I Received yesternight, your Lordships of the 19 current; wher­in you are pleased to obleige me, not onely by extreame gallant expressions of favour [Page 2] and kindnesse: but likewise by taking so farre into your care the expending of my time during the tediousnesse of my restraint, as to recom­mend to my reading a Booke, that had received the honour and safeguard of your appro­bation, for both which I most humbly thanke your Lord­ship. And since I cannot, in the way of gratefulnesse ex­presse unto your Lordship as I would those hearty senti­ments I have of your good­nesse to me; I will at the least endeavour, in the way of Duty and observance, to let you see how the little needle of my Soule is throughly touched at [Page 3] the great loadstone of yours, and followeth sudainely and strongly which way soever you becken it. In this occasi­on, the magnetike motion, was impatience to have the Booke in my hands that your Lordship gave so advantage­ous a character of; whereup­on I sent presently (as late as it was) to Pauls Churchyard, for this favourite of yours, Religio Medici: which after a while found me in a conditi­on fit to receive a Blessing by a visit from any of such Master­peeces as you looke upon with gracious eyes; For I was newly gotten into my Bed. This good natur'd creature I [Page 4] could easily perswade to bee my Bedfellow, and to wake with mee as long as I had any edge to entertaine my selfe with the delights I sucked from so noble a conversation. And truely (my Lord) I clo­sed not my eyes till I had en­richt my selfe with, (or at least exactly surveyed) all the trea­sures that are lapped up in the folds of those few sheets. To returne onely a generall com­mendations of this curious peece, or at large to admire the authors Spirit and smartnes, were too perfunctory an ac­compt, and too slight a one, to so discerning and steddy an eye as yours, after so particu­lar [Page 5] and encharged a sum­mons to read heedfully this discourse. I will therefore presume to blot a sheete or two of paper with my re­flections upon sundry passa­ges through the whole con­text of it, as they shall occurre to my remembrance. Which now your Lordship knoweth this packet is not so happy as to carry with it any other ex­pression of my obsequious­nesse to you; It will bee but reasonable, you should even here, give over your further trouble of reading, what my respect ingageth mee to the writing of.

Whose first steppe is inge­nuity [Page 6] and a well natur'd even­nesse of Iudgement, shall bee sure of applause and faire hopes in all men for the rest of his Iourney: And indeed (my Lord) me thinketh this Gentleman setteth out excel­lently poised with that happy temper; and sheweth a great deale of Iudicious piety in ma­king a right use of the blind zeale that Bigots loose them­selves in. Yet I cannot satis­fie my doubts throughly, how hee maketh good his profes­sing to follow the great wheele of the Church in mat­ters of Divinity: which surely is the solid Basis of true Reli­gion: for to doe so, without jar­ring [Page 7] against the conduct of that first mover by Eccentri­call and irregular motions, ob­leigeth one to yeeld a very du­tifull obedience to the deter­minations of it without arro­gating to ones selfe a contro­ling ability in liking or misli­king the faith, doctrine and constitutions of that Church which one looketh upon as their North starre: Whereas if I mistake not, this author ap­proveth the Church of England not absolutely, but compara­tively with other reformed Churches.

My next reflection is con­cerning what he hath sprink­led (most wittily) in severall [Page 8] places, concerning the nature and immortality of a humane soule, and the condition and state it is in, after the dissolu­tion of the body. And here give me leave to observe what our Countryman Roger Bacon did long agoe; That those stu­dents who busie themselves much with such notions, as re­side wholly to the fantasie, do hardly ever become idoneous for abstracted metaphysicall speculations; the one having bulky foundatiō of matter, or of the accidents of it, to settle upon, (at the least, with one foote:) The other flying con­tinually, even to a lessening pitch, in the Subtile ayre; And [Page 9] dingly it hath beene general­ly noted, that the exactest Ma­thematicians, who converse altogether with lines, figures, and other differences of quan­tity; have seldome proved e­minent in Metaphysicks or speculative Divinity. Nor a­gaine the professors of these sciences, in the others arts. Much lesse can it be expected that an excellent Physitian whose fancy is always fraught with the materiall drugs that hee prescribeth his Apothecary to compound his Medicines of; and whose hands are inu­red to the cutting up, & eies to the inspection of anatomised bodies; should easily, and with [Page 10] successe, flye his thoughts at so to wring a Game, as a pure in­tellect, a Separated and unbo­dyed Soule; surely this acute Authors sharpe wit, had hee or­derly applyed his studies that way, would have beene able to satisfie himselfe with lesse labour, and others with more plenitude, then it hath beene the lot of so dull a braine as mine, concerning the immor­tality of the Soule: And yet I assure you (my Lord) the little Philosophy that is allowed mee for my share, demonstrateth this proposition to mee, as well as faith delivereth it: which our Physician will not admit in his.

[Page 11]To make good this asserti­on here, were very unreasona­ble, since that to doe it exactly, (and without exactnesse, it were no demonstration) re­quireth a totall Survey of the whole science of Bodyes, and of all the operations that wee are conversant with, of a rati­onall creature; which I having done, with all the succinctnes I have beene able to explicate so knotty a Subject with, hath taken mee up in the first draught neere two hundred sheets of paper. I shall there­fore take leave of this point with onely this note, that I take the immortality of the Soule (under his favour) to bee [Page 12] of that nature, that to them onely that are not versed in the wayes of proving it by rea­son, it is an article of faith; to others, it is an evident con­clusion of demonstrative Sci­ence.

And with a like short note I shall observe how if hee had traced the nature of the Soule from its first principles, hee could not have suspected it should sleepe in the grave till the Resurrection of the body. Nor would hee have permit­ted his compassionative na­ture to imagine it belonged to Gods mercy (as the Chiliasts did) to change its condition in those that are damned, from [Page 13] paine to happines. For where God should have done that, hee must have made that an­guished Soule another crea­ture then what it was, (as to make fire cease from being hot, requireth to have it be­come another thing then the Element of fire;) since, that to be in such a condition as ma­keth us understand damned Soules miserable, is a necessary effect of the temper it is in, when it goeth out of the Body, and must necessarily (out of its owne nature) remaine in, unvariably for all eternity; Though, for the conceptions of the vulgar part of mankind, (who are not capable of such [Page 14] abstruse notions) it be stiled (and truly too) the sentence and punishment of a severe Iudge.

I am extreamely pleased with him, when he saith there are not impossibilities enough in Religion for an active faith: And no whit lesse, when in Philosophy hee will not bee sa­tisfied with such naked termes as in Schools use to be obtruded upon easie mindes, when the Masters fingers are not strong enogh to untie the knots pro­posed unto them. I confesse, when I enquire what light (to use our Authors example) is, I should bee as well contented with his Silence, as with his [Page 15] telling mee it is Actus perspicui; unlesse hee explicate clearely to me what those words mean, which I finde very few goe a­bout to do. Such meate they swallow whole, and eject it as entire. But were such things, scientifically, and methodical­ly declared, they would bee of extreame satisfaction, and de­light. And that worke taketh up the greatest part of my for­merly mentioned treatise. For I endeavour to shew by a con­tinued progresse, and not by Leapes, all the motions of na­ture; & unto them to fit intel­ligibly the termes used by her best Secretaries: whereby all wilde fantasticke qualities and [Page 16] moods (introduced for re­fuges of ignorance) are bani­shed from my commerce.

