hath no beginning can have no succession nor end We cannot properly say of God that he hath been or that he shall be but he is To him all things are present though in themselves they have succession He is an everlasting King everlastingly powerfull and glorious as the conclusion of the Lords Prayer sheweth He is called the King eternall 1 Tim. 5. 17. and the eternall God Rom. 16. 26. the maker of times Heb. 1. 2. He inhabiteth eternity Isay 67. 15. God onely is properly and absolutely eternall Angel and mens soules are said to be eternall à posteriori or à parte post God à priori à posteriori ex parte ante post since he hath neither beginning succession nor end The Scripture confirmes this eternity of God divers wayes 1. With a Simple and plaine asseveration Gen. 21. 33. Isay 40. 28. and 57. 15. Dan. 6. 26. Rom. 16. 26. 2. By denying to him time and succession Job 36. 26. Isay 43. 10. Psal. 90. 5. 2 Pet. 3. 8. 3. By attributing to him eternall properties and operations his mercy is said to endure for ever Psal. 103. 17. and 136. 1. Eternall councell is attributed to him Psal. 33. 11. Eternall Kingdom Exodus 15. 18. Eternall power Dan. 6. 26. eternall glory 1 Pet. 5. 10. his dominion is an everlasting dominion Dan. 7. 14. his righteousnesse is everlasting Psal. 119. 142. and his truth 4. By a metaphoricall description dayes and yeares are attributed to him but most distinct from our dayes and yeares Job 10. 5. Dan. 7. 9 22. He is called the Ancient of dayes Psal. 102. 28. thy yeares are not consumed 1 Sam. 15. 29. He is called eternity it selfe Christ is called the Father of eternity Isay 9. 6. most emphatically to signifie that he is eternity it selfe and the Author of it The French stile God in their Bibles l' Eternell because he onely is perfectly eternall Reasons 1. God is the best thing that is therefore it must needs follow that he is an eternall essence for that which is eternall is better then that which is not 2. Else he should depend on some thing else if he were not eternall and then he were not God 3. If he were not eternall he must have a beginning and then something else must give it him and so be better then he 4. God created all things even time it selfe Heb. 1. 2. He is therefore before all things and without beginning Rom. 1. 2. and whatsoever was before time must needs be eternall 5. He is the Author and giver of eternall life to those that have it therefore he must needs be eternall himselfe for whatsoever can give eternity that is eternall Ob. If God were eternall where was he before the world was and what did he before he made all things and why did he make the world no sooner then a few thousand yeares since Sol. These are curiosities but for answer as he was of himselfe so was he in and with himselfe He is that himselfe to and in himselfe which to us our being time and place are found to be 2. He injoyes himselfe and his owne happinesse 3. He made the world no sooner because it did not please him The creature is limited by the circumstance of time by which it hath its being measured out as it were by parcels past present and to come it had beginning hath succession and may have an end The most glorious Angell as well as a worme is thus limited by time once he was not then he began to be that which is past is gone and that which is to come is not yet and he hath but a little time present But Gods essence had no beginning hath no succession can have no end We cannot say of it properly it was or shall be but alone it is he hath his whole being at once not some after some by parcels one following another Gen. 21. 13. and 23. 33. Psal. 90. 2. 24. Isay 57. 15. Eternity is the continuall existence and duration of the divine essence The creatures being is a fluxe or perpetuall flowing from one moment to another God is a being above time hath not his being measured by time but is wholy eternall 1. Gods love and election are also eternall and he will give eternall life to all beleevers That which is eternall is perfect at once therefore he should be adored and obeyed his counsell followed old men are honoured for their wisedome God saith to Job where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth 2. Let it be a foundation of comfort to us as Psal. 102. 12. though friends dye goods be taken away God remaines for ever he failes not 3. It must incourage the people of God to serve him and do his will faithfully for he will recompence it what ever we hazard or loose he liveth for ever to requite 4. It is a terrour to the wicked he shall be ever to make them everlastingly miserable as heaven is an eternall Palace so hell is an everlasting Prison 5 We must carefully and earnestly seek him place our happinesse in him that is everlasting all other things are fleeting if we get his favour once we shall never loose it he will be an everlasting friend his truth and mercy remaines for ever 6. Every one should resolve in his own thoughts and covenant with God to spend but one halfe quarter of an houre every day in meditating of eternity renew these thoughts every day this body of mine though fraile and mortall it must live for ever and this soule of mine it must live eternally Eternall life is one of the principall Articles of our Creed 1 Tim. 1. 