THE CONCLVSION. 1*7 



rd : what a vaft product then of infinity, ruuft neceflarily be raited, 

 by this multiplying inftant of the foules attaining liberty, in a well 

 moulded foule ; infinitly beyond that perfection , which the foule 

 of an infant dying before it be borne, arriveth unto ? And*yet wee 

 have determined that to bee in a manner infinite. Here onr skill of 

 Arithmeticke and proportions fayleth us. Herewe find infinite cx- 

 ctiTe, over what we alfo know to bee infinite. How this can bee the 

 feeble eyes of our limited underftanding, are too dull to penetrate 

 into: but that it is (b, we are fu re: the rigour of difcourfe, com/in- 

 ceth and necefTirily concludeth it. Thit affureth us, that fince eve- 

 ry impreflion upon the foule, while it is in its body , maketh a 

 change in it ; were there no others made, but meerely the iterating 

 of thofeac*b, which brought it from ignorance to knowledge; that 

 foulej upon which a hundred of thofe afts had wrought, muft have 

 a hundred degrees of advantage over an other, upon which onely 

 one had beaten ; though by that one, it had acquired perfeft know- 

 ledge of that thing : and then in the reparation, thefe hundred de- 

 grees, being each of them infinitely multiplyed,how infinitely muft 

 fuch a foule exceed in that pa rticular, (though wee know not ho w ) 

 the knowledge of the other foule ; which though it be perfect in its 

 kind, yet had but one a& to forge it out > When we arrive to under- 

 ftand thedifference of knowledge, betweene the fuperiourand in- 

 feriour rankes of intelligences 5 among whom, the loweft knoweth 

 as much as the highft ; and yet the knowledge of the higheft, is in 

 finitely more perfect and admirable.then the knowledge of his infe- 

 riours : then, and not before, we (hall throughly comprehend this 

 my ftery. Tn the meane time, it is enough for us, that we are fare, that 

 thusitfaircth with foules : and that by how much the excellency 

 and perfection of an all-knowing and all comprehending foule, 

 delivered out of the body of a wretched embryon > is above the vi!e- 

 nefle of that heavielumpeof fiem, it lately qulted in his mothers 

 wombe ; even by fo much, and according to the fame proportion, 

 muft theexcdlencyof a compleate foule ( compleated in its body ) 

 be in a pitch above the adorable majeftyj wifedome,and augaftnefle, 

 of the greatcft and moft admired oracle in the world, living embo- 

 dyed in flelh and bloud. Which as ic is in a beigfft , and cminency 

 over (uch an excellent and admirable man, infinitely beyond the ex- 

 celfe of fuch a man, over that filly lumpe of fleflh, which compofeth 

 the moft contemptible idiote or cmbry on; fo like wife, is the cx- 