In the next place (my Lord) I shall suspect that our author hath not penetrated into the bottome of those conceptions that deepe Schollers have taught us of Eternity. Methink­eth hee taketh it for an infinite extension of time, and a never ending revolution of continu­all succession: which is no more like Eternity, then a grosse body is like to a pure Spirit. Nay, such an infinity of revolutions, is demonstrable to bee a contradiction and impossible. In the state of e­ternity there is no succession, [Page 17] no change, no variety. Soules or Angells, in that condition, doe not so much as change a thought. All things, notions, and actions, that every were, are, or shal bee in any creature, are actually present to such an intellect. And this (my Lord) laver, not as deriving it from Th [...]ologie, and having recourse to beatifike vision to make good my tenet, (for so, onely glorified creatures should en­joy such immense know­ledge) but out of the princi­ples of Nature and Reason, and from thence shal demonstrate it to belong to the lowest Soule of the ignorantest wretch whiles hee lived in [Page 18] this world, since damned in Hell. A bold undertaking you will say; But I confidently en­gage my selfe to it. Vpon this occasion occurreth also a great deale to bee said of the nature of Predestination (which by the short touches our Author giveth of it, I doubt hee quite mistakes) and how it is an un­alterable Series and chaine of causes, producing infallible (and in respect of them, neces­sary) effects: But that is too large a Theame to unfold here; too vast an Ocean to describe, in the scant Map of a Letter. And therefore I will refer that to a fitter opportunity, fearing I have already too much tres­passed [Page 19] upon your Lordships patience; but that indeed I hope you have not had e­nough to read thus far.

I am sure (my Lord) that you (who never forgot any thing, which deserved a roome in your memory) doe remem­ber how wee are told, that A­byssus abyssum invocat: So here our Author, from the abysse of Predestination, falleth into that of the Trinity of Persons consistent with the indivisibi­lity of the divine nature: And out of that (if I be not excee­dingly deceived) into a third, of mistaking, when he goeth about to illustrate this admira­ble mysteryby a wild discourse [Page 20] of a Trinity in our Soules. The dint of wit is not forcible e­nough to dissect such tough matter; wherein al the obscure glimmering wee gaine of that inaccessible light, commeth to us cloathed in the darke weeds of negations, and there­fore little can wee hope to meete with any positive ex­amples to parallel it withall.

I doubt, hee also mistakenth, and imposeth upon the seve­rer Schooles, when he intima­teth that they gainesay this vi­sible worlds being but a pi­cture or shadow of the invisi­ble & intellectual: which man­ner of Philosophising, hee attri­buteth to Hermes Trismegistus; [Page 21] but is every where to be met with in Plato; and is raised since to a greater height in the Christian Schooles.

But I am sure hee learned in no good Schoole, nor sucked from any good Philosophy to give an actuall subsistence and being to first matter without a forme. Hee that will allow that a Reall existence in nature is as superficially tincted in Metaphysicks, as an other would bee in Mathematicks that should allow the like to a point, a line, or a superficies in Figures. These, in their strict Notions, are but negati­ons of further extension, or but exact terminations of that [Page 22] quantity which falleth under the consideration of the un­derstanding; in the present purpose; no reall entities in themselves: so likewise, the notions of matter, forme, act, power, existence, and the like, that are with truth considered by the understanding, and have there each of them a di­stinet entity, are never the lesse, no where by themselves in nature. They are termes which wee must use in the negotiations of our thoughts, if wee will discourse conse­quently, and conclude know­ingly. But then againe wee must bee very wary of attri­buting to things in their owne [Page 23] natures, such entities as wee create in our understandings, when wee make pictures of them there; for there every different consideration ari­sing out of the different im­pression, which the same thing maketh upon us, hath a distinct being by it self. Where­as in thing, there is but one single vnity, that sheweth (as it were in a glasse, at severall positions) those various faces in our understanding. In a word; all these words are but artificiall termes, not reall things: And the not right un­derstanding them, is the dan­gerousest rocke that Schol­lers suffer ship wracke against.

[Page 24]I goe on with our Phisitians contemplations. Vpon every occasion, hee shewech strong parts and a vigorous brayne. His wishes and aymes, and what he pointeth at, speake him owner of a noble & a ge­nerous heart. He hath reason to wish that Aristotle had been as accurate in examining the causes, nature and affections of the great Vniverse hee busied himselfe about, as his Patri­arke Galen hath beene in the like considerations upon his little World, mans body, in that admirable worke of his de usu partium. But no great humane thing, was ever borne and perfected at once. It may satis­fie [Page 25] us, if one in our age, buil­deth that magnifike structure upon the others foundations; and especially, if where hee fin­deth any of them unsound, he eradicateth those, and fixeth new unquestionable ones in their roome: but so, as they still, in grosse, keep a propor­tion, and beare a Harmony with the others great worke: This, hath now, (even now) our learned Country-man done, The knowing Master White, (whose name, I believe your Lordship hath met withall) in his excellent booke, De Mun­do, newly printed at Paris, where he now resideth, and is admired by the world of Let­terd [Page 26] men there, as the Prodigie of these latter times. Indeed his three Dialogues upon that Subject, (if I am able to judge any thing) are full of the pro­foundest learning I ever yet met withall. And I beleeve; who hath well read and di­gested them, will perswade himselfe there is no truth so abstruse, nor hitherto concei­ved out of our reach, but mans wit may raise engines to scale and conquer. I assure my selfe, when our author hath studied him throughly, hee will not lament so loude for Aristotles mutilated and defective Philo­sophy; as in Boccalini, Caesar Ca­porali doth for the losse of Li­vies [Page 27] shipwracked Decads.

That Logicke which hee quarrelleth at for calling a Toade, or a Serpent ugly, will in the end agree with his; for no body ever tooke them to be so, in respect of the Vntverse (in which regard, he defen­deth their regularity, and Sym­metry) but onely as they have relation to us.

But I cannot so easily agree with him when he affirmeth that Devills, or other Spirits in the Intellectuall world have no exact Ephemerides wherein they may reade before-hand the stories of fortuite acci­dents: for I beleeve that all causes are so immediately [Page 28] chayned to their effects, as if a perfect knowing nature get hold but of one linke, it will drive the entire Series or pede­gree of the whole to each ut­most end; (as I thinke I have proved in my forenamed trea­tisfe) so that in truth, there is no fortuitnesse or contingen­cy of things, in respect of themselves, but onely in re­spect of us, that are ignorant of their certaine, and necessa­ry causes.

Now a like Series or chaine, and complexe of all outward circumstances (whose highest Linke, Poets say prettily, is fast­ned to Iupiters chayre, and the lowest is riveted to every in­dividuall [Page 29] on earth) steered and levelled by God Almighty, at the first setting out of the first Mo­ver; I conceive, to bee that di­vine Providence and mercy, which (to use our Authors owne example) giveth a thri­ving Genius to the Hollanders; and the like: And not any se­cret, invisible, mysticall bles­sing, that falleth not under the search or cognizance of a pru­dent indagation.

