not only said to enlighten our minds and all our Illumination is every where ascribed to him but it is also particularly ascribed to the second Hypostasis of the Blessed Trinity who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word or inward conception of God or the Ideal World. Thus in the 8 th of the Proverbs there is described a Substantial Wisdom which can be no other but the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is the Wisdom of the Father concerning which it is said The Lord possess'd me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up from everlasting from the Beginning and so St. Iohn In the Beginning was the word or ever the earth was When there were no Depths I was brought forth there 's the Eternal Generation when there were no Fountains abounding with Water Before the mountains were settled before the Hills was I brought forth While as yet he had not made the Earth nor the Fields nor the highest part of the dust of the World. When he prepared the Heavens I was there when he set a Compass upon the face of the Deep When he establish'd the Clouds above When he Strengthen'd the fountains of the Deep When he gave to the Sea his Decree that the waters should not pass his Commandment when he appointed the Foundations of the Earth Then was I by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him This I think will readily be acknowleg'd to be a plain and Graphical Description of the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ideal World. Now of this same Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is also said in the same Chapter Counsel is Mine and sound Wisdom I am understanding By me Kings reign and Princes decree Iustice. By me Princes rule and Nobles even all the Iudges of the Earth And again v. 20. I lead in the way of Righteousness in the midst of the Paths of Iudgment And again chap. 9. says the same substantial Wisdom whoso is simple let him turn in hither that is to the Intellectual Feast which she is there said to have prepared and to him that wants understanding she says Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled XLII By this it is as plain as any thing can be that is figuratively expressed that all our illumination proceeds from the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the substantial wisdom of God. But St. Iohn speaks more plainly This is the true light which inlightens every man that comes into the world Now true Light is here the same as only Light and implies that all other pretended lights are false ones Again says our Lord I am the light of the world And I am the way the truth and the life And again says our Lord in his Prayer Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is truth Which is not meant of the written Word but of the Substantial and Eternal Word as appears from the Context Lastly the Apostle says expresly of this Divine Word that he is made unto us Wisdom Which is exactly according to our Hypothesis that we see all things in the Ideal World or Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 XLIII I might add a great deal more to this purpose but I think that from these considerations joyn'd with those of Mr. Malebranche 't is clear even to Demonstration that Man is not his own Light or a Light to himself and also that no other Creature can be a Light to him but that he sees and knows all things in the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ideal World which is that true Light within him so much talkt of by Enthusiasts who by a kind of blind Parturiency of mind have confusedly glanc'd at what we have here more distinctly explain'd That all our Light and Illumination proceeds wholly from him who at first said let there be light that we see so much of Truth as we see of God that the Ideas which are in God are the very Ideas which we see and that the Divne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is our Wisdom as well as the Wisdom of his Father So absolutely necessary is the Doctrine of Ideas when rightly stated to the explaining the Mode both of Divine and Human Knowledge without which I shall venture to affirm that they can neither of them be explained or understood The Vse of this to Devotion SInce then God is that Intelligible Light in which we see and know and since we see and know so much Truth as God is pleased to discover to us of himself we may hence collect to the advantage of Devotion First What little Reason the Wisest of us all have to be proud of our understanding and knowledge We are generally more apt to be proud of our understandings than of any thing else about us but this we have least reason to be proud of there being according to the preceding Hypothesis no other difference between a Wise Man and a Fool but only that God is pleased by his in-dwelling Ideas to illuminate one more than another or to discover more of himself to one than he does to another And if so then to be proud of my knowledge is to be proud that I am more dependant upon God than another Man is which indeed is a very proper Argument for Humility but a very Absurd one for Pride Hence again we may collect how reasonable 't is that we should Bless Praise and Adore God as the sole