thoughts or envious malitious thoughts or they be thoughts of gluttony and excess or thoughts of lust and carnal concupiscence or the like Let the mind and Memory be replenished with such pious Meditations and holy Contemplations the thoughts of the World will find no admittance Intus existens prohibet alienum where the strong man armed keeps the house the enemy dares not enter and whilst the soul is armed with the commemoration of Gods blessing it will not open the door to the temptations of Satan or lust of the Flesh but say with Joseph Behold my Master hath committed all into my hands and there is none greater in this house than I neither hath he kept any thing from me but thee Gen. 39.8 9. how then shall I doe this great wickedness and sin against God Praise then the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits which forgiveth all thy sin and healeth all thine infirmities call to mind the loving kindness of the Lord and have them in everlasting remembrance exercise thy Memory with such heavenly meditations as may build thee up unto eternal life for this will be thy companion for ever whether in weal or in wo it dieth not with the body but is immortal as thou thy self the rest of the faculties may sleep for a while with the body but this survives to perpetuity This is that Intellectual Memory or Recordation which none but reasonable creatures enjoy which is not diminished by the bodies death but infinitely inlarged when all the thoughts words and deeds done in the flesh shall immediately in a wonderfull manner come into remembrance the secrets of all hearts shall then be disclosed and all such thoughts words and actions which in life time were slipt out of mind shall come again into fresh remembrance with a Conscience Chap. 8. Book 1. a Book which that day shall be opened a Book of Mans life upon Earth an account of Mans workes where they that have done well shall go into life everlasting but they that have done evill into everlasting fire Which Recordation or Intellectual memory if the Saints in Heaven whose bodies yet sleep in the grave had not how should they sing misericordias domini in aeternum the loving kindness of the Lord for ever as the Prophet David hath it which Psalm and Song saith St. Augustine made for the glory of the mercies of Christ by whose blood wee are redeemed the Saints do joyfully sing in Heaven Of which Memorative facul y more shall be said hereafter CHAP. VIII Of the Appetitive faculty and the Motive to a place WEE have done with those Sensitive faculties External and Internal which have power of Judgement Knowledge and Discerning we come now to those which have not this power in themselves but are guided by the Counsell and advice of others being moved by the Object good or evill according as Phantasie or Reason presents it the Phantasie imagineth it good the Appetite is streight moved to desire it This faculty is twofold viz. Appetitive and Motive to a place The Locall Motive Faculty is a power of the Soul moving the living creature from place to place to follow that which the Appetite coveteth as good or to shunne what it lottheth as hurtful so that this Motive faculty is but an effect of the Appetitive and necessarily follows it as the Effect doth the Cause for where the Appetitive facultie is to desire good or shun evill there must needs be this Motive also from place to place otherwise the Appetitive should be given us in vain had we not this Motive faculty to seek after that wee desire as good and pleasant and to avoid what wee conceive to be hurtful unto us Aristotle I grant adds another cause of this Motion besides Appetite to wit Intellect and under Intellect he comprehends Sense to wit Phantasie for what ever is desired or shunned is under the notion of good or evill so desired or lothed now this knowledge must either be from Reason or Phantasie for there is no knowledge but is either Sensitive or Intellectual therefore must Intellect which includes Phantasie be another cause of Motion Vide Suarez de metaphys disp 35. Sect. 5. part 15. fol. 172. neither do I intend to exclude Phantasie and Reason from being a cause for when I mention Appetite onely as the cause I do it partly because Appetite is the chief Phantasie and Intellect are but subordinate causes and partly because I take Appetite here in the largest sense as comprehending Phantasie and Reason for Appetite in general is both Sensitive and Intellectual as shall be said hereafter so this Motive faculty being but an effect of Appetite we shall be the briefer in it and insist more largely upon the cause the knowledge wherof will necessarily conduce to the knowledge of the effect Appetite is a natural desire of the Soule by which the living creature for the cause of preservation is moved either to desire that