I must needs approve our authors aequanimity, and I may as justly say his magnani­mity, in being contented so cheerfully (as he saith) to shake hands with the fading Goods of Fortune; and bee deprived of [Page 30] the joyes of her most precious blessings; so that hee may in recompence, possesse in am­ple measure the true ones of the mind, like Epictetus, that great Master of morall wise­dome and piety, who taxeth them of high injustice that re­pine at Gods distribution of his blessings, when he putteth not into their share of goods, such things as they use no in­dustry or meanes to purchase. For why should that man who above all things estee­meth his owne freedome; and who to enjoy that sequest­ereth himself from commerce with the vulgar of mankinde; take it ill of his Starres, if such [Page 31] preferments, honors, & applau­ses meet not him, as are paine­fully gained after long & tedi­ous services of Princes, & brittle dependances of humorous fa­vourites, & supple complyan­ces with all sorts of natures? As for what he faith of Astrolo­gie; I do not conceive that wise men reject it so much for being repugnant to Divinity (which he reconcileth well enough) as for having no solid rules, or ground in nature. To rely too far upon that vaine art, I judge to bee rather folly then impi­e [...]y. Vnlesse in our censure, we looke to the first Origine of it, which savoureth of the Idola­try of those Heathens that wor­shipping [Page 32] the Stars and hea­venly bodies for Deities, did in a superstitious devotion, at­tribute unto them the causality of all effects beneath them. And for ought I know, the beliefe of solid Orbes in the heavens, and their regularly-irregular motions, sprung from the same root.) And a like inanity, I should suspect in Chiromancy as well as Astrolo­gie, (especially, in particular contingent effects) however our Author, and no lesse a man then Aristotle, seeme to attribute somewhat more to that con­jecturall art of Lynes.

I should much doubt (though our Author sheweth [Page 33] himselfe of another minde) that Bernardinus Ochinus grew at the last to bee a meere Athe­ist: This story I hav but upon rela­tion; yet of a very good hand when after having beene first the institutor and Patri­arch of the Capucine order (so violent was his zeale then, as no former religious instituti­on, though never so rigorous, was strict enough for him) hee from thence fell to bee first an Hereticke, then a Iew; and af­ter a while became a Turke, and at the last wrote a furious Invective against those whom hee called the three Grand-Im­postors of the World; among whom hee ranked our Savi­our Christ, aswell as Moses and Mahomet.

[Page 34]I doubt hee mistaketh in his Chronologie, or the printer in the name, when hee ma­keth Ptolomy condemne the Alchoran.

Hee needeth not be so seru­pulous, as hee seemeth to bee in averring downe rightly, that God cannot doe contra­dictory things, (though per­adventure it is not amisle to sweeten the manner of the ex­pression, and the sound of the words) for who understan­deth the nature of contradicti­on, will find Non Entity in one of the termes, which of God, were impiety not to deny peremptorily, for hee being in his proper nature Selfe-En­tity, [Page 35] all being must immediate­ly flow from him, and all not-being be totally excluded from that effluxe. Now for the re­calling of Time past, which the Angels posed Esdras withall; there is no contradiction in that; as is evident to them that know the essence of time (for it is but putting againe, all things, that had motion, into the same state they were in, at that moment unto which time was to be reduced backe and from thence, letting it travell on againe, by the same motions, and upon the same wheeles, it rolled upon be­fore.) And therefore God could doe this admirable [Page 36] worke, though neither Esdras, nor all the power of creatures together could doe it: And consequently it cannot in this Question bee said, that he po­sed mortality with what him­selfe was not able to per­forme.

I acknowledge ingenuous­ly our Physicians experience hath the advantage of my Phi­losophy, in knowing there are witches. Yet I am sure, I have no temptation to doubt of the Deity; nor have any unsa­tisfaction in believing there are Spirits. I doe not see such a necessary conjunction be­tweene them, as that the sup­position of the one, must [Page 37] needs inferre the other. Nei­ther do I deny there are witch­es. I onely reserve my assent, till I meete with stronger mo­tives to carry it. And I confesse I doubt asmuch of the efficacy of those magicall rules he spea­keth of, as also of the finding out of mysteries by the courte­ous Revelation of Spirits.

I doubt, his discourse of an vniversall Spirit, is but a wilde fansie: And that in the mar­shalling of it, hee mistaketh the Hermeticall Philosophers. And surely, it is a weake argument, from a common nature that subsisteth onely in our under­standing, (out of which it hath no being at all) to inferre, [Page 38] by parity, an actuall subsistence of the like, in realty of nature, (of which kind of miscarriage in mens discoursings, I have spoken before) And upon this occasion, I doe not see how seasonably he falleth, of a sud­daine, from naturall speculati­ons to a morall contemplati­on of Gods Spirit working in us. In which also I would inquire (especially upon his suddaine poeticall rapture) whether the solidity of the Iudgement bee not outweighed by the ayrie­nesse of the fancy. Assuredly one cannot erre in taking this Author for a very fine ingeni­ous Gentleman: but for how deepe a Scholler, I leave unto [Page 39] them to judge, that are abler then I am.

If he had applyed himselfe with earnest study, and upon right grounds, to search out the nature of pure intellects: I doubt not but his great parts would have argued more effi­cacionsly, then he doth against those that between men and Angells put onely Porplyries difference of Mortality and im­mortality. And hee would have dived further into the te­nor of their intellectuall ope­rations; in which there is no succession; nor ratiocinative discourse; for in the very first instant of their creation, they actually knew all that they [Page 40] were capable of knowing; and they are acquainted even with all free thoughts, past, present, and to come; for they see them in their causes, and they see them altogether at one in­stant: as I have in my fore­mentioned treatise proved at large: and I thinke I have al­ready touched thus much once before in this Letter.

I am tempted here to say a great deale concerning Light, by his taking it to bee a bare quality. For in Physicks no speculation is more usefull, or reacheth further. But to set downe such Phaenomena's of it as I have observed, and from whence I evidently collect the [Page 41] nature of it; were too large a Theame for this place; when your Lordshippe pleaseth I shall shew you another more orderly discourse upon that Subject; wherein I have suffi­ciently proved it to be a solid Substance and body.

In his proceeding to collect an intellectuall world; and in his discoursing upon the place, and habitation of An­gels: As also in his considerati­on of the activity of glorified eyes; (which shal bein a state of reft; whereas motion, is requi­red to seeing) And in his subtil speculation upon two bodies placed in the vacuity beyond the utmost all-enclosing su­perficies [Page 42] of Heaven (which im­plyeth a contradiction in na­ture) me thinkes I heare Apelles crying out, Ne sutor ultra Cre­pidam: or rather it putteth me in minde of one of the titles in Pantagruels Library, (which he expresseth himselfe conver­sant in) namely, Quaestio Subti­lissima, Vtrum Chimaera in vacuo bombinans possit comedere Secun­das intentiones. With which short note I will leave there considerations; in which (if time and other circumstances allowed it) matter would spring up of excellent Lear­ning.

When our author shall have read Master Whites Dialogues [Page 43] of the world, hee will no longer bee of the opinion, that the unity of the world is a conclusion of Faith: For it is there demonstrated by Rea­son.

Here the thread of the dis­course inviteth mee to fay a great deale of the production, or creation of Mans Soule. But it is too tedious and too knotty a peece for a Letter. Now it shall suffice to note, that it is not Ex traduce, and yet hath a strange kind of necre dependance of the bo­dy; which is, as it were, Gods instrument to create it by. This, thus said, or rather rum­bled out, may seeme harth; [Page 44] But had your Lordship leisure to peruse what I have written at full upon this point, I doubt not but it would appeare plausible enough to you.