Author of all our Light and Knowledge as our immediate Teacher and Instructer and that to him we should always address our selves in Prayer for further illumination Lastly 't will hence follow that we ought always most carefully to attend to the Dictates of this Light within us that we ought to look upon all Truth as Divine Revelation and on as our Reason a Divine Monitor as the Angel of God's Presence And accordingly to be very careful how we transgress any of his clear Dictates that we grieve not this Angel lest he smite us that we do nothing against him lest he forsake us The Aspiration MY God my Light what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou so regardest him But much more What is Man that he should so regard himself that he should regard himself for that which is least of all his own his Knowledge and Wisdom For O God we are not a Light to our selves but 't is thou O God art our Light and in thy Light do we see Light. O my Wonderful Counsellour with what Humility and Poverty of spirit ought I to reflect upon the richest endowments of my mind since I see only by thy Light and depend upon thee for what I Know as much as for what I am And how unworthy should I be of thy Divine Light should I be puffed up through the Abundance of this thy Revelation Not unto me therefore O my God my
by the World. And Lastly That we ought never to repine or be discontented at the Affairs of the World but rather trust and rely upon the All-wise conduct of him who sees from end to end knows how to bring Light out of Darkness and disposes all things sweetly The Aspiration O Lord thou hast searched me out and known me thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising thou understandest my thoughts long before Thou art about my Path and about my Bed and spiest out all my ways For lo there is not a word in my Tongue but thou O Lord knowest it altogether Thou hast fashion'd me behind and before and laid thine Hand upon me Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit Or whither shall I go then from thy Presence If I climb up into Heaven thou art there If I go down to Hell thou art there also If I take the Wings of the Morning and remain in the uttermost parts of the Sea even there also shall thy Hand lead me and thy right Hand shall hold me If I say peradventure the Darkness shall cover me then shall my Night be turn'd to Day Yea the Darkness is no Darkness with thee but the Night is as clear as the Day the Darkness and Light to thee are both alike Do thou then O my God so imprint the Sense of this thy Omniscience and Omnipresence upon every Faculty and Power of my Soul that I may ever think speak and act as in the Light of thy All-seeing Eye and as immediately surrounded and intimately possessed with the Glory of thy Presence O fill me with the profoundest Awe and Reverence compose my levities confirm my doubtfulness and fix my wandrings and make me ever satisfied with the Methods of thy Wise Providence And when by the Meditation of this thy Knowledge and Presence I shall learn to demean my self in any measure as I ought grant that upon the same consideration I may content my self with thy Divine Approbation and Allowance whatever I am thought of in Man's Judgment Finally O my God Grant I may so set thee before me here that I may not be afraid to appear before thee hereafter Amen Contemplation VI. Of the Omnipotence of God. I. THE next Attribute whereby this One God becomes qualifi'd for the Government of the Universe is his Omnipotence Whereby may be understood and commonly is a Power of doing whatsoever is possible to be done But in this there is some difficulty from which we must disengage our Notion II. For whereas every thing that is possible is made the Object of the Divine Power a nice enquirer may here demand What do you mean by Possible For Possible has its denomination from Power and therefore must be measured either in relation to created Power or in relation to increated Power If in relation to the first then for God to be able to do all that is possible will amount to no more Than that he can do whatever a Creature can do But if in relation to the second then for God to be able to do all that is possible will be the same as to say That he can do whatever he can do Which would be a very notable discovery And besides according to this measure a Man might truly say that God were Omnipotent tho' at the same time he should deny that he could Create any thing besides the present World because he could then do all that is possible there being nothing then but this World so denominated from the Divine Power as Suarez rightly infers III. To satisfie therefore this difficulty we must find out another sense of the word Possible than what is taken from denomination to any Power I consider therefore that a thing may be said to be possible Absolutely and Negatively from the habitude of the simple Idea's themselves as well as from relation to any Power which may so denominate it My meaning is That there are some Idea's whose habitude is such to one another that they may admit of composition there are others again whose habitude is such that they cannot admit of composition but stand necessarily