16. CHAP. V. GOd is in himself and in his own nature Immutable Numb 23. 19. 1 Sam. 15. 29. Immutability is that whereby any thing in its essence existence or operation is unchangeable Gods unchangeablenesse is that whereby God in his essence properties and decrees is unchangeable The Scripture proves the Immutabilitie of God both affirmatively Exod 3. 6. Psal. 102. 29. and negatively Mal. 3. 16 Jam. 1. 17. Immutability is twofold 1. Independent and absolute and that is onely in God 2 Dependent and Comparative this may belong to some creatures which they have from God but yet infinitly different 1. God is unchangeable originally and of himselfe these from him 2. In the manner God is in his essence Immutable that and his being are all one therefore he is both potentially and actually so the creatures are onely actually 3. God is so from eternity they onely from their first being All other things are subject to change and alteration they may loose what they had and attaine something which before they had not even the Immortall Spirits are thus mutable they may fall into sinne be annihilated but in God there is no change he is what he is alwayes the same voyd of all mutation
signe that there is no difference betweene them but that the second is added to insinuate the perfection of the image There is a four-fold image or likenesse 1. Where there is a likenesse with an absolute agreement in the same nature and so the Son of God is called the expresse image of the Father 2. By participation of some universall common nature so a man and beast are like in the common nature of animality 3. By proportion onely as when we say the Governor of a Common-wealth and the Pilot of a ship are like 4. By agreement of order when one thing is a patterne or exemplar and the other thing is made after it now when man is said to be like God it is meant in those two last waies Christ was the essential image of God Mans was imago repraesentantis aliter imago imperatoris in nummo aliter in filio Augustine The Image of God in which man was cteated is the conformity of man unto God 1. In his soule 2. In his body for his soule 3. In the whole person for the union of both The soule of a man is conformable to God in respect of its nature faculties and habits 1. In respect of its nature essence or being as it is a spirituall and immortall substance The Scripture witnesseth 1. that the soule of man is a spirit Matth. 27. 20. Acts 7. 59 2. That it is immortall 1. Because it cannot bee destroyed by any second cause Matth. 10. 28. 2. Being served from the bodie it subsists by it selfe and goes to God Eccles. 12. 7. Luke 16. 22. 3. Because it is a simple and immateriall substance not depending on matter the minde workes the better the more it is abstracted from the body when it is asleep or dying 4. Because it transcends all terrene and mortall things and with a wonderful quicknesse searcheth after heavenly divine and eternall things There is an invincible argument for the thing secretly imprinted in the instinct and conscience of the soule it selfe Because it is every good mans hope that it shall be so and wicked mans feare 5. The foode of the soule is immortall 1 Pet. 1. 23. the evident promises of eternall life prove the soule to be immortall He that beleeveth in me hath eternall life and to day thou shalt bee with mee in Paradise Nothing can satisfie the soule but God 6. Man is capable of vertue and vice of immortall desires and affections 7. The soules of Adam and Eve were not made of any matter but came by immediate creation in whom God gave a specimen what he would perpetually doe with other men That is but a Cavill that Solomon Eccles. 12. 7. speakes only of our first Parents Children are called the fruit of their Parents body to note that that they are only fathers of their flesh they have another namely God which is Father of their Spirits Saint Paul teacheth it Heb. 12. 9. and the use of it And this checks their opinion who will have soules propagated no lesse then bodies Many collect the immortality of the soule and salvation of Jobs children because they were not doubled as the rest of his estate was 2. The soule of man is conformable to God in respect of its faculties in its understanding will and memory is like the Trinity 3. In the qualities graces and admirable endowments of it In the understanding there was 1. An exact knowledg of God and all Divine things Coloss. 