I cannot agree with him when hee seemeth to impute inconvenience to long life; & that length of time doth ra­ther impaire, then improve us: For surely if wee will follow the course of nature, and of reason, it is a mighty great blessing; were it but in this re­gard, that it giveth time leave to vent & boyle away the un­quietnesses and turbulencies that follow our passions; and to weane our selves gently from carnall affections, and [Page 45] at the last to drop with ease and willingnesse, like ripe fruit from the Tree; as I remember Plotinus finely discourseth in one of his Enneads. For when before the season, it is plucked off with violent hands, or sha­ken downe by rude and boy­sterous windes, it carrieth a­long with it an indigested raw tast of the wood, and hath an unpleasant aigrenesse in its juyce, that maketh it unfit for use, till long time have mello­wed it: And peradventure it may be to backward, as in­stead of ripening, it may grow rotten in the very Center. In like manner, Soules that goe out of their bodies with affe­ctions [Page 46] to those objects they leave behinde them, (which usually is as long as they can relish them) doe retaine still even in their separation, a by­as, and a languishing towards them: which is the Reason why such terrene Soules appeare oftenest in Coemeteries and Charnell houses; (and not, that morall one which our Author giveth:) for life which is union with the body, being that which carnal Soules have straightesh affections to, and that they are loathest to be se­parated from; their unquiet Spirit, which can never (natu­rally) loose the impressions it had wrought in it at the time [Page 47] of its driving out, lingreth perpetually after that deare confort of his. The impossibi­lity cannot cure them of their impotent desires; They would faine be alive againe, ‘—Iterumque ad tarda reverti Corpora. Quae lucis miseris tam di­ra cupido?’

And to this cause peradven­ture may bee reduced the strange effect which is fre­quently seen in England, when at the approach of the Murde­rer, the slaine body suddaine­ly bleedeth afreth: For cer­tainely the Soules of them that are treacherously murdered [Page 48] by surprise, use to leave their Bodies with extreame un­willingnesse, and with vehe­ment indignation against them that force them to so unprovi­ded & abhorred a passage. That Soule then to wreak its evill tallent against the hated Mur­derer, and to draw a just and desired revenge upon his head; would doe all it can to manifest the author of the fact. To speake, it cannot; for in it selfe, it wanteth Organs of voyce, and those it is parted from, are now growne too heavy, and are too benummed for it, to give motion unto. Yet some change it desireth to make in the body which it [Page 49] hath to vehement inclinati­ons to, & therfore is the aptest for it to worke upon. It must then endeavour to cause a mo­tion in the subtilest & most flu­id parts (and consequently, the most moveable ones) of it. This can be nothing but the Blood; which then being vi­olently moved, must needs gush out at those places where it findeth issues.

Our author cannot beleeve that the world will perish up­on the ruines of its own prin­ciples: But Master White hath demonstrated the end of it upon naturall Reason. And though the precise time for that generall destruction bee [Page 50] inscrutable; yet he learnedly sheweth an ingenious rule whereby to measure in some fort the duration of it, without being branded (as our author threatneth) with convincible and Statute madnesse, or with impiety. And whereas hee will have the worke of this laft great day (the summer up of all past dayes) to imply annihilation and thereupon interesseth God onely in it: I must beg leave to contradict him namely in this point, and to affirme that the letting loose then of the activest Element to destroy this face of the World, will but beget a change in it, and that no annihilation [Page 51] can proceed from God Al­mighty: for his essence being (as I said before) selfe-existence, it is more impossible that Not­being should flow from him, then that cold should flow immediately from fire, or darkenesse from the actuall presence of light.

I must needs acknowledge that where he ballanceth life and death against one another and considereth that the lat­ter is to bee a kind of nothing for a moment, to become a pure Spirit within one instant, and what followeth of this strong thought; is extreame handsomely said, and argueth very gallant and generous re­solutions [Page 52] in him.

To exemplifie the immorta­lity of the Soule, hee needeth not have recourse to the Philo­sophers stone. His owne store furnisheth him with a most pregnant one of reviving a plant (the same numericall plant) out of his owne ashes. But under his favour, I beleeve his experiment will faile, if under the notion of the fame, hee comprehendeth all the Accidents that first accompa­nied that plant; for since in the ashes there remaineth one­ly the fixed Salt, I am very con­fident that all the colour, and much of the odor and Tast of it, is flowne away with the Volatile salt.

[Page 53]What should I say of his making so particular a narrati­on of personall things, and private thoughts of his owne; the knowledge whereof can­not much conduce to any mans betterment? (which I make account is the chiefe end of his writing this discourse) As where he speaketh of the soundnesse of his body, of the course of his dyet, of the coole­nesse of his blood at the Sum­mer Solstice of his age, of his neglect of an Epitaph: how long he hath lived or may live what Popes, Emperours, Kings, Grand-Seigniors, he hath beene contemporary unto, and the like: would it not be thought [Page 54] that hee hath a speciall good opinion of himselfe, (and in­deed hee hath reason) when he maketh such great Princes the Land-markes in the Chro­nology of himselfe? Surely if hee were to write by retaile the particulars of his owne Story and life, it would bee a notable Romanze; since he tel­leth us in one totall summe, it is a continued miracle of thir­ty yeares. Though he creepeth gently upon us at the first, yet he groweth a Gyant, an Attlas (to use his owne expression) at the last. But I will not cen­sure him as hee that made notes upon Balsacs letters, and was angry with him for [Page 55] vexing his readers with stories of his Cholikes, and voyding of gravell. I leave this kind of his expressions, without look­ing further into them.

In the next place (my Lord) I shall take occasion from our authors setting so maine a difference betweene morall honesty and vertue, or being vertuous, (to use his owne phrase) out of an inbred loy­alty to vertue; and on the o­ther side, being vertuous for a rewards sake; To discourse a little concerning Vertue in this life, and the effects of it af­terwards. Truely (my Lord) however he seemeth to prefer this latter, I cannot but value [Page 56] the other much before it, if we regard the noblenesse, and heroikenesse of the nature and mind from whence they both proceed: And if wee consi­der the Iourneyes end, to which each of them carrieth us, I am confident the first yeel­deth nothing to the second, but indeed both meete in the peri­od of Beatitude. To cleare this point (which is very well worth the wisest mans seri­ousest thoughts) we must con­sider, what it is that bringeth us to this excellent State, to be happy in the other world of eternity and immutability. It is agreed on all hands to bee Gods grace and favour to us: [Page 57] But all doe not agree by what steps his grace produceth this effect. Herein I shall not trou­ble your Lordshippe with a long discourse, how that grace worketh in us, (which yet I will in a word touch anon, that you may conceive what I understand grace to bee) but will suppose it to have wrought its effect in us in this life, and from thence examine what hinges they are that turn us over to Beatitude and Glory in the next. Some consider God as a Iudge, that rewardeth or punisheth men, according as they cooperated with or re­pugned to, the grace hee gave. That according as their acti­ons [Page 58] please or displease him, he is well affected towards them or angry with them; And ac­cordingly maketh them, to the purpose, and very home, feele the effects of his kinde­nesse or indignation. Others that flye a higher pitch, and are so happy, ‘—Vt rerum poterint cognoscere causas,’ doe conceive that Beatitude, and misery in the other life, are effects that necessarily and orderly flow out of the nature of those causes that be got them in this life, without engaging God Almighty to give a sentence, and act the [Page 59] part of a Iudge, according to the state of our cause, as it shall appeare upon the accusations and pleadings at his great Bar. Much of which manner of ex­pression, is metaphoricall, and rather adapted to containe vulgar mindes in their duties (that are awed with the thought of a severe Iudge, sift­ing every minute action of theirs) then such as we must conceive every circumstance to passe so in reality as the lite­rall sound of the words seemes to inferre in ordinary constru­ction: (and yet all that is true too, in its genuine sense) But (my Lord) these more penetra­ting men, and that I conceive [Page 60] are vertuous upon higher and stronger motives (for they truely and solidly know why they are so) doe consider that what impressions are once made in the spirituall substance of a Soule, and what affecti­ons it hath once contracted, doe ever remaine in it till a contrary and diametrally con­tradicting judgement and af­fection, doe obliterate it, & ex­pell it thence. This is the rea­son why Contrition, sorrow and hatred for past Sins, is enchar­ged us. If then the Soule doe goe out of the body with im­pressions and affections to the objects, and pleasures of this life; it continually lingreth [Page 61] after them, and as Virgill (learnedly as well as wittily) saith,

