Book III. 'rteTemplet?/VVifdome. J4S

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thcfe (to fay nothing of our felfe touching chc mat- ter in hand, wc requeft thus much, that men would not think of it as an Opinion^ but as a work, and take it for Truth^ that our Aime and end is not to lay thcFoundatioH o^aSeG or placed, but oi humane fTBfit and knowledge of the Hoi) Guide,
To defcend to the firft occurrance after the fal of Man, we fee an Image of the tr(>oftates^ the contem- plative and the AUive figured in thcperfons o^ Abell and CaiKy The one had the free view of Heaven a lively Image oH Contemplative life, the other of the Earthy and you may fee the favour and tlec.ionof God to the 5>heep-heard and not to the tiller of Ground.
To proceed from the Age before the ^lood^ where AttSy and new Inventions were greatly honoured as Mufique and Mettais^ To the rtge after the Vlood^ where the great Judgements of God, «pon the Ambi- tion of Man was the Confuhon of Tongues. Lee us defcend to Mofes the Lawgiver, and Godi firft No- tary^ it was he that was feen in all the Learning of the Egyptians, Mo/fifeemsto have been aforehand and prevented the fubtilleft inventions of Socrates, Flato ^nd Pythagor^, it is generally acknowledged by fome Gentlemen, that they had their Fhilofovhy from MofueSy and he from God.
Joby A wife man, full and pregnant with the fc- crets of Natural Philofophy, &: Rofie Crucian CecretSy Aftrowancy and Ceomancy, &c. And for Pythogoras it is a thing incredible that he (hould makefuch a deal of do, with the Miftery ofNwtiberSy had he not been favoured with MofeSy difcourfe of the Worlds Creati* on in fix dayes, and Job's Caftnography and Rounding oftheEarthy thePo/eofthe Nurth and the fimilenejl cf convexity of Heaven, To proceed to SoLmon^ we Rrr 3 fee
2^,6 jTAe Temple c/Wifdome. Booi^ IU»
fee the endowments of IVifdome both in his Vetition iind Gods affenc theemito, preferred before allT^-r- rene-dLnd^empYal felicity^ byvertue of which Done- tive and Cj rant, 5o/(?7»o« being lingular ly furiiillied and enabled, not only write thofe Farables ot Apha^ vifmes conccrn'mg Divine znd Mor all Fhiiofophy : But alfo compiled a Natural Hi/Jorjf of all Verdure or F/- git/?^/^; from the. Cf^/zr upon the Mount aine^ to the Mofs upon the JFaliy which is but the rudement of a Plant, between FutrefaUion and an Hearby and alfo of all thingisthat breath or move.
To proceed on ; The difpenfation of God did not vary in the times after our Saviour came into the world, for our Saviour himfelfdid firft Jhew his. •^ower tofubdue Ignorance^ by his conference with the Vodors of the I ^w? and the Priefts in the lemfle^ be- fore he (hewed his power to fubdue Mature by his great and fo many Miracles^ and the comming of the Holy Ghoflv^as chiefly figured and exprcft in thc»9>w2^- iitjfde^ndgulfts of Tongues, which zre tht vehicula fci- j?tti£.
So m the Ele^rion of thofe Inftrumcnts, which it ylcafed Go«^to tife in the Plantation of the Faith, fome unlearned, only injpred from the Holy Ghofi, whereby more evidently he might declare his Jm- "niediate and Divine working, and might abafe all hurmne Wifdome and Mifteries, yet neverthclefs xhat Counfel of his in this rcfpefl was no fooner per- formed, but in the next Viciptude ^nd fucceffion of ti>ne he fent his Divine truth into the World waited one with other Icarninr; as with Serjants and Hand' y^afdjiy Therefore we fee StFaul pen ("who was only •c^irnedamofi^iHhe W^'^/r/c'^J was che fly employed : y God-m t he ^'criptu re of the N^w 7'efiament.
lilt KcK-i tin hr-?plreri \^^.yc txcclienuiy qualified -;-■■. -^ : --^-i