cause they are the most noble Comparifons; and as Men had fuppos'd, that these Powers rival'd his Authority, fhewing how he form'd, and order'd the Matter with those Powers in this Heaven, and that they, as it is exprefs'd, did his Will, or obeyed him, anfwered the End of his Revelation more than if he could have fhewed them, that the Ministers or Angels of that Heaven obey'd him ; and from this, when the Scriptures are speaking of the great Actions they perform, 'tis common to mistake them, and alfo the Writings of the Heathens, and take their Names or Defcriptions of the material Powers in this Syftem, which God made his Governours or Deputies, and which the Heathens took for Gods, for God himself, or for his Angels. Though when the Prophets confider them, as fet in Opposition to God, they make them Vanity and nothing. As the antient Fathers, when treating of Religions, historically tell you, that the Figures, &c. which the Heathens accounted facred, and which had moft of them been taken into the Temple of God, were Emblems of Mysteries in Philofophy, Reprefentations of Powers in Nature; but when preaching to the Heathens against those

Powers,

1

1

Powers, as keeping Men from, or fet in Oppofition to Chrift, Devils, and the Emblems, Inftruments of Magick, Trumpery, or &c. Indeed there was always among Men of each Religion, fome, who gave themselves up to the Devil, and he had great Power among the later Heathens But the Religion of the antient Heathens had nothing to do with the Devil, except as it was a Sin, nor with Magick, any other than natural Magick, fore-telling the Courses of the Orbs, and pretending to foretell the Events of Things by the Clouds, Stars, &c. Notwithstanding our learnedly wicked Men, as this Dirt ferves their Turn, endeavour to put it upon us with the Authority of the Fathers literally; and though there cannot be any Bodies here of Sizes at Diftances fo fituated, or of fuch Operations, either in Degree, or in all Circumstances; yet the Globes, the Agents, and the Actions are exprefs'd by Words, which are alfo us'd for Things here, or Things here are compared with them; and there are fome smaller Actions, which, by the Affiftance of those Powers, in fome fort refemble them; fo that Things in another State, and Actions to us invifible, are compared to, and explained by Things and

Actions

Actions in these Heavens, as Things and Actions in these Heavens are explained by Things on the Earth; Things or Actions at greater Distance, lefs familiar, or lefs understood, by those which are nearer, with which we are more familiar, and which, if we apply to, we may underftand. And 'tis a Rule not only in divine Writings, and amongst antient human Writings, but ftill in those of intelligent Men, to compare Things they would illuftrate, to Things which not only resem~ ble them in fome confiderable Points, but to fuch as certainly exift, and are or may be clearly understood. Every Idea we have of God, and every Name or Word we use for one of those Ideas, are taken comparatively, either pofitively or negatively from the Things or Actions of the Things he has created; and they cannot otherwise be exprefs'd or comprehended by us.

This is not a Diminution of God, but the Measure of our Capacity; the Word for the material Heaven is us'd for the immaterial Heaven; the Word for the corruptible Spirit is us'd for the incorruptible Spirit; the Word for the material Light is us'd for the ineffable Light; the future State is reprefented by this System as God emitting Light, and that reflecting

flecting from the Angels, the Bodies of the Saints; their Difference as the Difference among the Stars, the Agility of glorified Bodies, to that of Fire, Light, &c. Nay, though the Actions of the Mind of Man be known to himself, yet the Ideas of them cannot be convey'd to the Knowledge of another, but by comparing them with the Actions of thefe Agents, of or in the Heavens: And as Ifaiah, to fet the Jews right in fome Things, fays, Chap. xl. 18. To whom then will ye liken God? &c. So I may fay of the Celestial Fluids, Powers and Bodies, whereunto shall even the infpired Writers of the Scripture compare them? For though the infinite God be compar'd to thefe Things without any Likeness, but in the Shew of his Power, except that he has contriv'd them, fo as to fupply and fupport themfelves with what feems to us, and will be till he vary them, a perpetual Power of Motion and Action, for the Ends he defign'd them, without any other Law than that of Mechanifm; and as it is made a Minifter to fupport his Creatures, and diffuse Good to them; and being worshipp'd for that, and Attributes given to it, most of them are claim'd by, or afcrib'd to God, and in that Senfe made his Attributes; or as

in

in its three Conditions and Offices it raises the strongest Idea we can have of the Trinity And though the Illustration of the Perfonality, of the Attributes, of the Actions of God above or below are taken from these, and his Juftice and Order from that in this, the Distributions of his Favours from thofe in thefe; yet the Operation about a Spark of Fire reprefents the whole juftly, and fo in real Likeness we may compare thefe Things as they are, properly, with leffer Degrees of the fame Operation.

In fhort, the Hebrew Language was form'd by God, and was adapted to exprefs material Things by Words, which defcribed the Things by the Condition each of them were in, without Paraphrafe or Enlargement, and fo conveyed perfect Ideas of the Things by the Words; and those Words in Scripture which described the Condition of each material Thing, and their Actions, are infallibly chofen and employed for the Mind, its Actions, Spiritual Things and their Actions; and thereby from Things which we could understand, convey'd to us the most perfect Ideas we could have of Things and Actions we could not otherwise underftand. Tho' in truth where a Hebrew

Word