Book IlTT The Temple ofmfc/o^^ I^

fliowcrs and halmy droppnaj of the flmd Heave?: : For God had fo contrived by his infinite Wifdome that matter thus or thus prepared, Ihould by a vital con^ gruity attraft proportional forms from the World of Life-, which IS every where nigh at hand, and does vi ry throiiohly mcquitate the moift and iinauou« Air. Wherefore after this manner was the ^ire^/ or Etherial ■Man called Jdjm, conveyed into an Earthly body ^having his moft confpicuous rehdence in the head or I brain: And thus the man Mam became the /^«/ of a Terrejhtal living Creature, as you may read in the I Preface.
For Jdamxxas firft wholly Etherial, and placed la ^raradije, that is, m an happy place and joyful condition of the Sptm : For he ms placed under tlie invigorating beams of the Vn im Imel'ea, and the Sim of righteou^ £F;.rL '^ ^^»i'^y "POii hi.7i. Read The Harmony of
u ^"^^ his/^/ was now again the ground which God hath blett , and fo brou-ht forth every pleafant Tree and every plcafant Plant of her heavenly Fathers own plantiiig : for the holy ^n^d of Life had enriched the " fr^/, that it brought forth all manner of pleafantand profitable Fruits. And the Tree of Life was in the
uni ""c ^^]' ^^''^'^ °^ '"^"^ fi''^^ ^''^' t^^e Effential Will of God, which is the true Root of Regeneration; 3ut CO fo high a Pitch Mam as yet had not reacht im- :o : and the Fruit of this Tree in this Etherial Ihte of te W, had been immortality , or Life everlaftinp. ^nd the Tree of the Knowledge of ^W and ei/z/ was here alfo, viz. his own wilh And thus were tlje wick- •a Angels.
Some men will admire mc, others will prattle and
ondemn me: but neither I nor my Genius, or any
npired Chriftian, wili anfwer their perhaps fruitlc6
Qoo ^ queftionsj
1^4 T^^e Temple ofiVifdome. B(;ok 1 1 1.
qneftioos way 1 made it^or how I afcended to it ; 1 have told them in the Preface to my Holy Gnid^ ; and the Lord Ferw- lam is my authority. And here I fay thtfoul of man is never idle, neither in the world nor any ftate elfe. But how (hall I aicend and (feake off this muddy temper of fiejh ? fay they ; when by the verdi^of all the ^eji m thefe cafes, there is no fuch thm^fou?2din ISiaturCy fave in the Heaven extant^ neither heard you me fay that it floated aloft^but was funk to the hottome of all Nj- tme, Notwithftanding 1 have founded and weighed up that muddy Bowel, the Me!t,and deftroyed the fiery and fcummy Call in my body^and made my body of a better temper then common. For heaven was once a grofs and difte.Tpered Lump , before God refined it j and fundred away round to the Place and Nature where it now ftandeth ; even fo one of our grofs bodies here below, being a piece of the fame Lump that was tern pered, as I told you above, and all one with that Hea- ven once was, by thefe ways 1 dire£V, may be refined and parted from all his diftempered drofles and foul greafinefs in the flefh , and brought unto a fine Nature p as 1 (hall fpeak hereafter in Ihe Holy Cmde,
The foul of a man is always a£^ive,and hath fome pro mifc to m.ake good , and is to promote his intcrefl whofc (he is : For what greater gratification can there be of a good foul^ then to be a difpenfcr of fome portioi of that Univerf^l Good that God lets out upontb World ? And there can be no external converfation nor fociety of perfons, be they Terreftrial^ Aireal or Etheri" at 5 but forthwith it implies an ufe of Prudence wh of the Soul: walk but in my pathes toour 7'emple o^ IP ifdome y^uiyow keep your body in health : To follovi
Old
MJUUis. Ill, J rjc I cfnuLc i/j f'^^j aurnc, * y >
oar Examples is as much as you can naturally do : yoU (hall do no more then I do my felf, and it is as nUich as can be looked for at the hands of weak mortality jfor the Souls of all mankind Ihall again become Angels, as they were before the Rebellion : and the Souls of the wick- ed and ungodly (hall be again incorporated into flefh^ and fuffcr mortality, until they are clear from fin. Now it is a Hell or punifhmcnt fufticient to be a Prince upon Earth : for all mankind are miferablc, as you may fee in our Harmony of the World,
CHAP. XXTX.
That knowMge ir^cVnes the Minie to Here fie and, Athetfm : The SoluU.on of original Gut It , not in quantity hut in the quality o^ Knowledge : Of th^ correHt^'je temper 5 again ft h^finity^ Anxiety and feducements oflmpoflures a^d Refervatives : Tkat we forget not our Afortaltty : In The Temple ot Wifjome /V tau2}n that Philofophy leads the Mind," Ly the, fteps ojfecond caufes to the ftayrs of thefirft.