3. 10. knowledg is a principall part of Gods image by reason hee was enabled to conceive of things spirituall and universall 2. A perfect knowledge of all inferiour things Adam knew Eve and imposed names on the creatures sutable to their natures He had most exquisite prudence in the practicall part of his understanding in all doubtfull cases Hee knew what was to be done 2. In the will there was holinesse Ephes. 4. 24. 3. His affections were under the power of grace From this image did necessarily follow peace with God fellowship and union He knew God to be his Creator and to love him in all good things he enjoyed God and tasted his sweetness Mans body also after a sort is an image of Divine perfection Observe 1. The Majesticall forme of it of which the Heathens tooke notice but the structure of the bodie a man should be taught to contemn the earth which his feete tread upon and to set his heart upon heaven whether his eyes naturally tend 2. Gods artifice in it Psal. 139. 15. Thou hast curiously wrougâ—â— me and I was wonderfully made Materiam superabat opus Of the basest matter dust God made the noblest creature 3. The serviceablenesse of every part for its end and use 4. There is matter of humiliation because it was made of the dust Gen. 3 19. Job 14. 18 10. and 5 15. The Greek name makes man proud cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bids him aspire looke up but the Hebrew and Latine humble him bids him stoop looke downe Adams bodie was mortall conditionally if he had not eaten of the tree there could be noe outward cause of his death for Gods protection kept that off nor noe in ward cause because originall righteousnesse was in his soule and for old age and weaknesse the tree of life would have preserved him from that 3. The whole person consisting both of soule and bodie was conformable to God in respect of his felicitie and dominion over the creatures Gen. 1. 26 28. The image of God doth not principally consist in this but secondarily therefore though the man and woman were created perfectly after Gods image in other respects yet in this respect the woman had not the image of God as the Apostle sheweth The power which Adam had over the creatures was not absolute and direct that God reserved to himselfe but it was for Adams use then the stoutest and fiercest beasts would be ruled by Adam this dominion since the fal is lost for a great part of our rebellion against God the creatures rebellion should mind us of ours we may see somtimes a little child driving before him 100. oxen or kine this or that way as he pleaseth for the infusing of the soul the time when it was infused it is most probable that the body was first made as the organe or instrument and then the soule put into it as God did make heaven and earth before man was made God did not create all the soules of men at once but he creates them daily as they are infused into the bodie There are these two Questions to be resolved 1. Whether immortalitie was naturall to Adam 2. Whether originall righteousnesse was naturall to Adam For the first A thing is immortall foure wayes 1. Absolutly soe that their is no inward or outward cause of mortalitie 1. Tim. 6. soe God onely 2. when it is not soe by nature but immortalitie is a perfection voluntarily put into the
Ghost is the maker preserver and governour of all things by his wisdome power justice providence Concerning man 1 That he was made by God of a visible body and an immortall and spirituall soule both so perfect and good in their kindsâ— that he was perfectly able to have attained eternall life for himselfe which was provided as a reward of his obedience 2 That being thus made he yeelded to the temptations of the Devill and did voluntarily sinne against God in eating of the Tree forbidden and so became a child of wrath and heire of cursing an enemy to God and slave to the devill utterly unable to escape eternall death which was provided as a recompence of his disobedience 3 That he doth propagate this his sinfulnesse and misery to all his posterity Concerning Christ. 1 That he is perfect God and perfect man the second Person in the Trinity who tooke the nature of man from the Virgin Mary and united it to himselfe in one personall subsistence by an incomprehensible union 2 That in mans nature he did die and suffer in his life and death sufficient to satisfie Gods justice which man had offended and to deserve for mankind remission of sinnes and life everlasting and that in the same nature he rose againe from the dead and shall also raise up all men to receive judgement from him at the last day according to their deeds 3 That he is the onely sufficient and perfect Redeemer and no other merit must be added unto this either in whole or part Lastly concerning the meanes of applying the