Science of this was Philosophical drawn from the light of Nature Reason teacheth thou art Immortal and capable of everlasting Felicity which consists in the Vision and Contemplation of God thy chiefest good and hast an Innate concreate desire thereto And although the principles of Rational Knowledge are for the most part per se nota so known by their own light as may force an assent yet in as much as God who is thy summum bonum is a light inaccessible such a light as blear-eyed Reason can not behold the full Knowledge of God is not by Rational principle Natural Science is not a scale large enough to contain nor a yard long enough to measure out the true Vertue and full force of this divine Essence but must resolve into principles of a higher nature here thou must run from the principles of Philosophy to the maxims of Divinity here thou must submit thy understanding to the rules and articles of Faith Thy Science of God then is Theological drawn not from the light of Nature but from the revelation of God in the Scriptures the principles of this Theological science are supernatural and resolve not into the grounds of natural reason but into the maxims of divine knowledge supernatural and of this we have just so much light and no more than God hath revealed to us in the Scriptures which is not so full a light as the prime principles of rational Sciences carry along with them to force reason upon the first sight to yeeld unto it such as are these viz. Every whole is greater than a part of the whole and again The same thing cannot be and not be at one and the same time and in one and the same respect These carry a natural light in them clear and evident the Scriptures not so yet such a light as is of force to breed Faith though not to make a perfect Knowledge for though it be life eternal to know God John 17. and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent yet this knowledge is no more than a belief since God requires not a demonstrative knowledge of him here but our Faith in him and such a knowledge as may fit that we walk by faith and not by sight or perfect knowledge for Man having sinned by pride God thought it fittest to humble him at the very root of the tree of knowledge and make him deny his understanding and submit to Faith or hazard his happinesse Faith then is a Christians rule and ground of Science now the evidence of Faith is not so clear as that of Reason tum ratione objecti tum ratione subjecti First Ratione objecti God Faith is the evidence of things not seen Secondly Ratione subjecti the Subject that sees it is but in aegnimate in a glass or dark speech Moreover Faith is an act of the Will primarily and chiefly and not of the Understanding It is not in this Theological Science as in other Sciences where voluntas sequitur dictamen intellectus but contrariwise intellectus sequitur arbitrium voluntatis For Faith is a mixt act of the Will and Understanding and the Will first inclines the Understanding to yeeld full approbation to that whereof it sees not full proof Credere enim est actus intellectus vero assentientis productus ex voluntatis imperio In sent d. 23. q. 2. a. 1. Tho. 2.2 q. 2. a. 2. ad 3 Biel. And again Intellectus credentis determinatur ad unum non per rationem sed per voluntatem And Stapleton contra Whittaker saith Fides actus est non solius intellectus sed etiam voluntatis quae cogi non potest Triplic contra Whittak cap. 6. p. 64 imo magis voluntatis quam intellectus quatenus illa operationis principium est assensum qui propriè actus fidei est sola elicit nec ab intellectu voluntas sed à voluntate intellectus in actu fidei determinatur And though the principles of Faith being concealed from our view and foulded up in the un-revealed counsell of God appear not so evident and manifest unto us as those of Reason yet they are in themselves much more sure and infallible than they for they proceed immediatly from God that heavenly Wisdom which being the fountain and original of ours must needs infinitely precede ours both in nature and excellency And therefore though we be far unable to reach the order of their deductions nor can in this life come to the vision of them yet we yeeld as full and firm consent not only to the articles but to all the things rightly deduced from them as we doe to the most evident principles of natural reason so that thou mayst justly say thy Faith is stronger than thy Reason or Knowledge is because it goes higher and so upon a safer principle than thy Reason or Knowledge can in this life attain unto Hoc intelligendum est ut scientia certior sit certitudine evidentiae fides vero certior firmitate adhaesionis majus lumen in scientia majus robur in fide saith Biel in 3 sent d. 23. q. 3 a. 1. Thus much and more maist thou find couched and excellently handled by the most reverend Father in God William Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury in his book against Fisher pag. 16. And for certainty and assurance in this kind Faith doth not only exceed all certainty that can proceed from any natural Science be it never so demonstrative but in a manner equals the very knowledge by Intuitive Vision in the world to come St Bernard makes it good too in sermonibus Domini Gilleberti super Cantica Canticorum cap. 3. Intelligentia quidem etsi fidem excedit non tamen aliud contuetur quam quod fide continetur in intelligentia quam in fide non major certitudo inest sed serenitas neutra vel errat vel haesitat ubi vel error vel haesitatio est intelligentia non est ubi haesitatio est fides non est et si fides admittere posse videtur errorem non est vera nec Catholica fides sed erronea credulitas Thus are Reason Faith and Vision instrumental and necessary one for another without Reason no Faith without Faith no Vision and this is all the difference amongst them 't is St Bernards still and exquisitely done Fides ut sic dicam veritatem rectam tenet possidet Intelligentia revelatam nudam contuetur Ratio conatur revelare ratio inter fidem intelligentiamque discurrens ad illam se erigit sed ista regit ratio plus aliquid quam credere vult quid aliud conspicere aliud est credere aliud est cernere non tamen aliud quam quod fide concipit conspicere conatur et si nondum sincerè videre potest quibusdam tamen accommodatis experimentis conjicere tentat quae jam solida fide concepit ratio supra fidem conatur fide tamen nititur fide cohibetur in primo devota est in secundo prudens in tertio sobria ut sic dicam fides tenet tuetur ratio intelligentia intuetur bonus iste circuitus in quo mens rationis ductu pervestigando procedit sed à fide non recedit instructa à fide restricta ad fidem Thus have I shewed thee O my Soul thy spiritual progress in the search of thy Felicity this is the circuit and round of the Soul in its Military march to the heavenly Jerusalem in the search of him who is the dearly beloved of my Soul these are the streets it compasseth