from Eternitie the Creature onely gets beginning of Being by Creation which before it had not If then there can bee no agencie without an action and every action be in the patient the cause is concluded that every agent though Omnipotent supposeth a patient 2. But it is one thing to suppose or require another to praesuppose or praerequire patieÌ„t one thing to require or suppose a patient another to require or suppose a matter or subject to worke upon We are then to distinguish of Patients and betwixt the workes wrought or effected by agents A Patient is usually taken for the matter or subject on which the Agent doth exercise his active force or out of which it produceth its worke Euery finite agent aswell naturall as artificiall doth praerequire and presuppose such a kind of patient that is some reall matter or subject whereon to worke But this kind of patient is no just compere no full correlative to an agent universally taken The relalatioÌ„ betwixt an agent Patient taken in this sense is neither so formall or necessary as it is inter agens actum betweene the Agent and that which is acted betweene the efficient and the effect or betweene the worker and his worke God wee grant could be no actuall agent much lesse an Omnipotent actuall agent without some Act or worke produced by him As there could bee no Creature without a Creator so could there bee no Creator without a Creature But that which the Naturalist is to prove is that the worke of Creation presupposeth some matter or subject for the Creator to worke upon To manifest the impperfection of his inductions to this purpose and to cleare our contradictorie assertion wee are to distinguish or explicate the severall workes which are or can be wrought 3. Three sorts of workes the meere Naturalist grants 1. Meerely naturall 2. Meerely artificiall 3. Partly naturall partly artificiall Workes of the last ranke for instance are Physicall medicines or all such workes as Nature of her owne accord doth not attempt or undertake but onely as shee is set a working by Art Natuâ—e makes no physicall doses but onely affords the simples of which they are compounded by the Apothecarie who notwithstanding cannot compound them without the ministery or operation of Nature The Physitian may allot the severall quantitie of every ingredient besides the proportion betwixt them but the mixture must be immediately effected by heate or other naturall qualities So likewise must the extraction or expression of many simples bee wrought by Nature but at the appointment or direction of the Physitian Nature doth not attempt the making of Bell-metall much lesse of Bells and yet she affords all the ingredients to the Bell-founder who cannot mixe them by any art or skill without the heate of the fire or other operations of Nature set on worke or directed by him Workes meerly naturall comprehend all sorts of bodies generable whether the elements or bodies mixt The generation of every such body presupposeth a mutation or alteration of qualities in the matter before it become capable of a new forme or nature Every alteration of qualitie wrought in any sublunary body whether it be a praeviall disposition or introduction to a new forme or nature or whether it be accomplished without generation of any new substance is the proper effect or worke of the agent which causeth it So is every artificiall worke or forme the effect or worke of the Artificer So that Art hath its proper effects as well as Nature and every artificiall effect or worke supposeth an efficiencie or agencie in the Art or Artist yet doth not the exercise of this active force or efficiencie eyther presuppose or require any such passive alteration of quality in the matter or subject whereon it workes as Nature requires in her patients Every Statue or Image of wood is the effect of the Statuarie or a worke of the Art of Imagery yet doe not these workes being meerly artificiall eyther suppose or necessarily require any alteration of qualitie in stone and wood The Statuary produceth no naturall effect or qualitie which was not in the stone before but onely makes that visible and apparant to the eye which was formerly hidden or enveyled in the stone Every Letter of the Decalogue was in the Tables of stone before they were ingraven eyther by the finger of God or by Moses and became legible onely by their Art or skill of ingraving yet not made legible by any addition of substance of quantitie or qualitie but by meere abscision of quantitative parts And this abscision from which visible characters or terminate figures result whether in wood or stone is the proper effect of the Carver or Ingraver Both these inductions following universally taken are false though both true in their proper subject 1. No Statuary or Carver or other like Artificer can produce his proper worke without some abscision or variation of quantitie in the subject whereon hee workes therefore Nature cannot produce her proper effects without some alteration of quantitie in the matter or subject wherein shee workes 2. Naturall agents or efficients never produce their proper effects but by working some alteration