tota quaestio est de scientia ac suisita si haec incrementum non habuisset null a scientia Christi augmentata saisset Aquin. And though many hâ—ld no acquisite knowledge in Christ and Tho. Aquin. once published his opinion to that purpose in 3. Sâ—nt dist 14. q. 3. art 3. yet he modestly recanted this error in 3. p. of his Summes q. 9. art 4. â— and 3. p. 9.12 art 3. c. saying That though Christ learned nothing of men nor Angels yet that his experimentall knowledge was increased Luc. 2. and he yeeldeth a reason that seeing Christ received a reasonable soul sequitur quod in anima Christi aliquis habitus sciâ—ntia fucrit qui per abstractionem specierum potuerit augmentari for though the intellectus possibilis had the species of all things in it from the first yet the intellectus agens knew things in act in succession of time the knowledge of Christ being increased not according to essence but effect non accipiendo sed pandendo Greg. Peter Lomb. 3. sea dist 24. but the exercise of wisdome he had in time Butter and Honey shall he eat till he know to refuse the evill and choose the good Isai 7.15 So that till he had left the brest and was come for some space to a change of dyet butter and honey his knowledge in this kind was not practicall the following verse v. 16. doth declare it for before the child shall know to refuse the evill and choose the good the Land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her Kings Before the child shall know then he did not alwaies know And if Christ must have time to exert his wisdome what other childe at first can be compleat No of that propheticall child called Mahershalulhazhaz it is said before the child shall have knowledge to cry My Father my Mother the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away by the Kings of Assyria Isai 8.4 So that the understanding of children is at first so weak that they know not vulgar things even to give just titles to them which have the nearest relation to them not to call Father and Mother Saint Paul could say When I was a child I did as a child as if nothing but childish expressions were to be expected from such Amongst all the prime things of nature which were from the foundations of the world name me an intellectuall Infant one that delivered Principles and taught Maxims in his swadling-clowts I mean by the force of his natural powers onely I confesse I read Plin. l. 11. c. 52. That the Son of Croesus at the age of six months spake and saved his Fathers life and that Sigebert the Son of Dugobert the fortieth day after his birth being baptized by Amandus Sigebert in Chron. Anno Dom. 633. plainly answered Amen and that in the year 1117. there was an Infant lying in the Cradle made a long continued speech to his Mother busied in her family-cares Dodechinus in appendice Mar. Scot. wishing her not to be too intent upon worldly things for God was ready to be revenged on the world instantly if the Virgin Mary standing at the Throne of God did not intercede to have the judgement prolonged and many other like to these instances I have heard of in former and latter times but these things were done by mircale and not by the ordinary course of nature and so indeed God may make the senselesse Infant as well as the dumb Ass to speak but of it selfe the Infant as an Infant hath no knowledge I have read of Infants born with teeth but never of any which had birth and reason together As in the day of the Nativity the Navel is not cut the brests not fashioned the hair not grown Ezech. 16. So the understanding is not come to any measure of discretion Infans is not onely non sans but as some more exact Etymologists say it doth come of the verb insatuo Indeed I so find it often in the vulgar translation Relinque infantiam leave thy foolishnesse Prov. 9.6 that is thy infancy Infatua quaeso consilium Achitophelis Turn I beseech thee the wisedom of Achitophel into foolishnesse 2 Sam. 15.15 that is make him as simple in counsailas a witlesse Infant Certain Pelagiaris held that Infants had knowledge and were able to be guilty of actuall sins Quomodo Deum agnoscant qui nec Mammas nec Matrem agnoscant Aug. l. 1. de pec mor. c. 35. but Saint Augustine doth not onely confute them but deride them How can they acknowledge God which know neither breast nor Mother Therefore Petrarch doth give very solid comfort to a Parent bewailing the denth of his Infant wishing him not onely not to be dismayed with any worldly chance or not to be afflicted seeing his child had escaped these afflictions but chiefly to rejoice because the state of a dying Infant is without any danger Turpiter perire non potest qui sine peccatis periit Petrarch for saith he An Infant cannot perish shamefully which doth depart without sin What sin can they have which have not knowledge they are so far from that that they understand not the place of their births their Fathers dore the parts of their body not the right hand from the left Should not I spare Nineveh that great City wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons which cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand Application First Omnium rerum principia parva sunt Cicer. 