HO wean the prodigious Aftrologer make the con- templation of fecond caufes to derogate from the authority of the firft ? To difcover then the errour and ignorance of this O pinion^ and the mifunderftanding ini the grounds thereof, any man may fee that thefe men do not obferve and confider, that it was not that pure and primitive knowledge of Nature, or that pre* cxiftant Genius , by the light whereof man did give names to other Creatures in Paradift , as they were Ooo a brou^hc
I.
I ^ ^ uje i emuie of ^^mwe, DQOK HL
brought before him, according to their propeities, vvhicif gave the occalion to fall .3 but it was that proud knov\ ledge of good andevij, with an intent to (hake off Cod^afid to give law unto him(elf. '
God hath made all things beautiful and decent in the true return of their Stafons ; alfo lie hath placed the p^oddin ma77S htarf^ yet cannot man findeoiit the works which 6W worketh.from the beginning unto the tnd: by which words he declared not x)brcurely5^hatGr'fl! hath framed the M'wde of A/^w, as a Mirrcur or Cilajs ca- pable of the Image of the Vrmerjai l^urldy and as joyful to receive the imprellions thereof, as the pure part of manj^o pafs tothc5^«c7«w Sajiciomm m the TeT.ple^or as the eye joyeth to receive light 5 and not onely delight ted in the beholding the variety of the things^ and the viciflitudes of times,but raifed alfo to find out and to di- fcern the inviolable lawsjand the infallible decrees of Na* ture. And although 1 fcem to infinuate that the fupreme or fuiT.marylawof Nature 5 which is called the jvork which, Go^worketh from the beginning totheend^is not poflible to be found out by ma?!-^ yet that doth n t de- rogate from the capacity of the mii.de^ but may be re- ferred to mans Mortality, the ill Cc72Jmjliiofi of la- bours depraved, and unfaithful tradition of knowledge over from hand to hand , and many other inconveni- ences wherewith the ccM^rdition of man clogged with thefe needlefs members is enfiiared and involved. The Sfirit of man is as the Lairp of Cod , wherewith he fearcheththe very inwards of all fecrets: Now this is common toallnr.en, but not the capacity; but if the hn^y be meiTded . the Erherial Spirit is exalted within the capacity and receipt of the nrindeofm^an, and in the ir.quiry and inveiuion there is no danger at all from the ^portion or quint ity oi Knowledge how large (bcver, cftitfhoiild make it fwellor out-compafs it fclf; but
meerly
B' >ok ill. The Temple of mfdome, 1 9 7
meerly i-i the quality, which being in quantity more or lels, if it betaken without the correftive thereof, hath in it fonie nature of Malignity or venome full of flatuous Symptoms 5 the mixture whereof tempers Knowledge, andmakes itfo *^overaignas Charity which builds up the Mind^and enemy to Pride and Conceitevinefs: if you could fpeak with the Tongue of Moi and ^ngels^ and had not Charity, you cruld never attain to that per- feftion in our Temple, and temper of infpired Chrifti- ans; neither could your y^?zgc/-G«iir^itf?7 ever fpeak to you, biit inftcad oFdirefting you would deftroy you. Is it not an excellent th'ng to fpeak with the Tongue of Me?2 aad An^els^ and converge with Angels or Cdleftial Jntelligcnoes ? without Charity you cannot 5 and ic muft be referred to the puhlick good of maiikinde ; o- therwife it rather exhibites a vain and empty glory^theri ' any fubftantial and folid fruit.
As for the conceit of thofe who are of opinion that too much knowledge fhould incline the 'T.inde to A- theifn, and that the ignorance of the fecond cau(es fhould be as it were Midwife to our Piety toward the firft : To my knowledge the prodigious Nativity- Mer- chant, that undoes his cuftomer?, is not guilty of any of the knowledge I fpake of in Tht Temple of JFifdime,
The authority of this Temple forbids us to have (b- ciety with thefe impoftures. I will charge them in the Language of jFo/?5 VTiUyoulie fnrGod^ as one man doth for another to gratifie him > For certain it is faid in The Temple of mfdome^ that God works nothing in Nature , according to the ordinary courfe, but by fecond caufes : andif they would have ic otherwise believed, we pro- nounce it meer impofture under colour of piety to God, and nothing elfebut to offer unto the Author of Truth the unclean facrifice of a lie. But further /it is an afllired truth, and a concluiion of experiencQ, that a iic-
Ooo 3 t,\z
Ip8 TheTempie of mldome. Book 111
tie or fup^rficial tafte of Philofofhy^ may perchance in- cline the minde to Atheifm ; but a full draught there- of brought the minde back to Re/i^fo?z : for in the en« trance o^PhiloJophy^ when the fecond caufes, which are next unto the fenfeSjdo offer themfelves to the minde of man, and the minde it felf cleaves unto them and dwells there ; an oblivion of the higheft caufe may creep • in : but when a man paffeth on further, and beholds the dependencyjContinuation and confederacy of caufeg, and the work of providence, then he will eafily believe the higheft ftep of Nature afcends to the ftair of a Su- pernatural Cod. And thus by AftVomancy and Geo- piancy do Superiours and Iiiferiours communicate.