Redeemer they are three 1 That all men shall not be saved by Christ but onely those that are brought to such a sight and feeling of their owne sinfulnesse and misery that with sorrow of heart they doe bewaile their sinnes and renouncing all merits of their owne or any creature cast themselves upon the mercy of God and the onely merits of Jesus Christ which to doe is to repent and believe and in this hope live holily all the remainder of their life 2 That no man is able thus to see his sinnes by his owne power renounce himselfe and rest upon Christ but God must worke it in whom he pleaseth by the cooperation of his Spirit regenerating and renewing them 3 That for the working of this faith and repentance and direction of them in a holy life he hath left in writing by the Prophets and Apostles infallibly guided to all truth by his Spirit all things necessary to be done or believed to salvation and hath continued these writings to his people in all ages Observe those places Acts 15. 11. 1 Tim. 1. 15. Let a man hold this that there was nothing but death in the world till Christ came and that he is come to save horrible sinners John 17. 3. Secondly there is a practicall place Titus 3. 8. Let us 1. See our selves dead without Christ and wholy trust in him 2. Let us be exemplary in our lives and conversations There are other Fundamentals which are onely comparatively necessary that is expected from one man which is not expected from another and more from those that live in the Church Have these six principles of the Apostle not onely in your heads but hearts 1. That a man is dead in himselfe 2. That his remedy lies out of himselfe 3. Know the doctrine of the Sacraments 4. The Word of God 5. Have some apprehension of the life to come 1. That there is a passage from death to life 2. That there is a fixed and irrevokable estate after this life Hold the doctrine of faith so that Christ may live in you and you be delivered up into that forme of doctrine lay hold on life eternall Secondly there are some particular principles There is a naturall light and supernaturall The light of nature teacheth some principles That you must doe as you would be done by that no man hates his owne flesh that one must provide for his family that there is a God and one God that he is to be honoured and reverenced above all 2. Supernaturall Let all our actions be done 1. in love 2. in humility 3. in faith 4. in God this the Gospell teacheth Shew your selves Christians in power go beyond the Heathen in practising the good rules of nature 1. Be carefull to make a wise choice of principles one false principle admitted will let in many errors and erroneous principles will lead men into erroneous practises 2. Labour to act your principles if you captivate the light God wil put it out 3. Be sure you worke according to your principles we pitty another in an errour when he follows his principles Here is an apology for those teachers which tread in Pauls steps are carefull to lay the foundation well It was the observation of our most judicious King JAMES That the cause why so many fell to Popery and other errours was their ungroundednesse in points of Catechisme How many wanton opinions are broached in these daies I wish I might not justly call them Fundamentall errours Some deny the Scriptures some the Divinity of Christ some the immortality of the soule Errours are either contra against the foundation which subvert the Foundation as that of the Papists who deny the al-sufficiency of Christs once suffering 2. Circa about the foundation which pervert the Foundation as the Lutherans opinion of the ubiquity of Christs body 3. Citra meerly without these divert the foundation as in the controversies of Church-government whether it be Sociall or Solitary this strikes not at the Foundation Laurentius saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 11 12 13 14 15. speakes not of Hereticall Teachers and those which erre in fundamentals but of those which erre in lighter matters because he saith of both that they build upon one and the same Foundation Christ. We should contend for a known Fundamentall necessary truth Jude 3. the common faith not every opinion entertained on probable grounds It is a great question in Divinity An Magistratui Christiano liceat capitales poenas de haereticis sumere Whether Heretickes are to be punished by the Christian Magistrate with death The Papists say Haeretici qua Haeretici comburendi That Hereticks for Heresie sake though they doe not trouble the State ought to be put to death Luther doth not approve of the capitall punishment of Heretickes especially for the pernicious sequell of it among the Papists against the Protestants He thinkes it better that they be banished The present Lutherans hold the same almost concerning that question Meisner doth distinguish between haereticus simplex and haereticus seditiosus ac blasphemus these last he saith may be punished with capitall punishments The Socinians being themselves the worst of Hereticks would have no outward forcible restraining of any errour though never so grosse and pernicious For the Protestants heare what Zanchy saith Omnes fere ex nostratibus hujus sunt sentenâ—iae quod haâ—retici sint