or qualitie in the Matter therefore no Artificer can produce the proper workes of his Art without the like alteration of qualitie in the subject whereon hee workes Nor will it follow that because effects meerly artificiall may be wrought without any alteration of qualitie therefore mixt effects or workes partly naturall partly artificiall as compounded Medicines or Bell-metall can be so wrought Least of all can it be inferred that because Art as well as Nature supposeth a subject praeexistent whereon to worke therefore the Agent supernaturall or the Efficient superartificiall alwayes presupposeth some matter or subject praeexistent out of which or in which hee produceth his proper worke The reason why the former Inductions faile is because the Agents or Efficients are of a different ranke or kinde And the prohibition holds as true in point of induction as of demonstration Non licet transcendere a genere ad genus Hee that will demonstrate any conclusion must not rove from one kinde of subject to another And the reason why in thus roving he shall certainly faile of his intended conclusion is because the principles whence the intended conclusion must be inferred cannot be gathered but by induction and no induction can prove any generall Maxime unlesse it consist of particulars of the same kinde A philosophicall maxime cannot be gathered from Inductions meerly Mathematicall nor mathematicall principles from experiments philosophicall Nor can Artificiall Maximes or conclusions especially negative bee gathered from experiments naturall nor Maximes naturall from observations in subjects meerely Artificiall Least of all can any theologicall maximes be ratified from experiments meerely naturall artificiall or mathematicall but onely by inductions or reasons abstract and metaphysicall that is such as hold true in all Arts or sciences whatsoever The onely certaine
their motions but leave them to fend for themselves If the Almightie Creator should doe no better by his most perfect Creatures their returne to nothing would be as speedy as their production from it All of them have a perpetuall and undispensable dependance upon his power not onely whilst they are in making but as great after they are made And thus great and perpetuall it is not in respect of their substances onely but as truly in respect of their motions or operations The imperfect masse or matter whereof bodies naturall are made is not onely his sole worke or effect of his Omnipotency but that it is workable or fashionable unto any set forme this likewise is an effect of his operative power it could not be perpetually thus fashionable but by his perpetuall working That the most perfect naturall Agent should worke or dispose this matter to any set forme this likewise is his worke He doth not onely support both Agent and Patient in that being which he gave them but doth perpetually cooperate with them in their motions doth apply and direct their motions unto those ends and uses whereto his wisdome hath ordained them 2 Concerning the manner of that perpetuall dependance which all finite Agents with their effects have on the one Omnipotent and supreame illimited efficient whether in respect of their existence or operation the disputes in Schooles are intricate and the questions perplexed But the best is the ingenuous Reader may quit them if he will be but pleased to take unto himselfe if not an ocular demonstration yet a visible representation of this truth in that perpetuall dependance which light diffused whether through the celestiall bodies as the moone or starres or through the ayre or other inferiour elementary bodies capable of enlightning hath on the Fountaine of Light to wit the body of the Sunne or which the light in rooms otherwise dark hath on the light of Fire or candles by night So perpetuall so essentiall is this dependance which light in bodies inlightned by others hath on the bodies which enlighten them that some good Philosophers from observation of this dependance have concluded that Lumen non est inhaesive in corpore illuminato sed in corpore lucente The lightsomnesse which appeares in these inferiour bodies or in bodies not lucent in themselves is not inherently or subjectively in the borrowers or bodies enlightned but in the bodies which enlightens them To prove this conclusion they use this Antecedent that light borrowed or participated doth follow the motion of the body which bestowes or lends it and this Antecedent they thinke sufficiently proved by sense For if we hold a looking-glasse to a candle by night the light which for the present appeares either in the whole glasse or in some part of it will alter its place or seat according to the motion of the candle If you move the candle higher or lower than it was the light in the glasse will remove with it from the highest place to the lowest and from the lowest to the highest as it shall please the mover to alter the aspect betwixt them so will the light move from one part of the roome to another as the candle is removed And if you take the candle quite out of the roome the light will follow it and leave nothing but