Part V

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the Soul ivhich Jight is to the Body. Hence is VWi-
' nerva (Wifdom) by Hornet' called Bright-eyd. With this fight Mofes., St. and, other Saints, beheld the face of God ^ this Divines call IntelleHual, intuitive cogniti¬ on, the Beatifical vifion, the Reward of the Righ¬ teous.
Se[L VII.
AS Sight, fo Beauty (its Objefl) is twofold the two Venus's Celebrated by \jSympof.'\ and our Poet) Senfible, called Vul¬ gar Venus. Intelleflual in Ideas (which are the ObjeH of the Intelleff, as colour of fight) na¬ med Celeftial Venus. Love alfo .is twofold, npg Vulgar and Celeftial ; for as Vlato faith ^ There muji necejjarily be as many Lovers as Venus's,
'" seU. VIII.
VEnusthen is Beauty, whereof Love is ge¬ nerated: properly his Mother, becaufe Beauty is the caufe of Love, not as produflive Principle of this Aft,- to Love, but as its ob- jeft : the Soul being the efficient caufe of it as , of all his AHsj Beauty the material : for in Phy- lofophy the efficient is affimilated to the Father, the material to the Mother.
Seff. IX-
CEleftial Love is an Intelleflual defire of Ide¬ al Beauty : Ideas., ( as we faid before) are the Patterns of things in God, as in their Fountain j in the Angelick Mind, EITential •, in the Soul by participation, which with the Sub- ftance partakes of the Ideas and Beauty of the firft Mind . Hence it follows, that Love of Ce¬ leftial Beauty in the Soul, is not Celeftial Love perfeflly, but the neareft Image of it. Its trueft being is with the defire of Ideal Beauty in the . firft Mind, which God immediately adorns with . Ideas. ,
Sell., X. -
LOve (faith Plato) was begot on Penia., by Porus (the Son of Metis) in Jupiter s Orchard, being drunk with Neflar, when the Gods met to celebrate Venus's Birth. Nature in it felf inform, when it receives form from God is the Angelick Mind ^ this form is Ideas., the ' firft Beauty -, which in this defcent from their ^ Divine fountain, mixing .with a different nature, .. become' imperfeft. The. firft Mind, by its opa- , coufnefs , ecHpfing their luftre, delires, that Beauty which they have loft ^ tips defire is love^
■ ' Tegot when Perns the alftuence of Ideas mixed ■with Penta tliQ indigence of fhatdnform nature we termed. Jupiter ( i. S.'). In whoj'e Garden . the Ideas AtQ Planted, with thofe the firft Mind , 'adorned, was by theAiitients named Paradife i, . to which contemplative life and eternal felicity ■ Zoroajlres inviting us, Path, Seek., feek Para- ' dife: Our Divines transfer it to Al^Ccelum Em- pyr^eum, the feat of the happy Souls,.. whole , bleffednels confifts in contemplation and perfe£l:i- on of the Intellefl, according to Plato. This Love begot on Venus's Birth-day, that is,' when
the Ideal Beauty, though imperfeflly, is infilled into the Angelick Mind ^ Venus yet as a Child, not grown to Per feflion. All the Gods ajjembled at this Feajijh^t is, their Ideas, ( as by Saturn we underhand both the Planet and his Idea) an ex- preflion borrowed from Parmenides. Thefe Gods then are thofe Ideas that precede Venus (fhe is the Beauty and Grace refulting from their va¬ riety.) Invited to a Banquet ofNeliar andAmbro- fia: thofe whom God Feafts with Nellar and Ambrofia are Eternal Beings, the reft not •, Thefe Ideas of the Angelick Mind are the firft Eternals j Porus was drunk with 'NeUar.JVxs Ideal affluene fill’d with Eternity ; other Ideas were not ad¬ mitted to the Feaft,nor indued with Immortality.
Orpheus upon the fame grounds faith, live was born before all other Gods, in the bolbm of Chaos ^ : Becaufe Nature full of indiftinfl imper- fe£t forms (the Mind repleniflied with confufed Ided'^ defires their perfeflion. .
Sea. XI.
TH E Angelick Mind defires to make thefe Ideds perfeH j which can only be done by means oppofite to the caufes of their imperfe- Hion, thefe are Recefhon from their Principle, and mixtion with a contrary Nature .• Their Re¬ medy, Separation from the unlike Nature, and return and conjunction ( as far as poffible) with God. Love, the defire of this Beatity, excites the Mind to Converfion* and re-union with him. Every thing is more perfeH as nearer its Principle j This is the firft Circle. The Angelick Mind, proceeding from the U- nion of God, by Revolution of intrinfecal Knowledge returneth to him. Which with the Antients is Venus adult a, grown to perfe¬ ction. Every Nature that may have this con¬ verfion, is a Circle fuch alone are the Intel¬ lect and Rational, and therefore only capable of Felicity, the obtaining their firft Principle, their ultimate end and higheft good. This is peculiar to Immortal Subltances, for the Ma¬ terial Cas both Platonijis and Peripateticks grant j have not this reflection upon themfelves, or their Principle. Thefe, (the Angelick Mind and Rational Soul) are the two intelligible Circles *, anfwerable to which in the Corporeal World are two more ^ the tenth Heaven immovable Image of the firft Circle-, the Celeftial Bodies, that are moveable. Image of the fecond .* The firft Plato mentions not, as wholly different and irreprefentable by cor¬ poreal Nature : Of the fecond in Tim£o he laith. That all the Circles of this vifihle Hea¬ ven (by him diftinguilhed into the fixed Sphere and feven Planets^ reprefent as many Circles in the Rational Soul.
Some attribute the name of Circle to God ; •by the ancient Theologifts called Cai’Z/zj-, being a Sphere which comprehends all -, as the utmoft Heaven includes the World.
In one refpeCl this agrees with God, in ano¬ ther not j the property of beginning from a point and returning to it, is repugnant to him -, who hath no beginning, but is himfelf that indivifible point from which all Circles begin, and to which they return : And in this fenle it is likwile inconfiftent with material things,
they
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