A29699:26
Paradise opened, or, The secrets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom,…Paradice opened, or, The secreets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom,…
Paradise opened, or, The secrets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom, and of wonderful counsel laid open to public view also, the covenant of grace, and the high and glorious transactions of the Father and the Son in the covenant of redemption opened and improved at large, with the resolution of divers important questions and cases concerning both covenants ... : being the second and last part of The golden key / by Thomas Brooks ...Paradice opened, or, The secreets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom, and of wonderful counsel laid open to publick view also, the covenant of grace, and the high and glorious transactions of the Father and the Son in the covenant of redemption opened and improved at large, with the resolution of divers important questions and cases concerning both covenants ... : being the second and last part of The golden key / by Thomas Brooks ...
London: printed for Dorman Newman, 1675
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Dedication: To his honoured Friends, Sir John More, Knight and Alderman of the City of London, and…
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
When curious workmen have some choice piece in hand, they perfect it in private, and then bring it forth to the light, for men to gaze at, so here: The greatest miracle in the World is Man, in whose very body (how much more in his soul) are miracles enow (betwixt head and feet) to fill a volume. One complains, that men much wonder at the high1 mountains of the Earth, the huge waves of the Sea, the deep falls of Rivers, the vastness of the Ocean, and at the motions of the Stars, &c. but wonder not at all at their wonderful selves. Galen, a profane Physician and a great Atheist, writing of the excellent parts of mans body, he could not choose but sing an Hymn to that God, whosoever he were, that was the Author of so excellent and admirable a piece of work; he could not but cry out, Now I adore the God of Nature. Now if the Cabinet be so curiously wrought, what is the Jewel that is contained in it? O how richly and gloriously ⟨image 6⟩is the soul embroidered! How Divinely inlaid and enamelled is that! Princes impress their images or effigies upon the choicest metals, viz. gold and silver: God hath engraven his own Image with his own hand upon2 Angels and Men. The soul is the glory of the Creation, a beam of God, a spark of celestial brightness, a vessel of honour, a bird of Paradise, a habitation for God. The soul is spiritual in its essence, God breathed it in, God hath invested it with many noble endowments, he hath made it a mirror of beauty, and printed upon it a3 surpassing excellency. The soul is spiritual in its object, it contemplates God and Heaven; God is the orb and centre where the soul doth fix, God is the Terminus ad quem, the soul moves to him as to his rest: Return to thy rest, O my soul; this Dove can find no rest but in this heavenly Ark, nothing can fill the soul but God, nothing can quiet the soul but God, nothing can satisfy the soul but God, nothing can secure the soul but God, nothing can save the soul but God: The soul being spiritual God only can be the adequate object of it; The soul is spiritual in its operations, it being immaterial doth not depend upon the body in its working; the rich and rare endowments, and the noble operations of the soul speak out the excellency of the soul.