But that being a State wherin those objects neither are, nor can be enjoyed, it must needs follow that such a Soule must bee in an exceeding anguish, sorrow, & affliction, for being deprived of them; & for want of those it so much priseth, will neglect all other content­ments it might have, as not having a relish or tast moul­ded [Page 62] and prepared to the sa­vouring of them; but like fea­verish tongues, that when they are even scorched with heat, take no delight in the pleasingest liquors, but the sweetest drinks seeme bitter to them by reason of their o­verflowing Gall; Soe they e­ven hate whatsoever Good is in their power, and thus pine away a long eternity. In which the sharpenesse and activity of their paine, anguish, and sad condition, is to bee measu­red by the sensiblenesse of their natures: which being then purely spirituall, is in a manner infinitely more then any torment that in this life [Page 63] can bee inflicted upon a dull grosse body. To this add, the vexation it must bee to them, to see how inestimable and infinite a good, they have lost; and lost meerely by their own fault; and for momentary tri­fles, and childrens play; and that it was so easie for them to have gained it, had they re­mained but in their right sen­ses, and governed themselves according to Reason. And then judge in what a tortured condition they must bee, of re­morse and execrating them­selves for their most resupine and senselesse madnesse. But if on the other side, a Soule be released out of this Prison of [Page 64] clay and flesh, with affections setled upon intellectual goods as Truth, Knowledge, and the like; And that it be growne to an irkesome dislike of the flat pleasures of this world; and looke upon carnall and sensuall objects with a disdain­full eye, as discerning the con­temptible inanity in them, that is set off onely by their painted outside; and above all, that it have a longing desire to bee in the society of that supereminent cause of causes, in which they know are heaped up the Treasures of all beauty, Knowledge, Truth, De­light, and good whatsoever; and therefore are impatient at [Page 65] the Delay, and reckon all their absence from him as a tedious benithment; and in that regard hate their life & body as cause of this divorce: such a Soule I say must necessarily, by reason of the Temper it is wrought in­to enjoy immediately at the in­stant of the bodies dissolution and its liberty, more content­ment, more joy, more true happinesse, then it is possible for a heart of flesh to have scarce any scantling of, much lesse to comprehend.

For immense knowledge is naturall to it; as I have touched before. Truth, which is the adaequated and satisfying object of the understanding, [Page 66] is there displayed in her owne Colours; or rather without any.

And that which is the Crown of all, and in respect of which all the rest is nothing; that in­finite entity which above all things this soule thirsteth to bee united unto, can not for his owne goodnesse sake deny his embraces to so affectionate a Creature, and to such an en­flamed love. If he should; then, were that Soule, for be­ing the best, and for loving him most, condemned to be the unhappiest. For what joy could shee have in any thing, were she barred from what she so infinitely loveth? [Page 67] But since the nature of superi­our and excellent things is to shower downe their propi­tious influences wheresoever there is a capacity of receiving them, and no obstacle to keep them out (like the Sun that illu­minateth the whole ayre, if no cloud or solid opacous body intervene) it followeth cleare­ly that this infinite Sun of Iu­stice, this immense Ocean of goodnesse, cannot chuse but environ with his beames, and replenish even beyond satietie with his delightsome waters, a soule so prepared and tempe­red to receive them.

Now (my Lord) to make use of this discourse and apply [Page 68] it to what begot it; be pleased to determine which way will deliver us evenest and smooth­est to this happie end of our Iourney: To bee vertuous for hope of a reward, and through feare of punishment, or to be so, out of a naturall and in­ward affection to vertue, for vertues and Reasons sake? sure­ly one in this latter condition, not onely doth those things which will bring him to Bea­titude; but he is so secured in a manner under an Armour of Proofe, that hee is almost in­vulnerable; hee can scarce miscarry, hee hath not so much as an inclination to worke contrarily, the alluring baites [Page 69] of this World, tempt him not; hee disliketh, hee hateth, even his necessary commerce with them whiles hee liveth. On the other side, the hireling that steereth his course onely by his reward and punish­ment, doth we [...]l I confesse; but he doth it with reluctance; hee carrieth the Arke, Gods I­mage, his Soule, safely home, it is true, but hee loweth piti­fully after his calves that hee leaveth behind him among the Philistians. In a word he is vertuous, but if hee might safe­ly, hee would doe vitious things. (And hence he the ground in nature, if so I may say, of our Purgatory) Mee­thinkes [Page 70] two such mindes may not unfitly be compared to two Maides, whereof one hath a little sprinkling of the green sicknesse, and hath more mind to eate ashes, Chalke, or Leather, then meates of solid and good nourishment; but for beareth them, knowing the languish­ing condition of Health it will bring her to: But the other having a ruddy, vigorous and perfect constitution, and en­joying a compleate entire eu­crasie, delights in no food but of good nourriture, & loathes the others delights. Her health is discovered in her lookes, and shee is secure from any danger of that Malady, where­as [Page 71] the other, for all her good dyet, beareth in her complex­ion some sickly testimony of her depraved appetite; and if she bee not very Wary, shee is in danger of a relapse.

It falleth fit in this place to examine our Authors appre­hension of the end of such ho­nest Worthies and Philosophers (as he calleth them) that dyed before Christ his incarnation, whether any of them could be saved or no. Truely (my Lord) I make no doubt at all, but if any followed in the whole Te­nor of their lives, the dictamens of right Reason, but that their Iourney was secure to Heaven. Out of the former discourse [Page 72] appeareth what temper of minde is necessary to get thi­ther. And, that Reason would di­ctate such a temper to aperfect­ly judicious man (though but in the state of Nature) the best and most rationall for him, I make no doubt at all. But it is most true; they are exceeding few, (if any) in whom Reason worketh clear­ly and is not overswayed by Passion and terrene affections; they are few that can discerne what is reasonable to be done in every circumstance.

[Page 73] And fewer, that knowing what is best, can win of them­selves to doe accordingly; (vi­deo meliora proboque, deteriora se­quor; being most mens cases) so that after all that can be ex­pected at the hands of nature and reason in their best habit, since the lapse of them, wee may conclude, it would have beene a most difficult thing for any man, and a most im­possible one for mankinde, to attaine unto Beatitude, if Christ had not come to teach, and by his example to shew us the way.

And this was the Reason of his incarnatiod, teaching life & death: for being God, wee [Page 74] could not doubt his veracity, when he told us newes of the other world; having all things in his power, and yet enjoying none of the delights of this life, no man should sticke at foregoing them, since his ex­ample sheweth all men that such a course is best; whereas few are capable of the Reason of it: And for his last act, dy­ing in such an afflicted man­ner, hee taught us how the se­curest way to step immediate­ly into perfect happinesse, is to be crucified to all the desires, delights, and contentments of this World.