5.5 de fin Incipere noti esse pusillum sed juâ—â—a pusillum Laâ—rt in vita Socratis Principium anima sequitur Plot. En. 6. l. 7. c. 23. Plat. in Xenoph Hoc vellus à me non Carminatur Suidas this she weth that wisdom hath a diminutive beginning The beginnings of all things are very small Socrates said It was not a little but next to a little to begin The Soul doth follow the beginning If it doth follow the beginning then it was no great Leader before What can there be found in tabula rasa in an empty table When Zenophon came first to Socrates he asked him where men might be made good he told him he knew not Then follow me saith Socrates So indeed being young we neither know what good is nor where it is to be had but by much following and waiting this skil is attained unto Xenocrates his young schollar was termed Wooll unearded and so at first the combe hath not touched us we are like a rough fleece which is not broken with the sharp teeth This is mans beginning now what is the reason that so few can remember their beginning oh that we could shake our bags to the first penny of our means that we could see the thrum from which the web took her first threds how then could the intelligent be insolent no this is one of the strangest sorceries and maddest inchantments which can be that a wiseman
Rentalls and Royalties then what is God who is the Possessor of Heaven and Earth Gen. 24.1 If man who is but a shining Gloworme below then what God who is the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 If man who can be beheld without danger then what God who cannot be eyed without expiring Whom no man hath seen nor can see 1 Tim. 1.16 If man who doth carry no slames in his skin then what God who is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 If man who is but a Saint by infusion then what God who is the King of Saints Rev. 15.3 If man whose knowledge doth reach no further then his own heart then what God which can declare unto man what his thought is Amos 4.13 nay who is greater then our heart and knoweth all things 1 Job 3.20 If man who cannot make a Gnat a Spire of Grass not an Hair white or black then what God who is the former of all things Jâ—r 10.16 If man who hath much ado to get a little pompe then what God with whom is the greatness of excellency Exod. 15.7 If man who can hardly for a while keep his own spirit within his own body then what God who is the Lord of the spirits of all flesh Numb 27.6 If man whose power is limited and whose designs may be frustrated then what God who is so great that none can stay his hand Dan. 4.43 If man who is but of yesterday then what God who doth inhabit eternity Isa 57.15 If man who cannot span the compasse of his own body then what God whose right hand spanneth the Heavens Isa 43.12 If man who at most doth but dwell in an Ivory Palace then what God who dwelleth between the Cherubims 2 Sam. 6.2 If man who hath his dayes set and there is a stint for his greatnesse then what God Who liveth for ever and his Dominion is everlasting Dan. 4.34 If man who cannot make a Pillar to quake nor melt a flint then what God who can make the Mountains to quake and cause the hills to meli Nah. 1.13 if man who cannot walk but in a calm and that upon firm land then what God who hath his way in the w irlwind and his path in the mighty waters Nah. 1.3 Esai 43.16 and yet must man be such a man and God be undeified Shouldst thou have freedom and God be abridged Hadst thou and should not I What art thou what is God 1. What art thou the crackt sherd of a ruine the broken bough of a windfall the splintered plank of a shipwrack Adams Ulcer the wrimpled skin stark hand blind eye chap-fallen lip of that old man the lake-diver the furnace-brand Prae omnibus malis homo est pessimum unaquaeque bestia habet unum malum homo omnia Chrysost the brimstone-match of that cursed man Above all evills Man is the worst every beast hath one evill but man all Whatsoever man was at the first creation yet he may be carried now to some Stage as a strange Beast to be shewn as Laerlius saith of Stilpon As ye cannot find a Fish without skales so ye cannot find a man without strange Finns Lacrt. l. 2. c. 12 Aelian var. hist l. 10. panorm l. 1. de rebus gestis Alphonsi Instead of men we are like wild Vultures in the Woods Arislotle that had searched mans intralls nay which by his deep wisdom had dissected him for who could better have done this then that rare Anatomist of Nature Yet what saith he of man but that he was the spoil of time