which Sense judgeth as good or to loth that which it apprehendeth evill and hurtfull so that Appetite is a necessary concomitant of Sense and follows her close for where there is Sense there is sorrow and pleasure and where these are there must be Appetite There is a twofold Operation of Sense one whereby it perceives its Object as the eye beholds colour which is the first and simple Operation of Sense the other whereby upon the preception and apprehension of the Object the Sense is affected with sorrow or pleasure this is the second and in a sort a mixt Operation in as much as with the Object is joyned sorrow or pleasure and to these are joyned Appetite and flight for things pleasant we desire after and things grievous we flie from but this last Operation belongs to Common Sense not to any of the External to perceive good under the notion of good or evill under the notion of evill and accordingly to be affected therewith is the Operation of the Internal not External Senses therefore it is this Common Sense to which the Appetite is so nearly related that Aristotle saith they differ not re nor yet in subjecto but onely ratione not re for they have no distinct being but one and the same essence nor yet subjecto they have one and the same subject for the seat of Appetite is where the Internal Sense is seated to wit in the brain this is to be understood of that Appetite which is called Sensitive and is common to man and brutes But there are three kinds of Appetite according to Arist Appetite is divided into Lust Anger and Will Lust is in that faculty which is called Concupiscible Anger in that which is called Irascible and Will in that is called Intellectual Lust and Anger follow the judgement of Sense for what Sense judgeth pleasant and good Lust desireth and what Sense judgeth grievous the Irascible faculty rejecteth and these are in brutes as well as in man but Will followeth
right line he bended into an Orb or Globe consisting like numbers of Parity and Imparity Indentity and Diversity This reflex line of the Worlds Soul was in respect of its circular motion upon the Axle-tree of the World The reflex line of the Humane Soul was that Operation whereby reflecting upon it self it knew it self And this reflex line of the Soul of the World and of Man had in her Indentity and Diversity The Indentity of the Worlds Soul was in respect of the Eighth Sphaer which the antient Philosophers called the primum mobile for this Sphaer with one uniform motion is moved from East to VVest The Diversity consisted in the motion of the seaven Planets in their several Sphaers So the Soul of Man had its Indentity and Diversity Indentity in respect of its Speculative Intellectual faculty which is divine Diversity in respect of its inferior faculties Furthermore this Circular and Caelestial line of the VVorld he divided into two Circles viz. the Eighth Sphaer which is by him and the Antients called primum mobile and moves from East to VVest and the Sphaer of the Planets which moves in a contrary motion to the Eighth Sphaer viz from VVest to East and these two Sphaers are said to bee conjoyned by two points of the Axle-tree cuting through them viz. two Equinoctial points Again the other Circle viz that which moves from West to East he subdivided into seaven Circles of seaven Planets to all which he resembled the Soul of Man which is one essence and as it were one Caelestial Sphaer and is divided into the Intellectual faculty answering in analogy to the primum mobile or Eighth Sphaer and the Irrational faculty answering in similitude to the Sphaer of the Planets for this faculty is opposite and contrary to the Intellectual and moves contrary to it as the Planets do in a Counter-motion to the Eighth Sphaer and as in the Heavens the second Circle is subdivided into seaven Planets so doth Plato in his Timaeus subdivide the Irrational faculty of the Soul into seaven faculties viz. the particular or External Sense Common Sense Phantasie Memory the Cogitative Concupiscible and Irascible faculty As for example α β. Is the Axle-tree of the World γ δ. The Axle-tree of the Zodiak And thus would Timaeus prove the Soul of Man to know it self by Reflexion or Inspection into it self which though it may be true in a sense yet we are not to imagine such an Inspection or Intuitive Vision of it self in-this life as the Angells and separated Souls have of themselves for this knowledge agreeth not with the state of the Soul as long as it is joyned with this Body being hindred of the free and perfect exercise of those Actions which are Common and Essential to it and the separated Souls whilst in this body of flesh no more than the knowledge which now it ordinarily exerciseth agreeth with the state of the Soul departed and separated from the Body And though idem est