darknesse behind The same observation holds as true in a Dyall in which the light or shadow constantly followes the motion of the Sun But to hold this conclusion That light borrowed from the Sunne or a Candle should be inherently or subjectively in the Sunne or Candle is more than true Philosophy will warrant more than the unquestionable truth of the former experiment can logically inferre For though light in bodies not lucent in themselves bee not their owne but borrowed yet in that it is borrowed it must bee truly in the borrower not in the body which lends it For every one which lends is presumed to transfer the use of what hee lends unto him that borrowes the borrower must have the possession of what is lent him during the time of the loane As for the former experiments they may be retorted upon such as use their helpe for inferring this pretended conclusion That light diffused is not inherently in the body enlightned but in the body lucent or enlightning For the mutation of the seat of borrowed light whether in a looking-glasse held to a candle or in a Sun-dyall will be the very same albeit the Candle or Dyall stand still in the same place if so we move the Looking-glasse the same way from the Candle or the Dyall the same way from the Sunne by which the Sun did move from the Dyall or the Candle was moved from the Looking-glasse This conclusion is most certaine That the motion of light according to the motion of the body which diffuseth it doth no way inferre the light not to be inherently according to the inherency which it hath in the body through which it is diffused but rather that this light however inherent in the body enlightned hath a perpetuall indispensable dependance upon the light of the body which produceth it a dependance on it not onely in fieri that is whilest it is in production which is in an instant but a dependance in facto so long as it continues in the body enlightned And we cannot better conceive the manner how a line should be made by the continued fluxe of a point or a surface by the continued motion of a line or how time should receive its continuation from the continued fluxe of an instant than by observing the manner how light being produced in an instant in the body which borrowes it the extremity of it being terminated to a mathematicall point or line doth vary its place of residence in the same body moving continually from one part to another according to the degrees of motion either of the body which gives the light or of the body which is enlightned one from the other If either body could move or bee moved from the aspect of the other in an instant the light would remove from the body enlightned in the same instant But moving as it doth the motion of the light from one part of the same body or roome into another is perpetuall there is no interruption in the motion so much as momentary no interposition of darknesse so long as the motion lasts And yet it is not the same numericall light which thus moveth in the bodie or roome enlightned There is a continuall production of light fully answerable to the continuall succession of the motion The light whilest in motion continues no longer the same than the aspect betweene the bodie enlightning and enlightned continues the same And it may be questioned whether there be not a perpetuall production of new light even whilest neyther the body enlightning nor enlightned remove one from the other whilest both stand or rest upon their severall centers 3
be a Father to all and seeme to winke at his sonnes enormities yet when hee awakes he hath a curse in store for such as abuse his patience and make a mocke of his threatnings more bitter than that which Noah bestowed on Cham. To attribute patience to him and to deny him wrath and indignation were in Lactantius his judgement to inrich his goodnesse by robbing his Majesty The reasons of those Philosophers are apparently vaine which thinke that God cannot bee angry For even earthly Empire or Soveraignty forthwith dissolves unlesse it be held together by fear Take anger from a King and in stead of obedience he shall be throwne headlong from the height of dignity Yea take anger from a man of meaner ranke and hee shall become a prey to all a laughing-stock to all 5 I am not ignorant what censures passe upon this Author for his incommodious speeches in this argument of Gods wrath or anger His words I must confesse sound somewhat harsh to eares accustomed to the harmony of refined Scholastique Dialect Yet Betuleius a man too learned and too well seene in Lactantius to let grosse faults pass without espiall and too ingenuous to spare his censure upon errors espyed after long quaerulous debatements chides himselfe friends with his Author whose meaning in conclusion he acknowledgeth to be Orthodoxall and good albeit his characters of divine wrath in the premisses may seeme better to fit the fragility of humane peevishnesse than the Majesty of the Almighty Iudge His phrase perhaps might be excused in part by the security of those times wherein he wrote his fault if any fault it were not to speake precisely in an age more precise for