about bonus quidem rationis circuitus a happy circuit and progress of the Soul doubtless when the Soul prosecutes its felicity by rational disquisition and this search too is bounded and limited by the rules of Faith walking from Faith to Faith or from Faith to Vision and Contemplation till it come to the full fruition of what it so much desireth and loveth And now having brought thee to thy journeys end to thy harbour and haven of joy and bliss I will here sing a Requiem to my soul a nunc dimittis to my Spirit Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation And since the way to this beatitude lies by the gates of Death that there must be a separation of Soul and Body before there be a full Vision and Fruition I doe here desire to set this little house in order and to make this my last Will and Testament where I bequeath my Soul into the hands of God that gave it and my Body to the grave in Christian buriall Earth to Earth Dust to Dust Ashes to Ashes in hope of a joyfull and glorious resurrection unto eternal life through the merits of Christ my Saviour Amen FINIS
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
are before if by any meanes you can attain to the Resurrection of the Just to that state of life which consists in Beatifical Vision to come which this ensuing Treatise though in much weakness points unto May it lay the way open before you and give you such a tast of the joyes of Heaven as may sharpen your stomach and quicken your appetite but not hasten your progress thither for serus in coelum redeas may you enjoy a long life here and Heaven at the last are the hearty wishes and dayly prayers of Sir Your most devoted friend and servant NICH. MOSLEY TO My loving Brother EDWARD MOSLEY Esquire one of the Commissioners for Administration of Justice in SCOTLAND Brother A Kingdome or Common-wealth is corpus politicum consisting of many and in themselvs disagreeing members but mixt and united in one Civil society by the rules of Morality that which formes and unites this Body is Government without which it would not be a Body but a Chaos rudis indigestaque moles Non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum But rules of Policy and Government are investigable by Reason not by Sense therefore Man only who is animal rationale is properly termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reasonable Soul of Man runs through the whole Body of practick Philosophy teaching the duty of a good man in Ethicks of a good Master of a Family in Oeconomicks of a good Citizen and Magistrate in Politicks which Duties consist in the exercise of all Moral Virtues especially those four Cardinal ones of Prudence Temperance Fortitude and above all of a Magistrate that of Justice Justice distributive as well as commutative without which no men of old were linked together in a Civil society nor at this day without it can be preserved And though Solomon saw an Evill and that a great one under the Sun an error proceeding from the Rulers who placed ignorance and mean persons in high Thrones when Wisdome and Nobility sate in ipsa abiectione whereby happily Magistracie was brought into contempt and Justice perverted through the weakness or wilfulness of such Juridicials who fall short of the perfection of those Moral Virtues those habits of the Mind which doe compleat a Magistrate yet against such Evill our Lawes have wisely provided That none shall bear any high Office of Magistracie no not the Office of a Justice of Peace in the Countrey but Plus hault meultz vailantz men of the best ranck and qualitie of the best reputation and most substantial as Lambert hath it Such a one may you be in your place and calling whose nurture and education from your youth up hath been in the studies of the Law and in the study of Ethicks as well Ethicae Christianorum as Ethicae Ethnicorum not that Natural onely drawn from the rules of Heathenish Philosophie but from the Fountain of Christian Divinity which will so furnish you with all Intellectual Habits not of Natural Virtues onely acquired ex crebris actionibus assuefactione consuetudine but of Supernatural also infused from above as may render you capable and sufficiently meriting those high employments unto which you are called Hence may you discover the necessity of this noble Science of the Soul even for you whose conversation amongst men is Practical and the Operations of your Soul such too consisting in the excercise of Moral Virtues whose residence is in the Soul the Reasonable Soul is the subject and receptacle of all Virtuous Habits acquired by Nature or infused by Grace Yet is there another noble Science of the Soul whose end is not Action but Contemplation or Speculation of the divine Essence this I presume is your chief study and delight in which you spend those spare houres of retirement are gained from your State-employments If these my poor and weak labours may be any help and furtherance of your meditations in that kind I freely and heartily dedicate them to you and rest Your affectionate Brother NICH. MOSLEY Natural and Divine CONTEMPLATIONS Of the Passions and Faculties Of the Soul of Man In Three Bookes THE SECOND BOOK The Metaphysical part CHAP. I Of the Intellectual faculties of the Soul AFter the discussion of the Vegetative and Sensitive it remaines to treat of the Intellectual faculties of the Soul which are not Organical Corporeal and Inseparable but have their Operations apart and without and so are separable from the body meer Operations of the Rational Soul which acteth without bodily Organs Chap. 1. Book 2. and is of an Immaterial Immortal Nature There are incident to this Soul three powers or faculties viz. VVill Memory and Understanding VVill is distinguisht from Appetite which is a concomitant of Sense and that necessarily being it self a concomitant of Reason and Intellect sed tamen liberè not tied by any necessity to any determinate act Memory is another branch of the Rational Soul and perisheth not with the body remaining as an inseparable companion to all separated substances and abstracted Forms of which two faculties viz. VVill and Memory sufficient hath been formerly said The Intellectual faculty which is the highest and noblest of the Rational Soul is distinguisht first into Agent and Patient The Patient Intellect again is threefold in power in Habit and in Act In Power onely is the intellect in it self and of its own nature for at the first it is nothing else but a meer power or promptitude to receive intelligible Forms and this is to be found in new born babes and Infants who have not yet acquired the act or habit of Understanding but are capable and receptible of Intelligible Forms which Intellect Aristotle compares to the first matter materia prima which is nothing but in power hath no Form but is capable of any And where Aristotle saith intellectus cognoscit omnia we must conceive it in