intellectus quod intelligitur scientia scibile yet are wee not to conceipt an Indentity of Essence betwixt the Understanding and the Object Understood there is not such a Conformity twixt them in Essence but in Representation The Form and similitude is there the Intellect receives the species of things onely and therefore is it called forma formarum intelligibilium and so there comes an Identity not of Essence but of Proportion and Form Thus the Soul knoweth it self in this life non per essentionā by its own substance but per speciem and without this species the Soul knoweth not it self in this life though it needeth no Intelligible Forms to know its self by after this life but knoweth it self as other separated substances do themselves by their own substance and not by Form Neither is this Intelligible Form innate and ingendred ogether with the Nature and Essence of the Soul as those Forms whereby Angels and Souls departed know one another are as hereafter wee shall shew but Imprinted in the Understanding from some Object Sensible conveid to the Phantasie from the Phantasie by the Operation of the intellectus agens to our Patient Intellect where of Sensible they are made Intelligible Forms so from Sensible Objects are produced Intelligible Forms and without Sense no Intelligence this in the ordinary way and manner of the Souls Operation in this life we have no knowledge no not of Immaterial and Insensible Essences as of God or of our own Souls but is in a sort deduced from Sense for although some things are not sensible in themselves yet they may be sensible in their parts as a Golden Mountain which wee never saw but Phansie or in their similitude and Portraiture as men absent or dead are known by their Pictures or by their opposites as darkness by light coldness by heat or by their efects as God our own Soul and the Vertue and Operation of natural things which are all hidden to Sense but known unto us by their Effects So God and our own Souls are known to us by their Effects and Operations whereby may be inferred that all our knowledge yea our Metaphysical knowledge of abstracted and Immaterial substances do spring from Sense and so the Contemplative Intellect neither immixt nor inseparable from bodily Organs but Organical and depending on Sense contradictory to what hath before been affirmed To which I answer although it may be said that Immaterial and Intelligible Forms are drawn in a sort from Sense yet it is to be noted that Immaterial things do otherwise depend on Sense than things Material do for although our Intellect takes its principles from Sense by which it is brought to the knowledge of God arguing from the Effect to the Cause as Aristotle argues where from the Effect he proves the First mover to be Eternal Immaterial Infinite although I say our Intellect may know God to be insensible and Immaterial even from Sensible and material Effects which is its usual manner and way whereby it attaineth to knowledge here whilst in the body yet it undoubtedly not onely knows those principles and Effects which are subject to Sense and Phantasie but even God himself without any help of Phantasie or Sensible representation Even so although the Soul of Man doth come to the knowledge of it self by the Effects and Operations which it hath found in it self and so of Sensible are produced Intelligible Forms yet is not the Soul dependent of the body either in respect of Organ or Object but these Forms are illustrated and made Intelligible by Vertue of the Agent Intellect and though Phantasie be made Instrumental yet not so necessarily but that this Intellectual faculty may operate without the concurrence of Sensible objects Intelligible Forms may be imprinted in the Understanding though no Phantasm appear and many times through a vehement application of the Understanding to Contemplation the concourse of Phantasie is weakned yea sometimes though rarely altogether hindred as those Holy Men
attributes we know which are not Proper to them but Common with other things as that they are essences entia realia perse existentia substances not accidences that they are Incorporeal Immaterial Intellectual Incorruptible spirits of a finite power and perfection all this hath been found out by the strength of natural Reason heathen Philosophers have taught it and Aristotle writes a whole Book de deo intelligâ—ntiis abstractis wherein he acknowledgeth them to be entia realia for asmuch as he grants them a being in nature Substances for as much as they are per se existentes not inhaering like accidences in any Material or Immaterial entity if then Substance not Material nor Inhaering they must be Incorporeal and Immaterial and if Immaterial then Intellectual as hath been said whence cometh their name Intelligenâ—ae which is attributed to