maintaining the elegancy or life of style than the right use or logicall propriety of words is too common to most Writers yet and consisteth onely in appropriating that to the Divine Nature which is attributed to it onely by extrinsecall denomination But leaving his phrase about which perhaps he himselfe would not have wrangled his argument holds thus farre true God is more deeply displeased with sinne than man is though his displeasure bee not cloathed with such passions as mans anger is and yet the motions of the creatures appointed to execute his wrath are more furious than any mans passions in extreamest fury can bee What mans voice is like his thunder What Tyrants frownes like to a lowring sky breathing out stormes of fire and brimstone Yet are the most terrible sounds which the creatures can present but as so many ecchoes of his angry voice the most dreadfull spectacles that Heaven or Earth or the intermediate Elements can afford but copies of his irefull countenance Howbe it this change or alteration in the creature proceeds from him without any internall passion or alteration Immotus movet He moveth all things being himselfe immoveable 6 But as Lactantius may bee so farre justified as we have said so perhaps he is inexcusable in avouching anger to bee as naturall to GOD as mercie love and favour are To him that duely considers his infinite goodnesse it may seeme impossible that hee should bee moved by us or by any thing in us to mercy seeing as Saint Bernard well observes he hath the seminary of mercy in himselfe and cannot take the seeds of it from any other The fruits of it wee may by ill deserving so hinder that they shall never take nor prosper in our selves but to punish or condemne us we in a sort constraine him And though he be the Author as well of punishment as of compassion yet the manner how these two opposite attributes in respect of us proceed from him is much different the one is naturall to him and much better than any naturall comfort unto us the other is in a sort to him unnaturall and most unnaturall and unpleasant unto us for as S. Ierome saith God when he punisheth doth in a manner relinquish his nature and therefore when he proceeds to punishment he is said to goe out of his place and to worke alienum opus a strange or uncouth worke The wicked and reprobate after this life shall alwayes see and feele his anger But though they see him thus immediately they doe not see his nature so immediately as the Elect shall doe to whom he shewes himselfe in love this is his proper visage the live-character of his native countenance The manifestation of his anger in what part of the world soever or in what manner soever made is a veile or vizard put betweene him and the Reprobate lest they shold see the light of his countenance and be made whole Hence in the sentence of condemnation it shall be said Depart from mee yee cursed into everlasting fire From his essentiall presence they cannot but from the light of his countenance or joyfull presence they must of necessity depart For were it possible for them to behold it no torments could take hold of them the reflex of it upon whom soever it lighteth createth joy the fruition of it is that happinesse which we seeke To conclude Lactantius rightly inferres It were impossible sinne should not be odious to him to whom goodnesse is pleasant and delightfull Now his dispeasure at sinne is the true cause of all displeasant motions or alterations in the creatures His errour albeit we take him at the worst was not great and as it may easily be committed by others so it may as quickly be rectified if wee say that Anger and Hate are by consequent or upon supposall of sinne as necessary to the Divine Nature as Love and Mercy but not so naturall But how either Love or Anger both of them being either formally passions or indissolubly linkt with passions may be rightly conceived to be in God is a point worth explication CHAP. 21. How Anger Love Compassion Mercy or other affections are in the Divine Nature NO affection or operation that essentially includes imperfection can properly be attributed to perfection it selfe But if the imperfection be onely accidentall that is such as may bee severed from the affection the affection after such separation made may without meaphor in some Schoolemens judgement be ascribed to God Hence the same Schoolemen will have distributive justice to be in him after a more peculiar manner than commutative justice is because commutative justice as they alledge essentially includes rationem dati accepti somewhat mutually given and taken Mercy likewise is in their judgements more properly in God than anger or revenge because it may bee abstracted from compassion which is an imperfectiō annexed but not essential to the reliefe of others misery wherein mercy as they contend formally consists It sufficeth us that such affections or morall qualities as in us formally and essentially include imperfectiō may be contained in the Divine Essence though not formally yet eminently and most truly as we suppose anger is For in this point wee rather approve of Lactantius his Divinity than of