But to come backe to our Physician: Truely (my Lord) I [Page 75] must needs pay him as a due the acknowledging his pious discourses to bee excellent and patheticall ones, containing worthy motives, to encite one to vertue and to deterre one from vice: thereby to gaine Heaven, and to avoid Hell. As­suredly he is owner of a solid head and of a strong generous heart. Where hee imployeth his thoughts upon such things as thoughts upon such things as resoit to no higher, or more abstruse Principles then such as occurre in ordinary conversa­tion with the world, or in the common tracke of study and learning, I know no man would say better. But when hee meeteth with such diffi­culties [Page 76] as his next concerning the Resurrection of the body, (wherein after deepe medita­tion, upon the most abstracted principles, and speculations of the Metaphysikes, one hath much adoe to solve the appea­ring contradictions in Nature) There, I doe not at all wonder hee should tread a little awry, and goe astray in the darke; for I conceive his course of life hath not permitted him to al­low much time unto the un­winding of such entangled and abstracted subtilties. But if it had, I beleeve his naturall parts are such as he might have kept the chaire from most men I know: for even where hee [Page 77] roveth widest, it is with so much wit and sharpenesse, as putteth me in mind of a great mans censure upon Ioseph Sca­ligers Cyclometrica (a matter he was not well versed in) that hee had rather erre so ingeni­ously as he did, then hit upon Truth in that heavy manner as the Iesuite, his antagonist stuf­feth his Bookes. Most assured­ly his wit and smartnesse in this discourse is of the finest Standard; and his insight into severer Learning will appeare as piercing unto such as use not strictly the touchstone and the Test to examine everypeece of the glittering coine hee payeth his reader with. But to [Page 78] come to the Resurrection, Me­thinkes it is but a grosse con­ception to thinke that every Atome of the present individu­all matter of a body; every graine of Ashes of a burned Cadaver, scattered by the wind throughout the world, and af­ter numerous variations chan­ged peradventure into the bo­dy of another man; should at the sounding of the last Trumpet be raked together againe from all the corners of the earth, and be made up a­new into the same Body it was before of the first man. Yet if we will be Christians, and rely upon Gods promises, wee must beleeve that we shall rise [Page 79] againe with the same Body, that walked about, did eate, drinke, aud live here on earth; and that we shall see our Savi­our and Redeemer with the same, the very same, eyes, wherewith we now look up­on the fading Glories of this contemptible world.

How shall these seeming contrarieties bee reconciled? if the latter be true why should not the former be admitted? To explicate this riddle the better, give me leave to aske your Lordship if you now see the Cannons, the Ensignes, the Armes and other martiall pre­parations at Oxford, with the same eyes, wherewith many [Page 80] yeares agone you looked up­on Porphyries and Aristotles glearned leases there? I doubt not but you will answer mee, Assuredly with the very same. Is that noble and Gracefull per­son of yours, that begetteth both delight and Reverence in every one that looketh upon it? Is that body of yours, that now is growne to such come­ly and full dimensions, as Na­ture can give her none more advantagious, the same person, the same body, which your vertuous and excellent Mother bore nine moneths in her chast and honoured wombe, and that your Nurse gave sucke un­to? most certainely it is the [Page 81] same. And yet if you consider it well, it cannot bee doubted but that sublunary matter, be­ing in a perpetuall flux, and in bodies which have internall principles of Heate and moti­on, much continually transpi­ring out to make roome for the supply of new aliment; at the length, in long processe of time, all is so changed, As that Ship at Athens may as well bee called the same ship that was there two hundred yeares be­fore, and whereof (by reason of the continuall reparations) not one foote of the Tymber is remaining in her that buil­ded her at the first; As this Body now, can be called the [Page 82] same it was, forty yeares agone unlesse some higher considera­tion keepe up the Identity of it. Now what that is, Let us examine, and whether or no, it will reach to our diffi­culty of the Resurrection. Let us consider then how that which giveth the numerical individu­ation to a Body, is the substan­tiall forme. As long as that re­maineth the same, though the matter be in a continuall fluxe and motion, yet the thing is still the same. There is not one droppe of the same water in the Thames that ranne downe by Whitehall yesternight, yet no man will deny, but that it is the same River that was in [Page 83] Queene Elizabeths time, as long as it is supplied from the same Common Stocke, the Sea. Though this example reacheth not hom, it illustra­teth the thing. If then the forme remaine absolutely the same after separation from the matter, that it was in the matter, (which can happen onely to formes, that subsist by themselves; as humane Soules) it followeth then, that whensoever it is united to matter againe, (all matter comming out of the same common Magazine) it ma­keth againe the same man, with the same eyes, and all the same limbes that were for­merly [Page 84] Nay, hee is composed of the same Individuall mat­ter: for it hath the same di­stinguisher and individuator; to wit, the same forme, or Soule. Matter considered sing­ly by it selfe, hath no distin­ction: All matter is in it selfe the same; we must fansie it, as we doe the indigested Chaos; It is an uniformely wild Ocean. Particularize a few drops of the Sea, by filling a glasse full of them; then that glasse full is distinguished from all the rest of the watery Bulke: But returne backe those few drops to from whence they were ta­ken, and the Glasse-full that even now had an individua­tion [Page 85] by it selfe, loseth that, and groweth one and the same with the other maine stocke: Yet if you fill your glasse againe, whersoever you take it up, so it be of the same uniforme Bulke of water you had before, it is the same Glasse-full of water that you had. But as I said before, this example fitteth entirely, no more then the other did. In such abstracted speculati­ons, where we must consider matter without forme (which hath no actuall being) wee must not expect adaequated examples in nature. But e­nough is said to make a spe­culative man see, that if God [Page 86] should joyne the Soule of a lately dead man (even whiles his dead corps should lie en­tire in his winding sheete here) unto a Body made of earth taken from fome moun­taine in America; it were most true and certaine that the body he should then live by, were the same. Identicall body he lived with before his Death and late Resurrection. It is evident that samenesse, thisnesse, and thatnesse, belongeth not to matter by it selfe, (For a generall indifference runneth through it all) but onely as it is distinguished and indivi­duated by the Forme. Which, in our case, whensoever the [Page 87] same Soule doth, it must be understood alwayes to be the same matter and body.

This point thus passed over; I may piece to it what our Au­thor saith of a Magazine of Subsi­stent formes residing first in the Chaos, & hereafter (when the world shall have beene de­stroyed by fire) in the generall heape of Ashes; out of which Gods voyce did, & shall, draw them out & cloath them with matter. This language were handsome for a Poet or a Rhe­torician to speake. But in a Phi­losopher, that should ratioci­nate strictly and rigorously, I can not admit it, for certain­ly there are no subsistent forms [Page 88] of Corporeall things: (excep­ting the Soule of man, which besides being an informing forme, hath another particu­lar consideration belonging to it; too long to speake of here) But whensoever that compound is destroyed, the forme perisheth with the whole. And for the naturall production of Corporeall things I conceive it to be wrought out by the action and passion of the Elements among them­selves; which introducing new tempers and dispositi­ons, into the bodies where these conflicts passe; new formes succeed old ones, when the dispositions are [Page 89] raised to such a height as can no longer consist with the preceding forme, and are in the immediate de­gree to fit the succeeding one, which they usher in. The mystery of all which I have at large unfolded in my above mentioned treatise, of the im­mortality of the Soule.

I shall say no more to the first part of our Phisicians dis­course, after I have observed how his consequence is no good one, where hee infer­reth that if the Devills fore­knew, who would bee dam­ned or saved, it would save them the Labor, and end their worke of tempting mankinde [Page 90] to mischiefe and evill. For whatsoever their morall de­signe, and successe bee in it, their nature impelleth them to be alwaies doing it. For on the one side, it is active in the highest degree (as being pure Acts, that is Spirits,) so on the other side, they are maligne in as great an excesse: By the one they must be alwayes working wheresoever they may worke; (like water in a vessell full of holes, that will run out of every one of them which is not stopped) By the other, their whole worke must be malicious and mis­chievous. Ioyning then both these qualities together, it is [Page 91] evident they will alwayes bee tempting mankind, though they know they shall be fru­strate of their morall end.