this sense to wit in power for although there be many things wherof we are ignorant yet there is not any thing which our Understanding may not reach unto as for example wee know not the number Stars or the Sands of the Sea but this ignorance is accidental not natural for our intellect is capable of the knowledge of these if any one should but teach us the certain number of them The Intellect in Habit is that which hath received Intelligible Forms even those which it had power to receive but doth not act onely hath power to act and herein the Intellect in habit and Intellect in power do differ for the Intellect in power hath power onely quoad essentiam non quoad operationem but the intelin habit hath power tum quoad essentiam tum quoad operationem A learned man though he be asleep yet hath this Intellect in habit for as much as he hath received and retained those Intelligible Forms which gives him a power to operate and contemplate although he doth not actually know and contemplate he hath the habit though not the act whilst he sleepeth The Intellect Patient in
Act is that which is reduced into act and exercise so that it doth not not onely actually receive what formerly was but in power but also operates and works about those things it receives and actually Understands them which is done when the Phantasmes which are illustrated and made Intelligible by the Intellect Agent are actually received of the Patient Intellect by which that knowledge which formerly it had not is acquired The property of the Patient is to receive Intelligible Forms from Phantasmes illustrated by the Agent Intellect and from this property and Office of receiving Intelligible Forms it is called Intellectus patiens For as Sense is said to suffer because it receives Sensible Forms so the Intellecct by receiving Intelligible Forms recipiendo paâ—itur it suffers from Intelligible Forms as Sense suffers by its Sensible Forms But the Intellect Agent is no way passive being of it self perfect and needs not an Object to supply its defects being nothing in power but as Aristotle hath it essentialit r actus a pure act and receives not Intelligible Forms Its Office is to illustrate the Phantasm and to make of sensible Intelligible Forms and of Particulars Universalls and therfore the Intellect Agent is said omnia facere as the Patient is said omnia fieri Of these two Operations of the Agent Intellect viz to illustrate the Phantasm and to Understand the latter is onely Essential and remaines after death of the body the other is less Essential and therefore remaines not with the Soul after this life for although the Office of the Intellect Agent in this life be to illustrate the Phantasmes and to make that Actually Intelligible which was before but Potentially so and to reduce the Intellect Patient into Act yet this is not the sole and Essential Office of this Intellect for as much as after this life it continues not with it for after this life there remaines another manner of knowledge Proper and Essential to this Intellect not per species impressas by Intelligible Forms imprinted from some Sensible Object but per species in elligibiles congenitas innatas as shall hereafter be demonstrated And this is a part and faculty of that Reasonable Soul which is forma informans hominem and not an Extrinsecal assisting Form as a Mariner is of a Ship as some would have it it is that part of the Soul by which it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligere sapere vel cognoscere prudentis munere fungi as Aristotle hath it By which there ariseth another distinction of the Intellect into Practick and Speculative for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intelligere is an Operation of the Intellect generally but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sapere seuprudentis munere fungi is the proper Operation of the Practick Intellect whose end is Action and Object such things as fall under Action and such Action as falls under Sense and subject thereto and whose Science is Morality being conversant about Manners and Moral Vertues This Practick Intellect for of the Speculative is our whole discourse in the subsequent Chapters is that faculty or Operation of the Soul whereby Man is distinguisht from Beasts who live a Sensitive life and Angells who live a Contemplative life And that Beatitude or summum bonum which every man naturally coveteth after consists in action viz. in the perfect state of Moral virtues this Happiness appertains to man as man and without this Moral virtue none in this life can be accounted happy De perfecta possibilia secundum naturam non de perfecta absolute â—ut extraordinario dei munere Forsâ—ca lib. 2 Metaph. cap. 1. q. 2. Sect. 7 fol. 420. I speak of mans Natural and Temporal happiness in this life and not of that Supernatural and Eternal in the world to come in Heaven which consists in the sole intuitive Vision knowledge of the divine Essence Aristotle I grant makes two parts of Natural and Temporal felicity the one Practical consisting in the perfection of Moral virtues the other Speculative consisting in the perfection of virtues Intellectual and this Speculative and Intellectual part of a mans life he esteemeth the nobler part as a virtue of an higher order and sufficient in his kind to make a man happy But this Intellectual part doth not necessarily make him good who is endowed therewith or bring him to that perfect state of felicity in this life since it is here commonly mixed with vices and may be found in such who though they know God yet do not glorifie him as God Besides this part of Intellectual Contemplative Virtue viz that Intuitive Vision of God or the perfect knowledge of the divine Essence is not natural to Man Man attains not thereto by any strength of Nature it is the gift of God unto this light of Glory unto these supernal Joys no man attains by his own strength onely that which is practical and consists in well doing in the exercise of Moral virtues is proper to man in his Natural estate which is the operation of the Practick Intellect and therefore Aristotle in the tenth of his Ethicks saith The practick Beatitude agreeth with man as man that which consists in Contemplation doth not agree with man as man sed quatenus in eo est divinum quiddam degit vitam quandam divinam And in this respect the Soul may be sayd mortal because that part which consists in the exercise of Moral virtues whose end iâ— Action and such as is taken from Sense and Phantasie which is mortal and perishing operates only in this life by the help of Phantasie and without Phantasms the Soul understands not any thing so saith Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Soul meaning this Practical part for the Speculative part of the Soul doth not alwaies and altogether work by means of Sense and Phantasie since it knoweth such things as are immaterial and not subject to Sense