divided The first of these I call Possible the second I call Impossible Possible therefore in this sense is the same as that which involves no repugnance And therefore to avoid all Ambiguity setting aside the Word Possible I shall chuse rather to express the Omnipotence of God by calling it a Power of doing whatever involves no repugnancy or contradiction IV. Now that God is thus Omnipotent not to seek out after other Arguments I thus demonstrate from the Idea of God. Being it self is the proper full and adequate cause of Being for whatever is so far as it is it partakes of Being it self as was before proved Now if Being it self be the proper full and adequate cause of Being then its effect must extend to all those things which are not repugnant to the Nature and Reason of Being For if it did extend only to some certain Ones then Being it self would not be the proper full and adequate cause of Being as is supposed but only of this or that particular Being And if it extends to all things that are not repugnant to the Reason of Being then it must extend to all but not being For not being only is regugnant to the Reason of Being God therefore who is Being it self can do all that does not involve in it the Reason of not being but these are only contradictions God therefore can do whatever does not imply a contradiction and is therefore Omnipotent Which was the thing to be proved The Vse of this to Devotion FRom the Omnipotence of God we may take occasion to make these Conclusions First That we ought to revere and fear him above all the things in the World and endeavour by the utmost services of a well-order'd life to make him our Friend considering what a fearful thing it is to fall into the Hands of an Omnipotent Enemy I will forewarn you whom you shall fear says our Saviour fear him which after he has killed has power to cast into hell yea I say unto you Fear him Secondly That when once we have made God our Friend and engaged him on our side we then fear no Created Power whether Human or Diabolical For if an Omnipotent God be with us what need we care who is against us We ought rather to say with the Psalmist tho' I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff comfort me Lastly We ought upon Consideration of this great Attribute of God to repose a firm trust and confidence in all his Promises tho' never so contrary to the Ordinary Laws of Nature and to the common Measures of Human Probability Since our concern is with him who is the God of Nature and with whom as the Angel tells us nothing shall be impossible The Aspiration WIth thee O
Light not unto me but to thy greatness and goodness be the Praise and the Glory For 't is thy Word thy Eternal Word that is a Lantern unto my feet and a light unto my paths The Lord is my light and my salvation and it is he that reacheth Man Knowledge I will therefore thank the Lord for giving me warning my reins also chasten me in the night-season Lighten my Darkness thee I beseech O Father of Lights and shine upon me more and more with the Brigthness of thy glory O send out thy light and thy truth that they may lead me and bring me unto thy holy Hill and to thy dwelling Shew the light of thy countenance upon thy servant and teach me thy Statutes O let the Angel of thy Presence go always before me in this my Pilgrimage and grant that I may always attend and give heed to his Counsel and Direction that so walking in thy Light here I may for ever live and for ever rejoyce in the full and open Light of thy Countenance hereafter Amen Contemplation III. Of Man consider'd as an Amorous Creature I. TRuth and good Employ the whole capacity of Man who seems to be purely designed and made for the contemplation of the former and for the desire and fruition of the latter Having therefore consider'd Man as an Intelligent Creature or as he is a Contemplator of Truth I shall now proceed to consider him as an Amorous Creature or as he is a desirer of Good. II. The management of this subject ingages me upon the consideration of these four things First What love or desire is or wherein the general Nature of it does consist Secondly That Love or Desire is in Man or that Man is an Amorous Being Thirdly Whence Man has this Affection or what is the proper cause of it Fourthly and lastly After what manner this Affection has it self or how it stands proportion'd to that cause III. Now as to the First I say that the general nature of Love consists in a motion of the Soul towards good But this I have sufficiently explained in a distinct Treatise upon this occasion to which I shall chuse rather to refer my Reader than to trouble him or my self with needless repetitions IV. As to the Second That there is such a motion in Man I need say no more but that we are intimately conscious of it as much as we are of the motion of our Heart or Lungs or of any other Physical Impression in or about us All therefore that I shall further insist upon shall be the two last things First What is the proper cause of this motion in Man. And Secondly After what peculiar manner this motion has it self or stands proportioned to that cause To these two Enquiries I shall confine my present Contemplation V. As to the