these spiritual essences by the heathen Philosophers and that they are finite in power and perfection their creation is an argument for no created substance is infinite but created they are and all of them though not all alike in a necessary and an Essential order among themselves depending one upon another and all upon one as head which is God whom Aristotle calls intelligentia prima And thus much of the Nature and Essences of Angells and Separated Souls by the light of Nature what they are now of their Operations what they do The power of Angells and Souls abstracted Of the power of Angels Forms abstracted in their unstanding is seen in three things viz. in their Understanding in their Will and in their External Actions and Operations as for the power of their Understanding for as much as wee have proved them to be Intelligences Immaterial and of an Intellectual Nature it must needs follow they have in them the Act and Operation of knowledge and this in a far more eminent manner than any Rational Soul in this life by it Natural strength can attain unto wee shall first speak of the Act and manner of knowing themselves then of their Act and manner of knowing others The faculty of knowing themselves Every created Intellectual spirit hath this power to know it self which is not difficult to demonstrate by Natural Reason since every Intellectual Spirit is of it own nature Intelligible yea of it self actually Intelligible and a proportionate Object to any Understanding much more to it own therefore doth e-Intellectual Spirit actually know it self yea with an Intuitive Quidditative and Comprehensible knowledge know it self and is known by it self And how The manner of knowledge which it hath of it self is not as ours in this life per species impressas by Intelligible Forms imprinted of some outward Object nor as it knows other things per species congenitas innatas but it knows it self per propriam subst antiam by its own substance It needs no Accidental Form to represent it self by but every spiritual substance knows it self by its own substance as an Adaequate and proportionate Intelligible Object closely conjoyned to it own Understanding this is the way of knowing themselves God is known by all Intellectual Spirits after the same manner they know themselves by their own Substance Their power of knowing God and how and God by it as their Cause Principle and Author no other Spiritual or Corporeal substance is known this way save onely God yet is not this knowledge God of a proper Quiditative adn Comprehensive but an Improper Imperfect and confused Science for God cannot properly be known as he is in himself of any creature either by his Substance or proper Form who is Incomprehensible by any finite Power much less perfectly known by the proper substance of any Intellectual creature which is but a very imperfect Analogical representation of the Divine Nature Therefore when it is said God is known by the proper substance of any creature it is not to be understood of such a Quidditative knowledge whereby he is known as he is in himself but a knowledge of God per substantiam tanqnam per effectum as the Cause is known by the Effect and thus the Angelical Natures know God by their substance yet as the Effect of such a Cause which standeth with very good Reason for if here we may attain to the knowledge of God in this life by Effects if the invisible things of him from the creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead much more and in a more eminent manner may Angelical Spirits and Separated substances know God by their own Substances as by Effects for as they know their own substances so must they know them to be Effects necessarily and Essentially depending upon God and so by their own Substance as by the noblest Effect made after the Image and likeness of God may they Naturally attain to the knowledge of their Maker Of their knowing others and how But the knowledge which Angels and separated substances have one of another and of other inferior creatures is after another manner not per substantiam but per speciem by Intelligible Forms nor are these Forms imprinted by any outward Object presented to the Senses and so to the Phantasie but are Innate Connatural and ingendred together with their Nature and altogether Intelligible The difference twixt Sensitive Rational and meer intellectual knowledge True it is the Sensitive knowledge is per speciem as well as the Intellectual but perfecter the Intellectual than the Sensitive and the Angelical perfecter than the Humane the Sensitive creatures know nothing but per species and those of Objects singular it knoweth nothing of Universals the Intellectual know per species too but by those he understandeth Universals as well as Singulars all à genere generalissimo ad infimam