as God abstracted Forms and Intelligences and it own self as elswhere shall be shewed Though to speak properly and truly the Rational Soul is not mortal in any part of its Essence or Faculties though the operations may cease in defect of requisite Organs neither is there two several Intellects really distinguisht but one intire Intellect belonging to this Soul onely in regard of its several wayes of knowledge and manner of operation in this life Practical and Speculative the Intellect hath obtained its distinction of Practick and Speculative which is but one in râ— though divers ratione But some have gone about to prove a real and essential difference 'twixt the one and the other making Reason or the Rational faculty of the Soul which is that part of the Intellect which is Practical and acquires knowledge by discourse and that not without great labour difficulty and uncertainty runing from the Causes to the Effects and from Effects to the Causes groaning under the perplexity of framing demonstrations by wresting deducing infering and concluding one proposition from
the Fouls of the Air and the Beasts of the Field for that is in regard of that Rational Soul and endowments of mind in which Man as Man excells all other terrestrial creatures But also in respect of that dominion which one Man hath over another dominion belongs not to all the Sons of Adam God hath appointed Kings to Govern them and thereby hath imprinted a more lively Character of his own Image upon Kings than any other But above all is Gods Image seen in the endowments of his mind in the facu ty of the Soul even that whose Act and Opera ion is the perpetual contempla ion of truth and therefore is called intellectus divinus contemplativus a divine Understanding and Contemplative mind Tâ—is is the power and faculty of our Soul the purest the noblest and supremest faculty called lumen animae rationalis or anima animae the Soul of the Soul or the Eie of the Soul and receptacle of sapience and of knowledge divine This is that Eye of our Soul which by the bountiful grace of the Lord of all goodness pierceth through the impurity of our flesh and beholding the highest Heavens thence bringeth knowledge and Object to the Soul and mind to conâ—emplate the ever durng glory and termless joy prepared for such as preserve undefiled Sir Walter Raleigh and unrent the garment of the new Man which after the Image of God is created in righteousness and holiness as saith St. Paul CHAP. II. Of the Speculative part of the Soul Chap. 2. Book 2. THe Soul of Man as it is the Form of Man is notwithstanding an Immaterial independent abstracted substance though not so compleat perfect as the rest of the Spiritual Immaterial substances be it is of the Order though of the lowest Rank of simple essences whos 's Operations in regard of its imperfect and lowmost rank of Spiritual substances are not so noble so compleat and perfect as the Operations of other Intellectuall spirits be but many times mixed with inferior Operations and in some sense inseparable from them or thence sprung since all the knowledge which the Reasonable Soul attains to in this life by its natural strength is from Sense Mediately or Immediately derived this for the Science Practical properly and the practick Intellect whose Operations are determinately Practical and not Speculative as chiefly conversant about Manners and Moral Virtues whether Ethical Oeconomical or Political and whose end is Action viz. well doing though there is another Operation of the Soul whose end is not Action to do but to understand or contemplate this diviner faculty of the Soul this Contemlpative Intellect whose Operations are determinately Contemplative not Practical as chiefly about Theorie and whose end is knowledge or truth its principal end so sui ipsius gratia for its own sake for the love of truth for the cause of knowledge This I say hath its Operations more immixt and separable from bodily Organs or External Objects and herein is a diversity twixt the Reasonable and Sensitive Soul for to bring Sense into Act as the Eye to see c. is required an External Object and bodily Organs but to bring the Reasonable Soul into Act viz. to Understand or contemplate which is the Operation of the Speculative Intellect needs no External Objects at all for that which brings knowledge into Act and makes the mind actually to contemplate is meerly Interna to wit in the Soul an Operation then there is a Science Metaphysical abstracted from matter a Science of things which fall not under Sense come not from External Objects and of which no Phantasm or sensible Form can be presented to the Understanding of which we mean to treat of in this Book the knowledge of the Soul which it hath of Immaterial substances in this life viz. of it self of Angells and of God with the different manner of Operation of the Soul in this Natural condition or body corrupt and in the state of Separation or body glorified Yet is our knowledge of all Immaterial substances in this life very confused and imperfect and agreeth not with the state of the Soul conjoined to the body whose principal Operation is to illustrate the Phantasie and to make those things Actually which were but before Potentially Intelligible and to reduce the Intellect Patient into Act This is the principal Operation of the Intellect Agent in this life though not its sole and proper nor Essential Operation for then it would remain with the Soul after this life which it doth not for there is then another Operation and manner of knowledge not per corpus sed per influxum superioris causae as Suarez hath it proper and essential to the Soul as hereafter shall be shewed Of the knowledge which the Soul hath of it self The Operation of the Intellectual Soul is to know yea to know it self there is that faculty and power in Mans Soul whereby he may know himself know himself and be known by himself for the Soul of Man is Immaterial and so Intelligible as other Intellectual creatures which are meerly Immaterial now in those creatures who are Immaterial idem est intelligens quod inâ—elligitur Lib. 3. cap. 5. scientia seu intellectus contemplativus scibile So saith Aristotle in his Book de anima the Intellectual Soul is it which understands the Intellectual Soul is it which is understood it is not so with the Sensitive Soul whose Organs are External and whose knowledge is fetched from Objects ab extra and therefore neither knoweth nor perceiveth it self as hath been elsewhere said But the Operation of the Intellectual Soul is Intrinsecal it hath Objects Internal it self is its own Object alwaies present never absent from it self the Soul of Man is not onely a straight line drawn forth to point at other things but a reflex and circular line pointing at it self It knows it self by inspection or if I may say with Plato in this Timaeus by reflexion for he compared the Soul that governs this World and consequently the Soul which governs this Microcosm Man which is but a particle of that Soul which rules this Universe both of them being Intellectual and so may hold proportion and resemblance to a line wherein was Rectitude and Reflexion and to number which consisteth of Unity and Diversity The Right straight line of that Soul which rules the World he made to be the Axle-tree and Diameter of the World viz. that imagined line reaching from one Pole to another on which the World turneth about as a Wheel the straight line of the Humane Soul he made that right Operation and knowledge of the Soul procured by a certain progress from the essence as it were by aline drawn out to the powers and faculties and from them to the act and Operation of the Soul whereby the Soul looketh and pointeth forward and by a straight aspect contemplates things out of it self External Again this Rectitude or
