changed, as to become a high useful Medicine for the Bodies of Mankind; and I know not; but in this way it may be made capable of penetrating Mineral Substances, and thereby become useful many ways, wherein the Consideration of what hath been said, may be useful to the Minds of Men; I shall say a little, and so Conclude this Discourse.  
The Great and Good God did make all things, and put them into motion for great and wise Ends; nothing moves that it may move, but that it may be of some use and service while it moves, and in order to Perfection and Rest; hardly any Man moves, but he intends Health or Business, and in a little time Rest: The motion of the whole Creation is in order to Perfection and Rest, and this is only by terminating in the Blessed Fountain of Being: Some Creatures do wander, and seem to go out of their way; but he that guides all their motions, knows how to reduce them to their true end, his Glory, and their Happiness. There is a Line in the Heavens, called the Zodiac, through which all the Planets move; some of them seem to wander up and down this Line transverse up and down, but all come to the same end, with those that keep a direct Line that runs through this great Circle. The Sun keeps its constant Course through a Line, called the Ecliptic Line; we may imitate this Heavenly Body in a constant even motion; some other Lights do move in the same Circle, but by their wander, are longer e'er they perfect it: I find myself liable to wander and stray, but I often pray, seek the ●oul of thy Servant, O Lord, and I beseech thee, seek all thy straying Sheep, gather them into one Sheepfold, that every Creature, of Things in Heaven, and Earth and under the Earth, may praise thee, Alpha and Omega, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Amen. Bless the Lord, O my Soul.  
FINIS.