But were it not time that I made an end? Yes, it is more then time. And therefore ha­ving once passed the limit that confined what was becoming, the next step carryed mee into the Ocean of Error; which be­ing infinite, and therefore more or lesse bearing no pro­portion in it; I will proceed a little further, to take a short survey of his Second part; And hope for as easie Pardon after this addition to my suddaine and indigested remarkes, as if I had closed them up now.

[Page 92] Methinkes, he beginneth with somewhat an affected discourse to prove his natu­rall inclination to Charity which vertue is the intended Theame of all the remainder of his discourse. And I doubt he mistaketh the lowest Orbe or Lembe of that high Seraphicke vertue, for the top and perfe­ction of it; and maketh a kind of humane compassion to bee divine Charity. Hee will have it to bee a generall way of do­ing good: It is true, he addeth then, for Gods sake; But hee allayeth that againe, with say­ing hee will have that good done as by obedience, and to accomplish Gods will; and [Page 93] looketh at the effects it wor­keth upon our Soules but in a narrow compasse; like one in the vulgar throng, that consi­dereth God as a Iudge, & as a rewarder or a punisher. Where­as perfect Charity, is that vehe­ment love of God for his own sake, for his goodnesse, for his beauty, for his excellency that carrieth all the motions of our Soule directly and violently to him; and maketh a man dif­daine, or rather hate all obsta­cles that may retard his jour­ney to him. And that face of it that looketh toward mankind with whō we live, & warmeth us to doe others good, is but like the overflowings of the [Page 94] maine streame, that swelling: above its bankes runneth o­ver in a multitude of little Channels.

I am not satisfyed, that in the likenesse which he putteth betweene God and Man, hee maketh the difference be­tweene them, to bee but such as betweene two creatures that resemble one another. For betweene these, there is some proportions; but between the others, none at all. In the ex­amining of which discourse, wherein the Author observeth that no two faces are ever seen to be perfectly alike; Nay no two Pictures of the same face, were ever exactly made so; I [Page 95] could take occasion to insert a subtile & delightfull demon­stration of Mr. Whites, wher­in he sheweth how it is im­possible that two bodyes (for example, two Boules) should ever be made exactly like one another; Nay, not rigorously equall in any one accident, as namely in weight, but that still there will be some little diffe­rence, and inequality between them, (the Reason of which ob­servation, our Author medleth not with) were it not that I have beene so long already, as digressions were now very un­seasonable.

Shall I commend or censure our Author for beleeving so [Page 96] well of his acquired knowledg as to be dejected at the thought of not being able to leave it a Legacy among his friends? Or shall I examine whether it be not a high inju­ry to wife and gallant Princes, who out of the generousnesse and noblenesse of their Nature doe patronize arts and learned men, to impute their so doing to vanity of desiring praise, or to feare of reproach?

But let these passe: I will not ingage any that may be­friend him, in a quarrell against him. But I may safely pro­duce Epictetus to contradict him when he letteth his kind­nesse engulfe him in deepe af­flictions [Page 97] for a friend: For hee will not allow his wise man to have an inward relenting, a troubled feeling, or com­passion of anothers misfor­tunes. That disordereth the one, without any good to the other. Let him afford all the assistances and relievings in his power; but without intermingling himselfe in the others Woe. As Angels that doe us good, but have no passion for us. But this Gentlemans kindnesse goeth yet further: Hee compareth his love of a friend to his love of God; the union of friends Soules by affection, to the union of three persons in the Trinity; [Page 98] and to the Hypostaticall union of two natures in one Christ, by the Words Incarnation. Most certainely hee expresseth him­selfe to bee a right good na­tur'd man: But if Saint Augu­stine retracted so severely his patheticall expressions for the death of his friend, saying they favoured more of the Rhetori­call declamations of a young Orator, then of the grave con­fession of a devout Christian, (or somewhat to that purpose) what censure upon himselfe may wee expect of our Physi­cian, if ever hee make any re­tractation of this discourse concerning his Religion?

It is no small misfortune to [Page 99] him, that after so much time spent, and so many places vi­sited in curious search by tra­velling after the acquisition of so many languages; after the wading so deepe in Scien­ces, as appeareth by the ample Inventory and particular hee maketh of himselfe: The re­sult of all this, should bee to professe ingenuously he had studyed enough, onely to be­come a Scepticke: and that having runne through all sorts of Learning, hee could finde rest and satisfaction in none. This I confesse is the unlucky fate of those that light upon wrong Principles. But Master White teacheth us [Page 100] how the Theorems and de­monstrations of Physickes, may be linked & chained together as strongly & as continuedly as they are in the Mathematickes, if men would but apply them­selves to a right method of Study. And I doe not finde that Salomon complained of igno­rance in the height of know­ledge; (as this Gentleman saith) but onely, that after he hath rather acknowledged himselfe ignorant of nothing, but that hee understood the natures of all Plants from the Cedar to the Hyssop, and was acquainted with all the wayes, and pathes of wisedome and knowledg; hee exclaimeth that all this is [Page 101] but Toyle, and vexation of Spi­rit: and therefore adviseth men to change humane Stu­dies into divine contemplati­ons and affections.

I cannot agree to his Reso­lution of shutting his Bookes, and giving over the search of knowledge, and resigning himselfe up to ignorance, up­on the Reason that moveth him; as though it were ex­treame vanity to wait our dayes in the pursuite of that, which by attending but a little longer (till Death hath closed the eyes of our body, to open those of our Soule) wee shall gain with ease, wee shall enjoy by infusion, and is an accessa­ry [Page 102] of our Glorification. It is true, assoone as Death hath played the Midwife to our se­cond birth, our Soule shall then see all truths, more free­ly then our corporal eyes at our first birth see all bodies and colours, by the naturall power of it (as I have touch­ed already) and not onely up­on the grounds our Author gi­veth. Yet farre be it from us to thinke that time lost which in the meane season we shall laboriously imploy to warme our selves with blowing a few little Sparkes of that glorious fire which we shall afterwards in one instant leape into the middle of, without danger of [Page 103] Scorching. And that for two important Reasons; (be­sides severall others, too long to mention here) the one, for the great advantage wee have by learning in this life; the other, for the huge content­ment that the acquisition of it here (which implyeth a strong affection to it) will be unto us in the next life. The want of knowledge in our first Mo­ther (which exposed her to bee easily deceived by the Ser­pents cunning) was the roote of all our ensuing Misery and Woe. It is as true (which wee are taught by irrefragable au­thority) that Omnis peccans ig­norat: And the well head of all [Page 104] the Calamties and mischiefes in the world, eonsisteth of the trouble and bitter waters of ignorance, folly and rashnesse; to cure which, the onely reme­dy and antidote, is the salt of true Learning, the bitter Wood of Study, painefull meditation, and orderly confideration. I doe not meane such Study, as armeth wrangling Champions for clamorous Schooles, where the ability of Subtile disputing to and fro, is more prised then the retriving of truth; But such as filleth the mind with solid and usefull notions, and doth not endanger the swelling it up with windy va­nities. Besides the sweetest [Page 105] companion and entertaine­ment of a well tempered mind is to converse familiarly with the naked and bewitching beauties of those Mistresses, those Verities, and Sciences, which by faire courting of them, they gaine and enjoy; & every day bring new fresh ones to their Seraglio; where the ancientest never grow old or stale. Is there any thing so pleasing or so profitable as this?