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
who are given to deep and Divine Contemplation of Immaterial and Spiritual Substances can witness so saith Fonseca lib. 2 Metap cap. 1. q. 2. sect 6. lib. 1. cap. 2. q. 3. sect 6. Alluding still to Plato's Imaginary lines of the Soul viz. the Direct and Sphaerical consider O my Soul the use of these with thy self The direct line points to the knowledge of all things here without and beneath thee Phe Sphaerical to all within and above thee That knowledge which is acquired in the direct line is fetcht from Objects External and so hath Sense for its base looking at things External Corporeal Mortal which are all below the Soul of Man And though by the knoâ—ledge of these Externalls wee may come to the notion of Internal things by the knowledge of others to know our selves by sensible Objects to Intelligible Forms whereby our Souls may be represented Yet that knowledge must needs be imperfect confused and very un ertain no Quidditative knowledge of things Spiritual and Immaterial as the Schoolmen call it which is fetcht from effects and not from the Cause from the direct line of External Corporeal and inferior bodies and not from the Sphaerical of Intellectual spirits A straight line is full of imperfection and deformity whereas the Sphaerical is the perfectest fairest and capaciousest of all the rest Sphaera which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek signifies beauty because of all other figures it is the fairest and as it is fairest so it is the perfectest and most Capacious of all the rest and therefore it is the Heavens are in a round and Sphaerical not in a long and straight figure for if the heavens were in the Form and figure of long or direct lines there would be beyond them some place and body or else a Vacuity which argues a deformity an emptiness and imperfection so saith Aristotle in his second Book de caelo and his fourth Chapter Even so in the Soul of Man the Sphaerical line is the fairest perfectest and the most capacious the Circular line reflecting upon it self that eye of the Soul which contemplates it self and hath its Objects Internal that Soul which can see it self in it self and commune with it own heart is undoubtedly the divinest and perfectest and Beautiful of all others For to fetch our knowledge from outward Objects and to bend our studies to know the Heavens Elements and all other Material and Corporeal creatures is that imperfect line beyond which is somthing else or a Vacuity and though thou cast discourse of the Nature of all things here below though thy line of knowledge be drawn from North to South though it extend to all things from the Artick to the Antartick Pole though thou givest thy heart to seek and search after Wisdom as the wise man saith of all things that are done under Heaven of all works under the Sun and yet art ignorant of thy self all is but labour and travel which God hath given to the Children of Men to be exercised therein and without this Circumflex line viz. the Souls self-Inspection and knowledge of it self the end is Vanity and Vexation of Spirit In brief this Circular Sphaerical knowledge and Inspection of the Soul is that Encyclopaedia which comprehends all other Sciences within it Learn then this Platonick Idea and Imaginary Circle O my Soul by which thou maist reflect upon thy self and find thy self in thy self by that Eye of right Reason who fetcheth its knowledge from Internal Objects and Intelligible Forms whose base is Reason lower it looks not nor yet is hurried and tossed about with the Counter-motions of inferior faculties may soar aloft sometimes in Contemplation of Caelum Empyreum where those Divine Immutable and Impaâ—ible Essences which Aristotle speaks of do inhabite the highest Heavens where is the Throne of the most high God and Quire of Innumerable Saints and Angels may in a holy rapture somtimes with St. Paul be caught up to the third Heaven and there learn the secrets of God which is not lawful for Man to reveale may know things happily above Reason above it self but never contrary or below it self This is a Science Metaphysical properly so called which Grace not Nature teacheth a Science Theological a truth not acquired by Humane Art and Industry but by Divine Revelation taught us by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures Stude cognoscere te quia multo melior laudabilior es si te cognoscis quam te neglecto si cognosceres cursum siderum vires herbarum complectiones hominum naturas animalium haberes omnium caelestium terrestrium scientiam St. Bernards Meditations cap. 5. fol. 1054. Frustra cordis oculum erigit ad videndum deum qui nondum idoneus ad videndum seipsum prius enim necesse est ut cognoscas invisibilia spiritus tui quam possis esse idoneus ad cognoscenda invisibilia dei si non potes cognoscere te non praesumas apprehendere ea quae sunt supra te praecipuum principale speculum ad videndum deum est animus rationalis intuens seipsum fol. 3131. And doubtless this Inspection and knowledge of our selves and our own Souls is a Metaphysical Supernatural and Theological Science 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nosce te ipsum is a Divine Lesson so accounted by the Heathens when Graven upon the door of Apollo's Temple 't was feigned to have descended from Jupiter by the knowledge of our Souls wee come to the knowledge of our selves what we were what we are what we shall be by the knowledge of ourselves we come to the Unity of the God-head by it to the Trinity of Persons by it to the Hypostatical Union of the two Natures in Christ by it we are confirmed in the most Mysterious Articles of our Christian Faith by it Gods Essence is represented and lively Portraid look wee into our Souls and God is our Object whose Form we are whose similitude we retain when no other created Form can be given which may represent the Divine Nature as it is in it self God is pleased to Imprint an Intelligible Form of his own Essence upon the Reasonable Soul by which God is United and made known unto us for this is certain Et Suarez Metaphys disp 30. sect 11. part 27. divina essentia unitur intellectui creato beatorum more speciei intelligibilis it is the general opinion of the Schoolmen and other Divines See Fonseca lib. 1 Metaph. Gods Image we are the sacred Histories are express but principally in respect of our Souls let us make man after our own Likeness saith the Text and again God made Man in his own Image in the Image of God created he him Lift up now thy thoughts O my Soul to this thy Divine Exemplar and think how that every perfection of the Image is placed in the Resemblance it hath with its Pattern for though the Pattern should be deformed such as is usually imagined of