speciem as for example when we conceive in our mind Substance which is the highest Genus in the Scale of the Predicaments and understand it aright we understand also all its Species under it the whole with all its parts so the Intellectual creatures know per speciem but such as represents some Universal Nature with all its Singulars the Genus with its Species the whole with its parts thus the Intellectual creatures excel the Sensitive in the manner of knowing per speciem And as the Intellectual excel the Sensitive so do they differ in excellencie among themselves the Humane from the Angelical and abstracted Intelligences and these one from another the Separated substances know that at once unico intuitu by one and the same Form which we cannot but by many several Forms running over the Cause with its Effects the Universal Nature with its Singulars with one simple aspect and apprehension which we cannot but under many and divers Conceptions and notions And thus much touching the Operation of the Angelical Intellect Now of their Will and Freedom Where there is Knowledge there is Desire and Appetite where there is no
Man cannot fight with his enemies in Mind and Will onely but stands in need of Hands Weapons and the like but an Angel by the sole power of his Spirit and Will without either Hands or Armes can both fight against and also overcome a whole Host of Armed-men so an Angel in one night slew of the Assyrians one hundred eighty and five thousand Again Man by the Art of Painting and Engraving may make such an Image of Man so lively represented that it may seem to live and breath yet not without great paines and labour but an Angel without any paines without Hands without Instruments can even in an instant as it were so frame a Body of Elements that it shall be taken for a true humane Body of very wise Men such a Body as can Walk Speak Eat Drink yea may be touched handled and washed Thus Abraham prepared Meat for Angels and washed their Feet as th' Apostle hath it entertaning Angels unawares supposing they had been Men the same which happened to his Nephew Lot when he received two Angels into his house for Men as strangers and Travellers so the Angel Raphael for many dayes together dwelt and was conversant with Tobia the yonger Walking Talking and Eating and Drinking as if he were truly Man and yet when he was to leave him said I seemed to Eat and Drink with you but I use invisible Meat and Drink and so vanisht suddainly out of their sight a great power certainly and an admirable so quickly to make a Body as shall not be discerned to differ from a humane and living Body in any thing and the same again to dissolve in a trice as oft as it pleaseth him Again the Soul of Man is so closely conjoyn'd to the Body that without it the Soul cannot move from place to place but God hath not so tied a Body to Angelical natures but without a Body they may most swiftly pass from Heaven to earth from earth to Heaven again or whither also they please Thus as the Angelical Nature is next unto God in Dignity so doth it resemble Gods Omnipresence in Subtilty and Agility God is every where by the infinity of of his being and needs no local motion since he is every where Angels also do pass in so easie and swift a motion from place to place and have their Presence in all places as in a sort they may be said to be ubiquitary The number of these Angels are uncertain not revealed in the Word of God but without doubt so many as cannot well be comprised in the Art of Enumeration millions of millions ministring unto God and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him whereupon Dionysius and with him Aquinas do conclude that the number of Angels are more than are the number of all corporeall substances whatsoever and although their number be so infinite yet they do every one differ amongst themselves not onely in individuall number but also in specificall form Yet for all this number almost infinite they are reduced into nine Ranks and Orders under some of which every of them are comprehended The first and highest Order is that of the Seraphims secondly Cherubins thirdly Thrones fourthly Dominions fifthly Principalities sixthly Powers seventhly Vertues eightly Archangels and the ninth and last Angels of all which Names we read in the holy Scriptures by which their severall Offices Degrees and Orders are dignified and distinguisht Chap. 4. Book 2. Wherefore else serve these different Names if they signified nothing but sure there is a difference twixt Angels and Archangels in degree then why not twixt the rest quid ergo sibi vult gradualis distinctio haec saith St. Bernard upon the same subject But Dionysius makes but three Orders of all putting three in every Order so making a ternary of Trinities alluding to the Sacred Trinity