cause of this motion in Man which we call Love or Desire I consider that it must be the same that is the cause of all the Physical motion in the Universe Now Physical motion is resolv'd into a double cause an occasional cause and an efficient cause The occasional cause of Physical motion is emptiness or vacuity For in that which is absolutely full there can be no motion because of the Impenetrability of Bodies The efficient cause of Physical motion is either particular or universal The particular is the pressure or impulse of particular Bodies one against another The universal is no other than God himself who in the Creation of the World as the Cartesian Philosophy rightly supposes dispenced a certain portion of motion and rest to matter which he still preserves the same by his Almighty Power So that if one part of matter cease to be moved so much motion as was in that is transferred to another part And if the motion of one decreases or be diminished it is compensated in another And so the same measure of motion is always conserved in the Universe And unless God be supposed to be the Author of motion 't will be impossible to give any account of the Original of it For neither can Bodies move themselves nor can they be moved by one another on to Infinity We must therefore at last come to a first Mover unmoved which is God. And so Aristotle calls God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Mover unmoved VI. And thus in the same Proposition the motion of Love is also resolvable into a double cause an occasional cause an an efficient cause The occasional cause of this motion as of the other is emptiness or vacuity For Love or Desire is founded upon Indigence and Self-insufficiency of the Soul which having not within it self enough to content it is forced to go out of it self for supplies And so Aristotle in his Ethics 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desire is the fulfilling of Indigence And accordingly we find that the more weak and indigent any Person is still the more abounding in desire Thus Children are more profuse in their desires than Adult Persons Women than Men and the Sick more than those who are in Health This is well shadowed forth in Iotham's Parable wherein the Bramble is represented as more ambitious than either the Olive-tree Fig-tree or the Vine For he presently accepted of that Empire which they had all declined Where there is no Indigence there is no room for Desire and accordingly God who is an absolutely full Being can no more admit of desire than a place that is absolutely full can admit of motion VII As to the efficient cause of this Moral motion it is also double as in Physical Motion It is either Particular or Universal The particular efficient cause are particular goods whether Sensual or Intellectual Which act upon the Soul and answer to the pressure or impulse of particular Bodies in Natural motion The Universal efficient cause is the Universal Good or God whom we suppose to have imprinted a certain stock of motion upon the Intellectual World as he did upon the Natural Which he also conserves and maintains by his Omnipotence as he does the other VIII For I consider that there is the same necessity of a first Mover in Moral as there is in Natural motions And upon the very same grounds But now t is impossible that there should be any other first Mover besides God. And therefore whatever intermediate causes there may be of this motion it must at last be resolved into an impression of God upon our Souls whom therefore I call the Vniversal efficient cause of Love. IX And so much for the cause of this motion in Man. I come now to consider the last Enquiry namely after what peculiar manner this motion has it self or how it stands proportioned to its cause I do not mean its occasional cause that being not so properly a cause as a condition but its efficient cause Now this being double Particular and Universal Good the question in more explicite terms will be after what
could he subject him to it without sin For if he could subject him to it without sin then he might as well have made him so at first but 't is supposed that he could not make him so at first and therefore neither could he subject him to this condition without sin And if not without sin then not without sin really and truly committed by him For to subject him to this condition for the sake of sin arbitrarily imputed only is the same as to do it without any sin at all 'T is necessary therefore to pre-suppose some real sin or other in Man as the cause of this his depravation and great proneness to Irregular Love. XIV But now whether every Man sinned in his own Person for himself and so was his own Adam according to the Hypothesis of the Pre-existentiaries or whether one common Person sinned for all the rest as 't is more vulgarly held I shall not here take upon me to determine 'T is sufficient to say in general that 't is necessary to presuppose some Sin or other in man truly and properly Speaking as the Cause of this his Depraved and Miserable Condition And they that can Intelligibly make out Original Sin as 't is usually term'd to be such may make use of that Hypothesis But if that be not