Knowledge there can be no Appetite we speak not of that Natural propensity which is given to every thing whereby without any previous knowledge they are inclined and are carried Naturally to their good as the Earth Naturally desires the lowermost place the Matter desires the Form and the like which is called appetitus naturalis or pondus naturae but of that which is given to living creatures and drawn out of the Power of the Soul and is called appetitus elicitus even that Act and Operation of Natural Propensity whereby every Soul that is indowed with knowledge according to that knowledge it hath of any thing is drawn to affect and desire it so that desire or Appetite is a Companion of Knowledge and concomitant and according to the measure of knowledge desire attends in an answerable measure Sensitive knowledge is inferior to Intellectual so is the desire that which follows the Sensitive knowledge is called Appetite that which follows the Intellectual is called Will one follows necessarily the other freely VVill then and Freedom of Will belongs to Intellectual creatures Of their Will whether men or Angels voluntas hominis est libera is a Philosophical rule much more truely may it be verified of the Will of Angels which is far perfecter But how far this Freedom extendeth whether unto all the Acts of Angelical Will or that some Acts are necessary and which those are and whether this Freedom be to all honest and good Acts onely or it extend to wicked also or according to the question propounded by Divines whether Angels considered in their condition have posse peccandi a liberty or Power to sin this cannot be so clearly evidenced by Natural Reason Though divers of the antient Philosophers have gone very far in this point as Plato and Socrates and of your Poets not a few who held that moral evil had place in Angels and that they might do wickedly as freely as men wherupon came the distinction amongst them of good and evil Angels and the evil Angels they called Daemones so that from the Effect and delusions of evâ—l Angels they were induced to believe that some Angels were morally evil and therefore to do evilly was not repugnant to the Nature of Angels Of their External Operaâ—ions 1 Negatively Now concerning the External Act and Operation of Angels to wit their Power and strength in working First Negatively with Aristotle against Plato we affirm the Angels can make no substance nor yet any material alteration of bodies neither by Creation nor by Generation not by Creation out of meer nothing nothing to produce something all things to spring from nothing something to be the Effect of nothing nothing the cause of something Natural Reason knoweth nothing of such Causes or Effects nor is it in the Power of any created substance to create any thing it is onely the work of an omnipotent Power Angels cannot do it Philosophers were ignorant of it nor doth it stand with the rules of our Faith and Christian Religion And as Angels have not the power of Creation so neither have they the Vertue of Generation herein other animate creatures exceed Angelical Nature they can beget their like whereby their Species is preserved in the succeding Individuals Angels have not the seed of Generation not to beget their like nor yet to make any Corporeal substance either by Eduction of Form out of the power of the Matter as Sensitive or Vegetative creatures are produced or by substantial Union and Conjunction of Form with matter as Rational creatures are produced neither can they alter any Matter and fit it for the Form without which praevious alteration of some Pre-existent Matter there can be no Generation no Mutation or motion of matter à non esse ad esse or ab esse ad non esse nor yet in Alteration of Quality in the Matter no such Mutation or motion of substance is ascribed to Angels but an Accidental or Local motion of substances that they have Then Affirmative power they have of moving of bodies by Local motion 2. Possitively And power of assuming bodies by Condensating and Solidating of air when they have occasion and laying it aside and resolving it into the same matter when they please a truth in Divinity as well as Philophy Philosophy teacheth that Angels do move Caelestial bodies the Orbs are moved by them Every Orb hath its proper Intelligence and Angel the primum mobile hath its Angel moving him from East to West the rest have theirs and this Local motion of bodies though never so great exceeds not the Angelical Power And though every Angel moveth according to his Will yet is this Motive Angelical power finite and limited it hath its bounds which it cannot pass though he would being bound by Laws of Divine providence he cannot cause a Vacuum for though he may remove one body from its place he cannot prevent another for coming in the room Thus much of Intellectual Agents is demonstrated by the light of Natural Reason some have endeavoured also to shew the number of these Agents and this from the motion of the Heavens affirming that every Heaven or Orb had its proper Intelligence and so from the number of the Sphaers would gather the number of Intellectual Spirits And that there are as many Angels as Sphaers is not difficult to demonstrate But that there are no more Angels than Sphaers or if there be more how many more cannot be shewed by Natural Reason nor are their certain number defined by Divine Revelation but that there are a multitude more than those which move the Orbs may easily be proved by the light of Reason Aquinas brings many for the proving thereof nor were the Heathen Philosophers ignorant hereof as Aristotle Plato Heraclitus and others And thus much of the Knowledge which the Soul of Man hath of Saints and Angels in this life As for that Knowledge we have of Saints and Angels and of our selves in the Separated estate of the Soul it is not inferior to other abstracted Essences neither in the Power of knowing nor Manner of Operation Angels know themselves and all below them or equal to them with an Essential Quidditative and comprehensive knowledge so shall wee not onely by those general predicates and attributes of Immaterial Intellectual Impatible Immixed Immortal and the like but with a full perfect Intuitive and Comprehensive knowledge of our selves our own Nature and Essence being actually Intelligible and an Adaequate Object to our own Understanding Angels know themselves by their own Substance and God by the same so shall wee the Knowledge they have of all others is per species by Intelligible Forms Innate and Aongenite not imprinted in the mind by any External Sensible Object such manner of Knowledge shall ours be in nothing differing in nothing inferior unto the Angels And though sacred Writ hath been more silent and sparing in the Revelation either of the Creation or of the Nature and
