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which, to wifer Reafons, ferve as luminaries in the abyfs of knowledge, and to judicious beliefs, as fcales and roundles to mount the pinnacles and highest pieces of divinity. The fevere schools fhall never laugh me out of the philofophy of Hermes, that this vifible world is but a picture of the invifible, wherein, as in a pourtrait, things are not truly, but in equivocal fhapes; and as they counterfeit fome more real fubftance in that invifible fabrick.

SECT. XIII.

That other attribute, wherewith I recreate my devotion, is his wifdom, in which I am happy; and for the contemplation of this only, do not repent me that I was bred in the way of study: the advantage I have of the vulgar, with the content and happiness I conceive therein, is an ample recompence for all my endeavours, in what part of know

ledge

ledge foever. Wisdom is his most beauteous attribute; no man can attain unto it, yet Solomon pleased God when he defired it. He is wife because he knows all things, and he knoweth all things because he made them all; but his greatest knowledge is in comprehending what he made not, that is himself. (And this is alfo the greatest knowledge in man. For this do I honour my own profeffion and embrace the counsel even of the Devil himself: had he read fuch a lecture in paradife as he did at Delphos, we had better known ourselves, nor had we stood in fear to know him. I know he is wife in all, wonderful in what we conceive, but far more in what we comprehend not; for we behold him but afquint, upon reflex or fhadow: our understanding is dimmer than Mofes's eye, we are ignorant of the back Parts, or lower fide of his divinity;

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divinity; therefore to pry into the maze of his councils, is not only folly in Man, but prefumption even in angels; like us, they are his fervants, not his fenators; he holds no council, but that myftical one of the trinity, wherein tho' there be three perfons, there is but one mind that decrees, without contradiction; nor needs he any, his actions are not begot with deliberation, his wisdom naturally knows what is best; his intellect stands ready fraught with the superlative and purest ideas of goodness; confultation and election, which are two motions in us, make but one in him; his actions fpringing from his power, at the first touch of his will. These are concontemplations metaphyfical; my humble fpeculations have another method, and are content to trace and difcover thofe expreffions he hath left in his creatures, and the obvious effects of nature; there is

no

no danger to dive into these mysteries, no fanctum fanctorum in philofophy: the world was made to be inhabited by beafts, but studied and contemplated by man: it is the debt of our reafon we owe unto God, and the homage we pay for not being beafts; without this the world is ftill as tho' it had not been, or as it was before the fixth day, when as yet there was not a creature that could conceive, or fay there was a world. The wif dom of God receives fmall honour from thofe vulgar heads, that rudely ftare about, and with a grofs rusticity admire his works; thofe highly magnifie him whofe judicious enquiry into his acts, and deliberate research into his creatures, return the duty of a devout and learned admiration.

Conwast Luke VII. Therefore, with Matth. IVIS

1-9

12,

Therefore,

Search while thou wilt, and let thy reafon go,
To ranfom truth, even to th' abyfs below.
Rally the fcatter'd caufes, and that line
Which nature twifts be able to untwine.
It is thy Maker's will, for unto none,
But unto reafon, can he e're be known.
The devils know thee; but thofe damned meteors
Build not thy glory, but confound thy creatures.
Teach my endeavours fo thy works to read,
That, learning them, in thee I may proceed.
Give thou my reafon that inftructive flight,
Whofe weary wings may on thy hands ftill light.
Teach me to foar aloft, yet ever so,

When near the fun, to stoop again below.
Thus fhall my humble feathers fafely hover,

where

And, tho' near earth, more than the heav'ns discover.
And then at laft, when home-ward I fhall drive,
Rich with the Spoils of nature, to my

hive ;

There will I fit, like that induftrious fly,

Buzzing thy praifes, which shall never die;
Till death abrupts them, and fucceeding glory
Bid me go on in a more lasting story.

And this is almost all wherein an humble creature may endeavour to requite,

E

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