Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n
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A04194
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A treatise of the divine essence and attributes. By Thomas Iackson Doctor in Divinitie, chaplaine to his Majestie in ordinary, and vicar of S. Nicolas Church in the towne of Newcastle upon Tyne. The first part; Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed. Book 6
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Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640.
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1629
(1629)
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STC 14318; ESTC S107492
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378,415
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670
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any branch of goodnesse or perfection This is the first foundation of our Faith layd by his onely Sonne Aske and it shall be given unto you seeke and ye shall finde knocke and it shall be opened unto you For every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened Or what man is there of you whom if his sonne aske bread will he give him a stone Or if he aske a fish will hee give him a serpent Math. 7◠vers 7 8 9 10. Every Father that heard Him would have beene ready to have answered no yet none so ready or carefull as they should be to give or provide best things for their children because all besides him are evill Fathers If ye then being evill know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that aske him ver 11. Hee is then so much more willing to give good things to his children as he is better or greater than other Parents His love to all men seeing all are his sonnes by a more peculiar reference than Abraham was Adams or Isaac Abrahams is infinitely greater than any Parents beare to the fruits of their bodies Mortall fathers love children when they have them but love to themselves or want of means to immortalize their owne persons makes them desire to have children The onely wise immortall God who is all-sufficient to all most to himselfe unacquainted with want of whatsoever can bee desired out of the abundance of his free bounty and meere loving kindnesse did first desire our being and having given it us doth much more love us after we are instamped with his Image For he sowes not wheate to reape tares nor did he inspire man with the breath of life that he might bring forth death 3 The Heathens conceived this title of Father as too narrow for fully comprehending all references of loving kindnesse betwixt their great Iupiter and other Demigods or men Iupiter omnipotens regum rex ipse Deusque Progenitor genitrixque Deum Deus unus omnis And another Poet Iupiter mas est nescia faemina mortis And because the affection of mothers especially to their young and tender Ones is most tender the true Almighty hath deigned to exemplifie his tender mercy and compassion towards Israel as David did Ionathans love towards him far surpassing the love of women yea of mothers to their children Sion had said the Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten mee But her Lord replyes Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Esay 49. ver 15. And if his love could sufficiently bee expressed by these dearest references amongst men whose naturall affection towards their tender brood in respect of meaner creatures is much abated by wrong use of reason as many mothers by greatnesse of place or curiosity of education are lesse compassionate towards their children then other silly women are he hath chosen the most affectionate female amongst reasonlesse creatures to blazon his tender care and loving protection over ill-deserving children How often would I have gathered thy children together even as a Hen gathereth her chickens under her wings Math. 23. ver 37. Finally as he gives much more to our being than our earthly Parents whom we suppose to give us being so all the sweet fruits or comforts of love whether of fathers and mothers towards their children of husbands towards their wives or of brethren to brethren sisters to sisters or one friend to another their sinfulnesse onely excepted are but distillations or infusions of his infinite love to our nature To witnesse this truth unto us the son of God was made both father and brother and husband to our nature c. Every reference or kinde office whereof reasonable creatures are mutually capable every other creature though voyd of reason so not voyd of love and naturall affection may expresse some part of our heavenly Fathers loving kindnesse but the love of all though infinitely increased in every particular and afterwards made up in one could no way equalize his love towards every particular soule created by him Feare of death or other danger hath such joynt interest with love as well in the heart of man as in other creatures that albeit they would doe more for their yong ones than they doe if they could yet they doe not usually so much as they might not so much for their model of wit or strength as God for his part though infinite in wisedome power doth for the sonnes of men He that feareth none but is feared of al he that needs no Counsellor but hath the heart of Prince and Counsellor in his hand makes protestation in his serious griefe that he hath done all for his unfruitfull vineyard that he could as much as possibly could be done for it Or if his serious protestations cannot deserve credit with deceitfull man his solemne oath is witnesse of greater love than hath beene mentioned of greater than the heart of man is able to conceive even towards such as all their life time have hated Him As I live saith the Lord I will not the death of him that dyes If besides the authority of these and infinite more sacred texts most perspicuous in themselves the interpretation of the Church be required for establishing of the doctrine delivered the whole ancient Church some peeces of Saint Austine onely excepted which may bee counterpoyzed with other parts of the same Fathers writings is ready to give joynt verdict for us And whether the restrictions which some reformed Churches have endeavoured to lay upon Gods promises be compatible with the doctrine of the English Church comes in the next place to be examined CHAP. 15. What the Church of England doth teach concerning the extent of Gods love of the distinction of singula generum and genera singulorum of the distinction of voluntas signi and voluntas beneplaciti 1_WHat middle course soever the Church of England doth hold or may take for compromising contentions betweene some other reformed Churches in points of Election and Reprobation of free wil or mans ability before the state of regeneratiō She doth not in her publike and authorized doctrine come short of any Church this day extant in the extent of Gods unspeakable love to mankind No nationall Councell though assembled for that purpose could fit their doctrine more expresly to meet with all the late restrictions of Gods love than the Church our mother even from the beginning of reformation hath done as if she had then foreseene a necessity of declaring her judgement in this point for preventing schismes or distraction in opinions amongst her sonnes First she injoynes us to beseech God to have mercy upon all men This was the practice of the Ancient Church which in