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
As for the Sense of Touching there is no difference amongst Divines nor indeed can be any doubt but that it hath its Operations in this blissful state since the gloried bodies may be felt and touched as all other true and lively bodies may and as our blessed Saviours was after his Resurrection as well Palpable as Visible not miraculously but according to its own Nature handle me saith he and see for a Spirit hath no flesh and blood as you see me have Thus much of the Senses Corporeal External and those parts of the body which are Instrumental and serviceable in the state of glory to the Humane Nature as they were to her in her Natural condition onely with these exceptions and limitations 1. From hence is banisht all sensual lusts and carnal Concupisence the Eye hath no lascivious looks the Ear 's infected with no blasphemous breath or impious sound nor this Sense deflowred with any adulterous touch here is no lust or desire of generation no respect of blood they neither marry nor are given in marriage this grosser acquaintance and pleasure is for the Paradise of Turks not the Heaven of Christians here is as no mariage save betwixt the Lamb and his Spouse the Church so no Matrimonial affections 2. Banish we likewise from hence all Impatibility of Sense sensus non fallitur nec laeditur circa proprium objectum no vehemencie of Object can destroy the Sense in their Natural estate their objects many times confound and wound them too great a light may make a man blind too great a sound may make him deaf we may not long gaze upon the Sun without blemish to our eyes otherwaies here for the Senses are blessed and glorious and so made Impassible and Immortal he who strengthens the Eyes of the Soul with such a measure of light and glory that they may see God face to face and yet not be dasled and confounded with his glory doth also so confirm and strengthen the Eyes of the body that without any hurt or damage to themselves they may behold not one but infinite Suns and Illuminated bodies though in themselves never so glorious 3. All Acts of Necessity are hence excluded the Soul doth not exercise her Sensitive Faculties Necessarily but freely and rules with the body and bodily Organs when she pleaseth and when she pleaseth the Soul rules alone For she hath other waies of Operation out of the body more Excellent and Noble the Senses are Secundary means for acquiring Knowledge not the Primary only subservient and at command of the Soul In the Natural estate the Sensitive Knowledge precedes the Intellectual nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuit in sense and without Sense there is no intelligence Not so in the Resurrection the Soul knoweth all things as fully and infallibly by Intuitive Vision and Inate Forms at once unico intuitu by one single aspect as by those various multiplyed Forms imprinted from sensible Objects under so many several notions and conceptions the Understanding stands not need of an Eye or an Ear or other bodily Organ to evidence the truth of what it apprehendeth it is not subject to Sense but Sense to it not the Soul to the Body but the Body to the Soul for the Nature of a glorified body is to be Spiritual that is subject to the Spirit not that it hath no flesh and bones but that it is so subject to the Spirit that at the beck and command thereof without any pains and difficultie it moves most swiftly Ascending Descending Coming Going and through every place penetrating as if it were not a body but a Spirit Ad hoc autem quod sit omnino corpus subjectum spiritui requiritur quod omnis actio corporis subdatur spiritus volunâ—ati saith Aquinas and therefore it is in the Power of the Soul to see or hear or the like to use or not to use these bodily Organs when and as often as she pleaseth without which in her Natural condition she could not Operate or reduce all her Faculties into Act. This is the state of that Church that part of Christs Body triumphant whose Organs and Senses are Spiritualiz'd to whom that part of Christs Church militant here doth hold resemblance the like Analogy and proportion bearing every Member one to another they on Earth to those in Heaven as every one beareth to Christ the H ad as the Spiritual Body in Heaven is Organiz'd so is the Organical Body on Earth Spiritualiz'd and hath five Spiritual Senses Senses refreshed with Spiritual Objects This I can assure thee O my Soul being a Member of that Mystical Body whereof Christ is the Head thou art entitled to yea and refreshed with such Sensitive Objects as the Saints in Heaven are refreshed and delighted with Objects for thy Eye thy Ear thy Nose thy Palat thy Hand as Form Sound Odor Sapor Spissitude but these made Spiritual and are so to be received I speak of Christ in the Eucharist who is made the Object of every Sense that the excellencie of the Knowledge of Christ may more fully be evidenced to us from him of whose fulness we all receive Christ is Visible to the Eye Audible to the Ear Sweet and fragrant to the Smel Savory to the Tast to the Nose Palat Hand sensible he is meat to the hungry and drink to the thirstie Angels food and mans repast Christ in the Sacrament is the Object of our Eyes and as real y present here as in Heaven and is as really exhibited to us who spiritually discern him though under other Forms hic ibi veritas sed hic palliata ibi manifesta he is palliated here but unveiled in Heaven here we see him darkly through the instrument of Faith for we walk by Faith and not by sight his real presence is believed our Corporal Eyes do not behold him otherwaies than veiled under those outward signes of bread and wine the eys of our Body seeth the signes the Eye of our Faith the thing signified aliud latet aliud patet what we see is Bread and Wine what we believe is the Body and Blood of Christ what our Souls cannot reach with Corporal Eyes it may discern by an Eye of Faith Faith is a director of the Soul or prospective to the Eyes to bring to their sight such things as are not discernable without in this Vale of tears through the prospect of Faith is Christ Visible to us though the Saints in Heaven have a cleaâ—er Viâ—ion of him seeing him face to face 〈◊〉 as they are seen This is but a glimpse of that beatifical Vision the glorified bodies have of Christ here per aenigma there facie revelata here veiled there revealed unde preciosior dicitur faciei visio quam speculi frequens imaginatio non enim pari omnino jucunditate sumitur cortex sacramenti medulla frumenti fides species memoria praesentia aeternitas tempus speculum vultus