the mockage of fortune and image of inconstancy Stob. Ser. 96. Therefore Plotinus was wise who when Aemilius would have his Picture drawn denied it him Erasin l. 8. apoph intimating that it was in vain to take the Picture of a wretched creature Indeed man is so miserable that Silenus told Midas that the best thing were not to be horn at all the next thing was to die soon Optimum non nâ—sci prâ—â—imum cito aboleri Comaedia vita nostra â—uius ultimus actus in morte Aen. Syl. lib. 3. com Alphonsi Putredo in ortu bestia in vita esca vermium in morte Let man seem to enjoy never so much outward greatnesse yet mans life is but a Comedy whose last act is death Solon that by the Oracle was prononnced to be the wisest man of his age said that man was but rottennesse in birth a beast in his life and worms-meat in death Man art thou not thus canst thou not apprehend it wilt thou not believe it then let me a little further decipher thee skin thee and unskin thee At thy first conception oh that thou couldst see thy self Thou art but a drop of basenesse a spermatick stein thou art gendring many months to get flesh and skin upon thy bones thou suckest unclean blood and dost wsim in a loathsome puddle thou puttest out thy head like a beetle out of a dunghill thou art groaned forth with the half-slaughter of thy Mother thou art plucked out of the womb and dost lye in the eyes of all like an hideous fright there is not an hair of thy head not a tooth in thy mouth thou lookest like raw flesh yea like a prodigious clodder this is thy entrance and when thou art rinsed and perfumed thy navell cut thy skull seamed and by the Midwifes art made fit to receive the Babes kisse thou dost hang upon the brest or art fed with spoon-meat thou art rocked in a Cradle wrapped in swadling-clothes watched and waited upon carried in the arme led by the hand learned to go taught to speak before thou canst give one sensible expression of a reasonable creature And afterwards when by much nurture and education thou hast gotten some rudiments into thee whereby thou mightst declare thy selfe man what manner of man dost thou witnesse thy self to be even at thy ripe age what are thy gests and guises and garbs and modes Thou risest in the morning out of thy bed where thou hast lain so many hours forgotten of thy self thou clothest thy self like one ashamed to be seen without his Vest thou callest the water to wash off thy nights filth thou pickest thy nasty ears thou purgest thy fowl nostrils thou clensest thy polluted teeth and by degrees when thou art compt and terse spunged and powdred every hair set right and every abiliment put on what is thy daies work how dost thou spend pretious time If thou beest for profit thy ranges are known after thou hast called up thy servants to hunt for gain at home thou thy self as one in full quest for lucre abroad art visiting other mens Storehouses searching their Warehouses ransacking their Cellers Thou goest to the Customhouse to try what exporting and importing there hath been thou repairest to the Exchange to examine what Merchant thou canst meet with with whom thou maist truck in Minivers and Tissues Musks and Civets the teeth of Elephants the bones of Whales the stones of
knowledge is gotten from abroad and infused knowledge is communicated but God hath no derivative knowledge to know any thing Redire in suâ—m essentiam he doth but reflect upon his own essence those Ideas which are conceived to be in God doe containe all intellectuall species therefore Who hath been his Counsailer or taught him at any time Mans knowledge doth come with much tediousnesse for how long is he learning of his lesson But Gods knowledge is instantaneous He doth understand all things in one for the intellect being in act Omnia intelligit in uno Terminus discursus Praesene intuitus Dei fertur in omne cognoscibile there is an end of further inquiry Gods present intuition is fixed upon every thing that is to be known Man doth but know things in time and which do really exist but God calleth things that are not as if they were for whereas his knowledge is measured onely with his eternity what is there from everlasting to everlasting that is out of the verge of his knowledge no entia things that have any being with all the limits of time he doth understand by the knowledge of vision and non entia which are not nor ever shall be Scientia visâ—â—nis scieâ—tia simplicis intelligentiae he doth understand by the Mirrour that is by the knowledge of his own unlimited wisdome Man doth understand but few things for we do boast of wisdome but how short principled are we there is an unknown land which we have not yet coasted Terra incognita there is a Labyrinth that we want yet a clew to pass through If wisdome should unlock her great Library door we would thinke that we had many Authors yet to peruse