A TREATISE OF THE DIVINE ESSENCE AND ATTRIBVTES BY THOMAS IACKSON Doctor in Divinitie Chaplaine to his Majestie in ordinary and Vicar of S. Nicolas Church in the Towne of Newcastle upon Tyne The first part LONDON Printed by M. F. for Iohn Clarke and are to be sold at his shop under St. Peters Church in Cornhill 1628. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE AND TRVLY noble WILLIAM Earle of Penbrooke Lord high Steward of his Majesties Houshold Knight of the most noble Order of the Gaâ—ter and Chancellor of the Vniversity of Oxon The blessings of this life and of the life to come be multiplied HAd the consciousnesse of my weaknesse left any place for expectation that my poore Labours should have found such benigne acceptaÌ„ce with men of higher place and judgement as by the report of Honourable personages and mine owne late experience of your noble favours some of them I now perceive have found with your Honour these present papers had come to crave your patronage in a better dresse than now they doe Besides the consciousnesse of my inabilities to please the acurate judgements of this age want of opportunities for these many yeares to give my selfe that contentment which I was once bold to promise unto my selfe had almost deterred me from publishing any part of my former labours which were not popular and for the Pulpit of which ranke this present Treatise is not The subject or matter of it is Academicall and was conceived in that famous Nurserie of all good literature which for these many yeares hath flourished and many more may it flourish under your Honorable patronage If either these or other of my Labours of the like argument which tooke their first being from the benignity of that soile may finde acceptance with your Lordship I shall need no other Apologie for publishing them beside my unfaigned desire to leave the Christian world a testimonie of that high esteeme which I have ever made of your Honourable favours to that renowned Vniversity and of my thankfulnesse for my particular interest in your generall goodnesse If this manifestation of my weaknesse may occasion other Academickes to shew their strength in this and like Arguments it shall be a great part of my joy and comfort to see better fruits of your Lordships favour brought forth by others than I can present unto you But if these may finde that acceptance which I most desire your Lordship will haply bee deemed by some to patronize not my weaknesse onely but mine errors It is not so unusuall nor so much for mee to be censured for an Arminian as it will be for your Lordship to be thought to patronize Arminianisme To give your Lordship that satisfaction therefore in this point which I am not bound to give unto others If the man which most mislikes the Arminian or Lutheran doctrine in the points most controverted through reformed Churches will but agree with me in these two That the Almighty Creator hath a true freedome in doing good and Adams off-spring a true freedome of doing evill I shall not dissent from him in any other points controverted unlesse it be in this one that there needs to be no other controversie at all betweene the Arminians and their opposites in point of Gods Providence and Predestination In all other particulars save onely so farre as they are reducible to these two I have not yet the learning or understanding to conceive what contradiction there is or can bee betweene men not willing to contend about words But if any in opposition to Arminius will maintaine that all things were so decreed by God before the Creation of the world that nothing since the Creation could have fallen out otherwise than it hath done or that nothing can bee amended what is amisse I must crave pardon of every good Christian to oppugne his opinion not as an errour onely in Divinity but as an ignorance which involveth enmity to the sweet disposition of the All-seeing and unerring Providence as a forerunner of ruine to most flourishing States and Kingdomes where it growes common or comes to full height For supplanting or preventing the growth of such opinions I make bold to crave your Lordships patronage Thus with my continuall praiers for your Lordships health with all increase of honor and happinesse I humbly take my leave From my Study in Newcastle upon Tine November 20. 1627. Your Lordships in all duty and observance THOMAS IACKSON THE CONTENTS OF THE SEVERALL Chapters in this ensuing TREATISE SECTION I. OF the one absolutely infinite and incomprehensible Essence in generall Chapter Folio 1 How farre wee may seeke to expresse what by light of nature or other wayes may be conceived concerning the incomprehensible Essence or his Attributes 3 2 Containing two philosophicall Maximes which lead us to the acknowledgement of one infinite and incomprehensible Essence 9 3 Of infinity in Beeing or of absolute infinitie and the right definition of it by the ancient Philosophers 20 4 There is no plurality of perfections in the infinite Essence albeit the perfection of all things be in him Of the absolute identity of the Divine Essence and Attributes 31 SECTION II. OF the severall branches of absolute infinitie or of the infinitie of the Divine Attributes as they are severally apprehended by us Chapter Folio 5 Of Divine Immensity or of that branch of absolute infinity whereof infinity in magnitude or space imaginary is the shadow 42 6 Of Eternity or of that branch of absolute infinity whereof successive duration or the imaginary infinity of time is the modell 62 7 Of the infinity of Divine Power 83 8 Of the infinity of Divine Wisedome That it is as impossible for any thing to fall out without Gods knowledge as to have existence without his power or essentiall presence 90 9 Of Divine Immutability 115 10 Of the eternall and immutable Decree 120 11 Of transcendentall goodnesse and of the infinity of it in the Divine nature 128 12 Of the infinitie and immutability of Divine goodnesse communicative or as it is the patterne of morall goodnesse in the creature 132 13 In what sense or how Gods infinite will is said to be the rule of goodnesse 147 14 Of Gods infinite love to Mankinde 157 15 What the Church of England doth teach concerning the extent of Gods love of the distinction of singula generum and genera singulorum of the distinction of voluntas signi and voluntas beneplaciti 166 SECTION III. THat Gods good will and pleasure is never frustrated albeit his unspeakeable love take no effect in many to whom it is unfeignedly tendered Chapter Folio 16 In what sense God may be said to have done all that he could for his Vineyard or for such as perish 182 17 The truth and ardency of Gods love unto such as perish testified by our Saviour and by S. Paul 195 18 Want of consideration or ignorance of Gods unfeigned love to such as perish a principall meanes or occasion why so