intelligible then we must of necessity come to Pre-existence However it be this only I contend for at present that some sin or other must be supposed in Man antecedent to this his condition and that t is through his own fault that he is so prone to Irregular Love. The Vse of this to Devotion THIS whole Contemplation serves very much to the greatest Humiliation and Mortification of Man both before God and all his Fellow-Creatures For if Irregular Love be so monstrous a deformity and so great a folly and if Man be so very prone to Irregular Love and is also himself the Author of that proneness what stronger Combination of Argument can there be imagined for Humility and Lowliness of Spirit For this is the worst that can be said of any thing and is the Sum and Abstract of all that 's base and vile It may also Secondly be argued from the great evil of Irregular Love and from our great proneness to be guilty of it that it highly concerns us to have constant recourse to God in Prayer for his Divine aid and assistance against falling into that which is so great a Folly and so great a Mischief and which by an Infirmity of our own contracting we are so very apt to fall into The Aspiration TO thee O my God belongs Praise and Adoration for endowing me with those excellent Powers of Vnderstanding and Love but to me Shame and Confusion of face for misapplying the one and not attending to the Dictates of the other I blush O my God and am ashamed to think that my nature should stand so much inclined to irregular Love a thing so full of Mischief and Folly but much more that I my self should bring my self into such a state of impotence and depravation My heart sheweth me the great Foulness and Abominableness of Sin and yet I find my self over prone to commit it So Foolish am I and Ignorant and even as a Beast before thee But I desire O my God to be yet more vile I am not vile enough in my own eyes though too much so in thine Nor can I ever be vile enough in my Opinion for being so vile in my Nature Strike me then I beseech thee with a deep and with a lively sense of my own Wretchedness and make me as Humble as I am Wicked And since through the Infirmity of my flesh I am so apt to err in the conduct and application of my Love O hold thou up my goings in thy Paths that my Footsteps slip not Make me always to attend to that Divine Light of thine within my Breast and let the victorious sweetness of thy Grace out-charm all the relishes of sensible good But above all Keep thy Servant from Presumptuous sins lest they get the Dominion over me And let all these words of my mouth and this whole meditation of my heart be always acceptable in thy sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer Amen FINIS Books Printed for and sold by Samuel Manship Bookseller at the Bull in Cornhil London ODes Satyrs and Epistles of Horace done into English the 2d Edition in Octavo price 4 s. The Injur'd Lovers or the Ambitious Father a Tragedy Acted by their Majesties Servants at the Theatre Royal by W. Meuntfort A Cap of Gray-hairs for a Green Head or the Fathers Counsel to his Son an Apprentice in London containing wholsome Instructions for the management of a mans whole life 4th edition a 3d part enlarged by C. Trenchfield Gent. in Twelves price 1 s. The Gallant Hermophrodite an Amorous Novel translated from the French of the Sienr de Chauigny in Octavo price 1 s. A Treatise enumerating the Most Illustrious Families of England who have been raised to Honour and Wealth by the Profession of the Law together with the Names of all the Lord Chief Justices of each Court and Barons of the Exchequer from their first Institution in Octavo price 2. s. 6 d. The Lives of the most famous English Poets or the Honour of Parnassus in a brief Essay of the Works and Writings of above two hundred of them from the time of K. William the Conquerour to the Reign of His present Majesty King Iames the Second in Octavo price 2 s. 6 d. Collection of Miscellanies consisting of Poems Essays Discourses and Letters occasionally written by I. Norris M. A. Fellow of All-Souls Colledge in Oxford in Octavo price â— s. Tim. 6.16 John 1.5 Tim. 6.16 Act. 17.27 22 dae Q. 82. A. 1. Psal. 39. Psal. 147. * Vid. Collection of Miscellan Metap Essay Psal. 63. Serm. 149. De Nat. Deorum Lib. 2. Lib. 3. Con. Gent. cap. 19. Gen 1. Isai. 40.18 Lib. 11. Confes. cap. 4 Joh. 2.15 Psal. 45. Psal. 45. Cant. 6. 1 Cor. 2. 1. Tim. c. 3. Prim. Part. Q. 15. Ar. Prim. Tom. 1. pag. 18. cap. 13. Tom. 4. p. 548. Q. 46. Heb. 1. Heb. 3.12 Psal. 145. Gen. 17. Psal. 16. Epist. 11. Psal. 114. Disp. 30. Sect. 17. Luke 12.5 Psal. 23.4 Luke 1.37 Cant. 6.5 Rom. 11.35 Isa. 42.8 Dan. 7.10 Pet. 2.4 Heb. 2.16 Psal. 8. 2 King. 6.17 Dan. 10. Psal. 34. Princip Phil. p. 50. Psal. 147. Psal. 105. Pro. 30. Psal. 21. Ex. 33 Matt. 10. De Nat. Hom. p. 22. 1 Cor. 6. Psal. 145. Medit. De Prima Philosop Medit. 3. Job 6. Heb. 1. Contemp. 5. De inquirend verit lib. 1. cap. 2. Pe inquirend verit l. 3. part 2. c. 1. 2 Cor. 3.5 Rom. 1.19 James 1.17 Joh. 1.9 Act. 17.28 Part. 1. Q. 84. Ar. 5. Psal. 36. Ver. 14. 1 Cor. 30. Psal. 119. Psal. 27. Psal. 16. Heb. 1. Psal. 43. Psal. 119. Vid. Theory and Regulation of Love. Judg. 9.15 Psal. 19.