viz. Three Superior three middle and three inferior Orders The highest Orders are the Seraphim Cherubin and Thrones The midlemost Orders are the Dominions Principalities and Powers The lowermost are the Vertues Archangel and Angel but of this enough is said CHAP. IV. Of the Knowledge we have of God and his Attributes THat which may be known of God by the strength of naturall reason is drawn from the Works of his Creation for as the Cause is known by the Effects so is the Creator by the Creature the Physical Science of Causes and Effects here below brings us to a Metaphysical Knowledge of the cause of all causes even God above whose Deity may be seen in every place omnia sunt deâ—rum plena was the saying of Thales Milesius an antient Philosopher thus cited by Aristotle Lib. 1. De anima and thus said the Poets of old Jovis omnia plena paersentem que refert quaelibet herba deuÌ„ not the meanest of the Creatures but manifest a God-head The Philosophers therefore excepting the Epicureans who held that this great spacious universe was nothing else but Theatrum caeco atomorum confluxu genitum searching out the causes of things and finding a concatenation of them in an orderly dependance one upon another Simplicius Philoponus Ammonius Averrores aliique multi viri illustres neque numero pauciores nec autoritate inferiores iis qui de sipere maluerint mundum à deo ut causa efficiente pendere affirmant Scaliger and a necessary conjunction of every of them with their Effects ne daretur progressus in infinitum vel circulus committendus an absurdity in Nature which otherwise they would run into were forced to acknowledge one Supreme cause of all things which was God Plato Aristotle Galen and others from hence do prove that there is a God The quod sit is thus proved the quid sit may from thence also be concluded for when we look upon the Fabrick of Heaven and Earth wee may see the Greatness and Power of God when we behold the Governance and Guidance of all in so great a Beauty Order and Distinction of all things we may judge of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God when we consider the commodity profit and Use of all things we may experience the goodness and Love of God and so we may come to know God in his Predicates and Attributes viz. that he is Ens Actus Substantia Vivens Aeternus Justus Sapiens c. Yea under such conceptions and notions as are only proper and essential to God not agreeing with any other may God be apprehended by us in this Metaphysical Science viz. that he is Ens infinitum simpliciter that he is Actus purus causa prima primus motor immobilis c. And so we come to the knowledge of God quodsit and quid sit both that he is and what he is Yet is not this knowledge comprehensive of him these Motions of Gods Essentiall Attributes though Proper to him and Communicative to none beside are not quidditative an infinite Essence cannot so be comprehended within the Sphaer of a Finite
the Devill yet the perfection of the picture is to be drawn like to that Pattern and therefore though the deformity in the Pattern be truely its deformity yet the deformity in the Picture is its beauty But if the Pattern it self be beautiful the Picture then is most exact and perfect if it imitate in its beauty as near as may be the beauty of its Pattern and if every Picture had understanding it would desire nothing more than continually to contemplate its Pattern to frame it self to its imitation and to be made conformato it God thy Pattern O my Soul is infinite beauty a light in Which is no â—aâ—kness at all whose brightness the Sun and Moon admireâ— whose brightness that thou maist with â—ore ease imitate his similitude desire and by all means endeavour in which consisteth all thy perfection Profit Honor Joy Rest and all thy goodâ— Know â—hat the beauty of God thy Patterâ— consisteth in Wisdom and Holiness for as the beauty of the Body ariseth from the due proportion of the Members and pleasantness of Colour so in this spiritual Essence the suavity of Colour is in the light of Wisedom the proportion of Members is in justice But by justice is not meant any one particular Vertue but that general which contains in it all the rest that spiritual substance is the fairest whose mind shines with the light of Wisdom and whose Will is replenisht with perfect justice Now God thy Pattern O my Soul is Wisdom it self Justice itself and therefore is perfect beauty and because these two are in Scripture expressed by the name of Holiness threfore do the Angels crie on Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth Isaith 6. Levit. 