To clofe in a word, let no mjin upon as weak a con- ceit as prodigious Mr. Scorpion in his time, of fobriety or ill applyed moderation, think or maintain that a man pan fearch too far, or be too well ftudied in the book of Cods Word, or in the book o((jods works. Divinity or Tkilofophy 5 but rather let men awake themfelves, and cheerfully endeavour, and purfue an endlefs progrels or proficiencc in both : let them beware left they ap- ply knowledge to Pride,not to Charity ; to oftentation, not to ufe ; and again, that they do not unwifely with- put any confent , mingle and confound thefe diftinft knowledges of God and Nature, in Theology and Fbihfo- fhy^ and their fevcral waters together. Read our Har* fnony of thz World.
CHAP.
B ov>N i 1 1 . ihf i emple o\ kyjdj/fie. 1 9 9
CHAP. XXX.
Of the Soul ^ fever al Opinions are raifed^ lut the truth I haue taught in this Temple : The infpired E[jence of the knowledge ofthefenjible or produced Soul '^ of the fubj^ahce and faculties of the Soul: TVlja't caufeth men to be of different qualities : The k^WJviedgeo!; the faculties of the Soul: Of the ufe and objeBs of the faculties^ as they are vpritten in The lemplcof VVKdome, '
HEre I intended to tell you what that Soul is: What makes man diftrafted about himfelf, and capable of his diftraftion. Some would have it of the Nature of lire ; a hot fubtle body difperfing it felf into rjjej and Fiery Atnmer ; fome think it y4ir^ fome make it a Spirit mixt of Fire and y^ir^as Sir John Hey don in a Manufcript affirmeth ; fome would have everyElement a parent of a Soul feparately : fo every man (hould have many diftinft Souls ^ according to thepi inciples of his compo- fition : fonie have called it zn unde/mined Vertue: fome a felf-moving. Nu Tiber; fome a quint Ejfence : others have defined it to be nothing but a Harmony conflated by the moft even compofure of the four Elements in man. And for this, one might thus argue : The Body is before the Soul-^ and till the Body be made perfedjas I told you before, the Soul appears not 5 as if the perfefti* on of the Body^by thcporperohhe EtheriaiSpirityin his even contcnriperation, were the Generation of the Soul within it ; The Soul alfo changeth with the Body^ becaufe it was Angelical before it canae into nut- ter.
Ooo 4 Novf
loo The Temple of ^yifdome. Book III..
-■* — ~1 — •""* "•" ' ■■ ■■ •" "
Now let us proceed to the Nature of the Min^e and
Soul ot Man J out of the treafure whereof all myfteries are extra^ed^ I fpeak of the reafonable Soul^ which is Divine 5 the other of the uiireafonable Soul, whicli is common to Beafts , in The Harmony of the IVorU^ I have noted (where 1 fpeak of forms) thofe two Emanati- ons of the Souls^ which in the firft Creation of then both, offer themlelves unto our view 5 that is, that one hath its original from the breath of God ; the other ' from the Motrices of the Elements : for of tlie Trimi- iive Emanation of the Katioral Soul^ as it was in the Divine Temple 3 it was formed, as I told you be- fore.
But the Generation of the unreasonable Soul or of. Beads, wa3 accompliflied by thefe words, Trudmat a^'.; ^ua^Vruducat Terra : And this Irrational 5p«/, as it 5^ in manjis the Inftrument onely to the reafonable Soul^and hath the fame Original in us^ that it hath in Beafts ; namely, from the (lime of the Earthy as it is in one place ; for it is not faid, God framed the hdy of Man of the flime of the Earthy but God formed man ^ that is,the whole man, that Spraculum excepted : wherefore I fiile that part of the general knowledge , concerning. Mans Soul , the infiiredfuhfia7ice^ 1 will tell you what it is in the Holy Guide , the other is th« fenfible or pro- dua Sonl
There are many and great precellencies of the Soul of man, above the Soul of Beafts^ evident to thofe who Philofophize even according tofenfe: And wherefoe-. ver the concurrent character of llich great excellencies are found, there fhould ever upon goodreafon be made - a fpecifiquc difference; wherefore 1 do not altogether fo well allow the Philofophers Promifcuous andconfufe 4*fcourfcs touching the fiinftions of the Sg\il^ as if the ^oul of ^an was differenced gradually , rather thcfl
fpeci-