yea Decades and Pandects yet to turn over Knowledge puffeth up but the Mercuriall brains would judge that they were but ungifted inculti inscii and simply endowed to what they should be But what hath God to learn No Heb. 4.12 Joh. 37.17 Vt nihil sit extra Quamvis infinitorum nullus sit numerus non tamen est incomprehensibilis ei cujus seientiae non est numerus Aug. l. 12. de Civit Dei c. 18. all things are naked before his eyes with whom we have to do He is perfect in knowledge The adaequation or extent of his knowledge is such that nothing can be beyond it Though there be no number of infinite things yet this is not incomprehensible to him whose knowledge hath no number Man doth things oftentimes improperly and with great indiscretion he knoweth not how to keep his boundaries he doth either too much or too little he is either too early or too late too eager or too slow whereby he hath more scandall then honour in his undertakings But is there any such indecency or incongruity in Gods actings No he is neither redundant nor deficient look upon all his works and see how thou maist magnifie the eutaxy concinnity fitnes fulnes of them yea thou maist cry out in wisdom hast thou made them al they are brought forth in number weight and measure Now if blind man doth assume so much to himself how much more he who is all Eye If the half-witted Agent doth stand so much upon his liberty should not the wise Agent Hadst thou and Should not I 3. Because he is a pure agent Man indeed is pure but he is but a half-washed Creature the Clean water hath not taken out all his steines nor the spirit of Sanctification all his filth No man hath in him perfection of reality but not of regularity of integrity but not of integrality of adunation but not of adequation of intension but not of extension or as they commonly call it of parts but not of degrees for though the Land of Promise be won yet the Canaanite doth dwell in the Land though grace be infused yet concupiscence is not expelled Now who can look for an absolute pure creature with such a mixture of naturall corruption Who can bring a clean thing out of filthinesse No Man indeed doth many a good action but the black Aethiopian begetting the child though it doth live yet the Parents skin is seen upon it such a person may be Evangelically accepted but he might be Legally cursed For what one absolute thing can the holiest man pride himself in No though he be converted yet being partly unregenerate his very tears do draw a soil from his eyes and his prayers from his lips and his duties from his fingers and his thoughts from his heartstrings for he cannot weep as he should nor pray as he ought nor obey as is required nor think as is enjoined Wo to the laudable life Vae vitae laudabili Aug. if God should be severe the most fined wheat doth grow with a chaffy husk the purest Gold hath some base oar mixed with it the compleatest actions of men have an adhaerency of evill cleaving to them there is either wanting somthing of mortification or faith or zeal or constancy in it we either mingle some sin with an eminent vertue or we neglect a greater good for a lesse or we sever the pleasure of godlinesse from the trouble or we do good only for triall sake or are led only by example or rest upon the outward action or mind not the object or do not take opportunity or are guided meerly by successe or are too disdeignfull or too slippery or too confident Oh there are a thousand waies whereby a service may be disparaged and guilt creep into the most magnified act of reformation or devotion In a pure impure Creature who can look for exact sanctity No Man the best man is but a defiled Agent But is God no more perfect yes he is Holy Holy Holy uncreated holinesse essentiall holinesse holinesse in the abstract eminently good only good the chief good who hath given all the Laws of holinesse and doth inspire all the motions of holinesse and doth water the root and ripen the fruits of holinesse who hath given us an holy calling and holy Priesthood and holy Sacraments not onely his holy Angells to direct us but his holy Son to die for the guilty and to purge the defiled Now can he have any corruption in his actions No Are not my waies equall Ezech. 18 What iniquity have your Fathers found in me Jer. 2.5 No I am the Lord your holy one Es 43.15 The Lord is holy in all his waies and just in all his works So holy that no creature but out of meer compassion can be looked upon by those pure eyes the holy Angells do put vails before their faces The very foundations of the earth would shiver the fabrick of Heaven would fly into splinters the Crown of God would fall from his head and his white Throne crack in pieces if Gods works had any blame or blemish in them Let us look upon them all and with admiration in our hearts and hymnes in our lips let us discern