of some higher cause then they both Now it cannot be attributed to the wisedome of the Governours as being often times foolish and men of meane understanding at the best such as cannot prevent the conspiracies of those under them Nor yet doth it arise from the goodnesse of the persons governed most of which most times are wicked and unwilling to come under government therefore it must be of God that is a common Superiour which holds all in awe 2. Extraordinary Miracles There is a work of Miracles for all stories both of Scripture and other Countries doe agree in relating divers Miracles Now the worker of a Miracle is he that can lift Nature off the Hinges as it were and set it on againe as seemeth best to himselfe and therefore is above the course of nature and the Commander of the course of nature and so is the Author of all things under himselfe under nothing and that is none but God The certaine and plaine predictions of things future long afore whose events could by no wit of man be either gathered from their causes or conjectured from their signes Miracles are wrought beyond and above the course of nature therefore some supreame Power must work them Secondly Arguments may be drawn from the contrary to prove that there is a God Reasons From the contrary are two 1. From the being of Devils There is a Devill an Enemy to God which sets himselfe against God and desires and strives and prevailes in many places to be worshiped as God therefore it must needs be there is a God to whom the Service and honour is due of being confessed and adored as God which these doe unduly affect and seeke Againe the Devill is a Creature for strength wisdome nimblenesse able to destroy all man-kinde quickly and out of his Malice and Fury very willing to doe it Yet he cannot doe it it is not done of this restraint there is some cause therefore there must be something which over-commands and over-rules him and that can be no other then a God that is something of Higher Power and in wisedom farre beyond him Now there are Devils it is apparent by the horrible temptations which are cast into the hearts of men quite against and beyond their naturall inclinations as Blasphemous Suggestions and as appeareth by the practises of conjurers and witches who practise with the Devill and of those Countreys which worship him instead of God and as a God being beguiled by him 2. From the sleightnesse of the reasons brought to disprove this truth or to shew the Contrary The reasons produced to shew there is no God are fond and weake and what is opposed alone by weake and false reasons is a truth 1. If there were a God some man should see him and sensibly converse with him This is a brutish reason what cannot be seene is not then man hath no soule God is above sense more excellent then to be discerned by so poor weak and low a thing as sense is 2. God daily makes himselfe after a sort visible to men by his workes 2 If there were a God he would not suffer wicked men to prosper and oppose better men then themselves nor himselfe to be so blasphemed as he is Those things that to us seeme most unjust and unfit if we could see the whole tenour of things from the beginning to the ending would appeare just and wise 3 All Divine Religion say the Atheists is nothing else but an humane invention artificially excogitated to keep men in awe and the Scriptures are but the device of mans braine to give assistance to Magistrates in Civill government This objection strikes at the root and heart of all Religion opposeth two many Principles at once 1. that there is a God 2. That the Scripture is the word of God which though it be but a meer idle fiction yet it prevailed too much with some learned men Tullie and Seneca were the chiefest Patrons of that conceit that Religion is no better then an humane invention 1. Religion is almost as Ancient as man when there were but three men in the universall world we read that two of them offered up their sacrifices unto God 2. The universality of Religion declareth that it is not a humane invention but a Divine impression yea and a Divinity-Lesson of Gods own heavenly teaching Lactantius accompteth Religion to be the most proper and essentiall difference between a man and a Beast 3. The perpetuity of Religion proveth also that it was planted by God For the second part of the objection about the Scriptures I answer Nothing is more repugnant to Prudence