The Forty Questions of the Soul
"When it was near about six, he took leave of his wife and sons, blessed them, and said, Now I go hence into Paradise. He bid his son to turn him about, sighed deeply, and so very meekly and quietly departed from this world."
* * * * *
"When this book was first printed, I endeavoured, by a friend, to present one of them to His Majesty King Charles, that then was, who vouchsafed the perusal of it. About a month after was desired to say what he thought of the book, who answered, that the publisher in English seemed to say of the author, that he was no scholar, and if he were not, he did believe that the Holy Ghost was now in men, but if he were a scholar, it was one of the best inventions that ever he read. I need not add the censure of any other person: knowing none to compare with this, one way or other."
* * * * *
"This author may be easily understood in every thing, by such a
Consideration as this, which followeth.
"This outward world is to the outward man, the best looking-glass to see whatever hath been, is, or shall be in eternity. Our minds, and the cogitations therein, are our best inward looking-glass, to see eternity exactly in: in God are all things, therefore everything hath been in all eternity in God, both unmanifested, and manifested only to himself in himself: but in the world, and in our minds, they are unmanifested and hidden, and also manifest, or capable of being manifested, in their real truth and existence; both as they are uncreaturely in God, and creaturely in all things. Accordingly, one text says, Rom. i. 20, The invisible things of him, that is, his eternal power and Godhead or Deity, are seen by the creation of the world, being considered in his works. And another, Rom. i. 19, says, Whatsoever is possible to be known of God, he hath manifested in man. And {John xvii. 3) it is life eternal to know thee the only true God, and him whom thou has sent, says the Son of God himself, Christ Jesus. The eternal infinite powers, both of light and darkness, in their own immensities in God, have always been the same, and have eternally wrought the same effects, and produced the same substances spiritually, and invisibly to anything but God himself, which they are manifested to do in the invisible inward world of God, spirits, and the minds of men, and in this visible outward world; so that we may truly learn to know him who is all things, in our inward and outward world. All things that are manifested come out from him, and, when they cease to be manifested, they enter into him again, as into their centre, unmanifested. So he is the Cause of all causes, and when we know how he causes anything to be, as it is manifested to be in itself, then we understand the thing, and him that is the cause of it. His works, in all things whatsoever, are good, and cannot cease to be so; but when a creature, to whom he has given the power of the world to come, doth use it otherwise than its true property requires, that only becomes evil in and to the creature, not in God. But God being everywhere present in his total fulness, as himself says, Am not I he that filleth all things? therefore the highest cause of every thing must needs be in the thing itself. The inward heavenly and hellish looking-glass is in all our minds, and outwardly we want not a corporeal looking-glass of whatsoever is eternal to instruct our minds withal. So that if we consider all the works of God in the world, both inwardly and outwardly, we cannot but find and know him, and so know all things in ourselves and in him, and him in ourselves, and in all things else.
"This I thought convenient to hint in brief, as an Introduction of the mind into the centre of all Mysteries.
"JOHN SPARROW.
"Sunday, December 18. 1664."
"When it was near about six, he took leave of his wife and sons, blessed them, and said, Now I go hence into Paradise. He bid his son to turn him about, sighed deeply, and so very meekly and quietly departed from this world."
* * * * *
"When this book was first printed, I endeavoured, by a friend, to present one of them to His Majesty King Charles, that then was, who vouchsafed the perusal of it. About a month after was desired to say what he thought of the book, who answered, that the publisher in English seemed to say of the author, that he was no scholar, and if he were not, he did believe that the Holy Ghost was now in men, but if he were a scholar, it was one of the best inventions that ever he read. I need not add the censure of any other person: knowing none to compare with this, one way or other."
* * * * *
"This author may be easily understood in every thing, by such a
Consideration as this, which follows.
"This outward world is to the outward man, the best looking-glass to see whatever has been, is, or shall be in eternity. Our minds, and the cogitations therein, are our best inward looking-glass, to see eternity exactly in: in God are all things, therefore everything has been in all eternity in God, both unmanifested, and manifested only to himself in himself: but in the world, and in our minds, they are unmanifested and hidden, and also manifest, or capable of being manifested, in their real truth and existence; both as they are uncreaturely in God, and creaturely in all things. Accordingly, one text says, Rom. i. 20, The invisible things of him, that is, his eternal power and Godhead or Deity, are seen by the creation of the world, being considered in his works. And another, Rom. i. 19, says, Whatsoever is possible to be known of God, he has manifested in man. And {John xvii. 3) it is life eternal to know you the only true God, and him whom you has sent, says the Son of God himself, Christ Jesus. The eternal infinite powers, both of light and darkness, in their own immensities in God, have always been the same, and have eternally wrought the same effects, and produced the same substances spiritually, and invisibly to anything but God himself, which they are manifested to do in the invisible inward world of God, spirits, and the minds of men, and in this visible outward world; so that we may truly learn to know him who is all things, in our inward and outward world. All things that are manifested come out from him, and, when they cease to be manifested, they enter into him again, as into their centre, unmanifested. So he is the Cause of all causes, and when we know how he causes anything to be, as it is manifested to be in itself, then we understand the thing, and him that is the cause of it. His works, in all things whatsoever, are good, and cannot cease to be so; but when a creature, to whom he has given the power of the world to come, does use it otherwise than its true property requires, that only becomes evil in and to the creature, not in God. But God being everywhere present in his total fulness, as himself says, Am not I he that fills all things? therefore the highest cause of every thing must needs be in the thing itself. The inward heavenly and hellish looking-glass is in all our minds, and outwardly we want not a corporeal looking-glass of whatsoever is eternal to instruct our minds withal. So that if we consider all the works of God in the world, both inwardly and outwardly, we cannot but find and know him, and so know all things in ourselves and in him, and him in ourselves, and in all things else.
"This I thought convenient to hint in brief, as an Introduction of the mind into the centre of all Mysteries.
"JOHN SPARROW.
"Sunday, December 18. 1664."
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