art 1. Rationalis anima naturaliter est capax gratiae and in another place habilitas animae ad gratiam consequitur naturam ejus 1 parte q. 48. art 4. And in the same sense St. Augustine de Praedest sanct cap. 5. Posse habere fidem charitatem naturae est fidelium And in this sense as Grace so Glory is seated and is to be found in the Reasonable Soul the Soul is capable of Grace there is a capacity also in the Intellect to the light of glory the clear vision of God the full enjoyment of him though not a Natural properly so called yet an Obediential or a Non-repugnant faculty which power and virtue is not to be found in any other creatures below man Yet is not this ful Intuition and Fruition of the Divine Essence a comprehension of his Infinitie for it is one thing to have a quidditative knowledge of any substance another to comprehend it and therefore though the Soules of the blessed in heaven have this supernatural endowment fully and clearly to behold God yet is it not given to any created Intellect fully to comprehend him because none can understand or perceive his infinite power or attain to the knowledge of all those infinite number of things possible to the making of which his power doth extend To know all the Individual creatures possible to be made omnia quomodocunque possibilia which are infinite or to know but all the thoughts and cogitations of every mans heart which shall or may be is onely proper to God and is not communicable to any created Intellection of Saint or Angel whatsoever wherefore though Created Intellect by divine assistance is able clearly and fully to apprehend the divine nature as it is in it self and that all things any way possible to be necessarily and naturally are in God yet are not all things altogether known which are in his divine Essence quia cognitio omnium omnino quae à deo effici possunt dari non potest sine comprehensione divinae essentiae * Ad argumentum quod deus ut speculum est quod omnia quae fieri possunt in eo resplendet respondet Tho. per 1. q. 12. a. 8. ad 2. quod non est necessarium quod videns speculum omnia in speculo videat nis◠speculū visu suo comprehendat nemo autē deum cumprebendit Of the divine Essence there is a full Intuitive knowledge which being fully seen begets the like knowledge of all created beings all actual existencies of Men Angels c. of their natures differences properties powers and operations which are all in him and flow from him But of all beings possible only which have no real and actual Existence omnia omnino all of these alltogether cannot be seen by any created Intellect by any intuitive Vision or Intellection for such is as hath been said onely proper to God being both a quidditative and a comprehensive knowledg also is that perfection of infinite knowledge than which a perfecter cannot be conceived which to ascribe to any creature is such an implication of contradiction as falls not within the compass of Gods Omnipotency But pass we by the knowledge of all other Existences and proceed in the declaration of that knowledge of God himself which comes by Intuitive Intellection which for the excellency of its object is termed Sapience 3 ibs 3. dis 5. b. Aquinas puts this difference 'twixt Science Intelligence and Sapience viz. that Science and Intelligence relate to the creatures and hath them for object but Sapience onely looks upon God and in that object is delighted Scientia valet ad rerum temporalium rectam administrationem ad bonam inter malos conversationem intelligentia vero ad creatoris creaturarum invisibilium speculationem sapientia vero ad solius aeternae beatitudinis contemplationem delectationem In this knowledge is all our bliss and joy the greatest felicity that Man is capable of for according to the excellency of our knowledge is the greatness of our happiness and delight ever now the excellency of this divine Sapience is manifested First by the Faculty and Power Secondly by the Object suted to that Power Thirdly by the Union of the Object with the Power And lastly by the Means Instrument or Organ of this Union of the Object with the Power First the Power and Faculty of Knowledge is the Intellect or Mind which is far more pure noble high and lively and therefore more apt for knowledge than any or all of the Senses Secondly the Object is God a divine Essence an infinite Being the highest and excellentest of all objects either of Body or Mind because he is summum bonum omne bonum infinitum bonum Truth it self and Goodness it self Thirdly the Union of the Intellect with God in this beatifical Vision is an Union so near and close ut essentia Dei totam mentem videntis penetret mens ipsa in ipsum Deum quasi in mare magnum tota mergatur transformetur Bellar. de aeterna felicitat lib. 4. cap 2. Fourthly the way and means whereby God is thus united to the Underderstanding to this Intuitive Intellection is per lumen gloriae by this is God conveighed to the soules of the blessed and to Angelical spirits and made one with them In this life the Eye of Reason is dark and purblind and cannot behold God but by the light of Faith which is but obscurely per aenigma hereafter the eys of our understanding are opened to see God without this light of Faith but not by its own intellectual light natural and created nor by the light of Faith though it be supernatural but by a light of Glory unexpressibly supernatural in a peculiar way and manner flowing from the very Essence of God as a peerless piece of his own uncreated Glory Lumen gloriae quod Theologi dicunt infundi beatis sicut nulli creaturae esse potest connaturale ita peculiari quodam modo ratione ab essentia Dei fluit tanquam singularis participatio increati luminis ejus This light of Glory as it is the meanes and instrument of conveighing the Object to the Soul the divine Essence to the Mind and Intellect hath God for its proper Object and therefore works not as an Organ or Instrument of any created Intelligence to which it is commensurate and adequate but of an increate and independent Intelligence as a proper instrument of God And now O my Soul art thou come to the Mountain of Nebo to the top of Pisgha where though thou maist though afar off take a view of the promised Land having travelled through the planes of Moab from the deserts of Arabia and Wilderness of Zin from the Rudiments of Philosophie to the Mysteries of Divinity thy burblind eason by the conduct of Faith is in some measure raised to a Revelation and Vision of that Eternal Beatitude which Naturally thou desirest First then thy