11. Math. 6. and God himself cries out to us his Image and likeness be yee holy for I your God am holy and Christ in the Gospel be you perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect Therefore O my Soul if thou the Image of God desire to be made like thy exemplar thou must prefer Wisdom and Justice before all things True Wisdom is to judge of all things according to the highest Cause the highest Cause I call the Will of God or the Law which reveals the same to men therefore if thou love Wisdom thou must not regard what the Law of the flesh dictateth what Sense judgeth good what the World allows what kindred perswade much less what flatterers propound but turn thy deaf ear to these and onely harken to the Will of the Lord thy God judging and esteeming that the most profitable most glorious and most desirable good which is most agreeable to the Will and Law of God This is the Wisdom of the Saints of which the wise Man Writes Wisdom 7.10 11. I loved her before health and beauty and chose to have her in stead of light for the light that cometh from her never goeth out All good things together came to me with her and innumerable riches in her hands Furthermore Justice which is the other part of spiritual beauty comprehends all these Vertues which do adorn and perfect the Will but principally Charity which is the Mother and root of all Vertues and of which Saint Augustine saith De natura gratia cap. 70. Charity begun is Justice begun Charirty continued is Justice continued Charity perfected is Justice perfected for who so hath loved hath fulfilled the Law for love worketh no evill Chap. 3. Book 2. therefore love is the fulfilling of Law as the Apostle teacheth and contrariwise he that keeps Gods Word and Commandements Rom. 13. the love of God is perfect in this saith St. John therefore whosoever would be like unto this Divine pattern must obey him saying be ye followers of God as dear Children walk in love for the Son is the Image of his Father now the whole beauty and perfection of the Image is as we have formerly said to be most like the pattern See Bellarm. de ascensione mentis in deum per scalas rerum creaturarum gradu primo CHAP. III. Of the knowledge which the Soul hath of Angels and Saints departed THE state and condition of the Humane Soul is twofold and so hath two several waies of Operation two waies of acquiring knowledge one in the body Natural in this life another out of this body in another life The Operation of the Soul in this life is per corpus which is an impediment and let unto it that it cannot exercise as to all points those other Actions and Operations which are Common to it and separated substances so fully and freely as it doth out of the body So must the knowledge of the Soul in this life especially of Immaterial substances be more imperfect and uncertain by how much more it useth the body For Immateriality is the cause in knowledge and according to the degree of Immateriality is the degree to knowledge therefore as God is said in be summè Immaterialis so is he summè cognoscitivus whereas on the contrary wee see by common experience by how much more any thing recedes from Immateriality the less doth it partake of knowledge as all Corporeal Inanimate substances for their overmuch Materiality have no knowledge at all but your animalia sensitiva Sensitive Souls participate of a certain kind of knowledge because they have some power over their matter and in some measure are capable of Forms without matter and this knowledge is called Sensitive now the Reasonable creatures higher than they have attained to a degree of Intelligence their knowledge is called Intellectual because though their Souls inform the matter they may notwithstanding subsist without the matter so clear it is by how much more the Reasonable Soul in this life stands in need of the body by so much is it less knowing but by how much more freed from the body overcoming the imperfection of matter by so much the more Operative by so much the more Knowing But because the Soul of Man so long as it is in this body cannot exercise all its Operations out of the body therefore the Operation knowledge of the Soul in this life of Spiritual and Immaterial substances especially cannot be so full and perfect as it is out of the body in another life First therefore of the knowledge wee have of Saints and Angells in this life We have no Quidditative knowledge as the Schoolmen call it of abstracted forms essences in this life that is such a knowledge as to define them not onely with their Common but their Proper names also even to the last specficial difference which is the proper and positive knowledge of them such a knowledge we have not which was a question started by Aristotle but not assoiled but a Quidditative knowledge improperly so called to wit a confused knowledge of some Essential predicates but not of all and those too by Imperfect notions partly Common partly Privative or Negative not Proper or Positive such we have Some Essential