But now if we consider the advantage we shall have in the [Page 106] other life by our affection to Sciences, and conversation with them in this, it is won­derfull great. Indeed that af­fection is so necessary, as with­out it we shall enjoy little contentment in all the know­ledge we shall then bee reple­nished with: for every ones pleasure in the possession of a good, is to be measured by his precedent Desire of that good; and by the quality of the tast and relish of him that feedeth upon it. Wee should therefore prepare and make our [...]ast before-hand by assue­faction unto, and by often relishing, what we shall then be nourished with. That [Page 107] Englishman that can drinke no­thing but Beere, or Ale, would be ill bestead, were he to goe into Spaine or Italy where no­thing but Wine groweth: whereas a well experienced Goinfre that can criticise upon the severall tasts of liquors, would thinke his Palate in Pa­radise among those delicious Nectars, (to use Aretines phrase upon his eating of a Lamprey.) Who was ever delighted with Tobacco the first time he tooke it? & who could willingly be without it, after hee was a while habituated to the use of it? How many examples are there dayly of young men, that marrying upon their fathers [Page 108] command, not through pre­cedent affections of their own, have little comfort in worthy and handsome wives, that o­thers would passionately ef­fect? Archímedes lost his life for being so ravished with the delight of a Mathematicall de­monstration, that he could not of a suddaine recall his ex­tasied Spirits to attend the rude Souldiers Summons: But in­stead of him, whose minde had beene alwayes sed with such subtile Dyet, how many playne Country Gentlemen doth your Lordship and I know, that rate the know­ledge of their husbandry at a much higher pitch; and are [Page 109] extreamely delighted by con­versing with that; whereas the other would be most tedi­ous and importune to them? We may then safely conclude, that if we will joy in the Knowledge wee shall have after Death, we must in our life time raise within our selves, earnest affections to it, and desires of it: which cannot be barren ones; but will presse upon us to gaine some know­ledge by way of advance here; and the more we attaine unto the more we shall be in Lovè with what remaineth behind. To this reason then adding the other, how knowledge is the surest proppe, and guide [Page 110] of our present life: and how it perfecteth a man in that which constituteth him a man; his Reason; and how it enableth him to read bold­ly, steadily, constantly, and knowingly in all his wayes: And I am confident, All men that shall heare the case thus debated, will joyne with mee in making it a Suit to our Physitian, that hee will keepe his Bookes open, and continue that Progresse he hath so happi­ly begun.

But I believe your Lordship will scarcely joyne with him in his with that wee might procreate and beget Children without the helpe of women [Page 111] or without any conjunction or commerce with that sweete, and bewitching Sex. Plato taxed his fellow Philosopher, (though other wise a learned and brave man) for not sacri­ficing to the Graces; those gentle female goddesses. What thinketh your Lordship of our Physitians bitter censure of that action which Mahomet maketh the essence of his Pa­radise? Indeed besides those his unkindnesses, or rather frowardnesses, at that tender­hearted Sex (which must needes take it ill at his hands) me thinketh he setreth marry­age at too low a rate, which is assuredly the highest and de­vinest [Page 112] linke of humane socie­ty. And where he speaketh of Cupid, and of Beauty, it is in such a phrase, as putteth mee in mind of the Learned Greeke Reader in Cambridge his court­ing of his Mistris out of Ste­phens his Thesaurus.

My next observation upon his discourse draweth me to a Logicall consideration of the nature of an exact Syllogisine: which kind of reflection, though it use to open the doore in the course of Lear­ning and study; yet it will necre shut it in my discourse; which my following the thred that my Author spinneth, as­signeth to this place. If he [Page 113] had well and throughly consi­dered all that is required to that strict way of managing our Reason, he would not have censured Aristotle for condem­ning the fourth figure, out of no other motive, but because it was not consonant to his owne principles; that it would not fit with the founda­tions himself had laid; though it doe with reason, (saith he) and bee consonant to that; which indeed it doth not, at all times and in all Circum­stances. In a perfect Syllogisme the predicate must bee identi­fied with the subject, and each extreame with the middle terme, and so consequently, all [Page 114] three with one another. But in Galens fourth figure the case may so fall out, as these rules will not be current there.

As for the good and excel­lency that he considereth in the worst things; and how farre from solitude, any man is in a wildernesse; These are (in his discourse) but aequivo­call considerations of Good, and of Lonclinesse: nor are they a­ny wayes pertinent to the morality of that part where he treateth of them.

I have much adoe to believe what he speaketh confidently: that hee is more beholding to Morpheus for Learned and rati­onall, [Page 115] as well as pleasing Dreames; then to Mercury for smart and facetious concepti­ons; whom Saturne (it seemeth by his relation) hath looked asquint upon in his geni­ture.

In his concluding Prayer, wherein he summeth up all he wisheth; me thinketh his arrow is not winged with that fire which I should have expected from him upon this occasion; for it is not the peace of Conscience, nor the bridling up of ones affections, that expresseth the highest de­lightfulnes and happiest state of a perfect Christian. It is love onely that can give us Heaven [Page 116] upon earth, as well as in Hea­ven; and bringeth us thither too: so that the Thuscan Virgill had reason to say,

And this love must be im­ployed upon the noblest and highest object; not termina­ted in our friends. But of this transcendent and divine part of Charity that looketh direct­ly and immediately upon God himselfe; and that is the in­trinsecall forme, the utmost perfection, the scope and fi­nall period of true Religion, (this Gentlemans intended Theame; as I conceive) I have [Page 117] no occasion to speak any thing, since my Author doth but transiently mention it; and that too, in such a phrase as ordinary Catechismes speake of it to vulgar capacities.

Thus (my Lord) having run through the booke (God knowes how sleightly, upon so great a suddaine) which your Lordship commanded mee to give you an account of, there remaineth yet a weigh­tier taske upon me to per­forme; which is to excuse my selfe of presumption for da­ring to consider any moles in that face which you had mar­ked for a beauty. But who shall well consider my man­ner [Page 118] of proceeding in these re­markes, will free me from that censure. I offer not at Iudging the prudence and wisedome of this discourse: Those are fit enquiries for your Lordships Court of highest appeale; in my inferi­our one, I meddle onely with little knotty peeces of particu­ler Sciences; (Matinae apis in­star, operosa parvus carmina fin­go) In which it were perad­venture a fault for your Lord­ship to be too well versed; your imployments are of a higher and nobler Straine; and that concerne the welfare of millions of men:

Such little Studies as these, belong onely to those persons that are low in the ranke they hold in the Commonwealth, low in their conceptions, and low in a languishing and iusting leisure, such a one as Virgill calleth Ignobile otium, and such a one as I am now dulled withall. If Alexander or Caesar should have commended a tract of Land, as fit to fight a Battaile in for the Empire of the World, or to build a City upon, to be the Magazine and [Page 120] staple of all the adjacent coun­tries; No body could justly condemne that husbandman, who according to his owne narrow art and rules, should censure the plaines of Arbela, or Pharsalia for being in some places sterile; or the mea­dowes about Alexandria, for being sometimes subject to bee overflowen; or could taxe ought he should say in that kinde for a contadiction unto the others commenda­tions of those places; which are built upon higher, and larger principles. So (my Lord) I am confident I shall not be reproached of unman­nerlinesse for putting in a de­murrer [Page 121] unto a few little par­ticularities in that Noble dis­course which your Lordship gave a generall applause unto; And by doing so, I have given your Lordship the best ac­count I can of my selfe, as well as of your Commands. You hereby see what my en­tertainements are, and how I play away my time,

May your Counsels there bee happy, and successefull ones, to bring about that Peace which if wee bee not quickly blessed withall, a generall ruine threatneth the whole Kingdome. From Winchester [Page 122] house the 22. (I thinke I may lay the 23. for I am sure it is morning, and I thinke it is day) of December. 1642.