and Policy What Policy was it in the old Testament to appoint circumcision to cut a poor Child as soon as he comes into the world two and twenty thousand Oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand Sheep were spent by Salomon at the dedication of one Altar To slaughter so many Oxen and Sheep such usefull creatures was enough to bring a Famine They were to give away the seventh part of their time to God Christ was not the Sonne of the Emperour Augustus to commend him to the Grandees of the world but the supposed Son of a poor Carpenter a Starre leads the Wise Men to a Stable though that shined gloriously without yet there was nothing within but what was base and contemptible Christ fell on the Pharisees the great Doctors 23. of Matthew called them fooles and blind and threatened them with Hell he cryed down the Ceremoniall Law the Ministry which had beene practised diâ—â—rs hundred years the Jewes were naturally tenacious of their Customes Christ chose silly unlearned men to propagate the Gospell Nothing crosseth humane wisdome more then the whole Scripture from the beginning to the end Martin Fotherby Bishop of Salisbury who wrote Atheomastix addes another reason to prove that there is a God and it is taken from the grounds of Arts There is no Art saith he neither liberall nor illiberall but it cometh from God and leadeth to God 1. From Metaphysicks he urgeth that the bounding of all naturall bodies is the work of God to be unlimited and boundlesse is onely the Prerogative of the Maker of all things Every finite body being thus limited must needs have those bounds prescribed unto it by some other thing and not by it selfe For every thing by nature seeking to inlarge it selfe as far as it is able if it had the setting of its owne bounds it would set none at all but would be as infinite as God himselfe is who hath the setting of limits unto all things who could circumscribe all things within their limits but onely God Himselfe who is both the Maker and Ruler of all things Psal. 33. 7. Job 38. 11. 2. From Philosophy every thing that is must needs have a cause and nothing can be the cause of it selfe and among all the causes there can be but one
Symbolically Isay 66. 1. Act. 7. 49. 2. From Reasons 1. From the Simplicity of the Divine essence God is a pure act therefore altogether indivisible and therefore he is in every thing and in every part of every thing whole and undivided 2. Whatsoever is in its essence infinite that also is every where present else it should be terminated in place God is infinite in his essence and being therefore also of an infinite presence Each creature is limited by place though spirits doe not fill up a place by commensuration of parts yet they have a certaine compasse as I may call it beyond which their essence extendeth not they are so here that they are not there so in heaven that they are not the same time on earth But God is altogether above place he is omnipresent not by any materiall extension but after an incomprehensible and unexpressible manner He is quite above all place wholy without and within all and every place and that without all locall motion or mutation of place He is everywhere totally and equally he was as well in the Jewish Synagogues as in the Temple of Jerusalem or Holy of Holies as well in earth or hell as in the heavens in respect of his essence Gods being in every place is not first by multiplication there is not a multiplication of his being as loaves were multiplyed so that they held out to doe that which otherwise they could not for then there should be many divine essences nor secondly by division as if part of his nature were in one part of the world and part in another but he is wholy wheresoever he is Nor thirdly by commixtion as if he came into composition with any creature He is not the aire or fire but he is every where effectively with his essence and being repletively he fils all places heaven and earth Yet he fils not up a place as a body doth but is present everywhere by being without limitation of place so that he coexists with every creature Where any creature is there is he more then the creature and where no creature is there is he too all the sinnes that we commit are done in his presence and before his face Isay 65. 3. Psal. 51. 4. as if a thiefe shold steale the Judge looking on We should set the Lord therefore alwayes before us as David Psal. 16. 8. We should be comforted in troubles and patient Phil. 4. 5. a Child will not care so long as he is in his Fathers presence Psal. 23. 4. Ob. God is said to descend and ascend Sol. This hinders not his being every where 1. He is said to descend as often as by any visible shape objected he testifyeth his presence as Gen. 18. 21. Exod. 3. 8. when God withdrawes that presence he is said to ascend as Gen. 35. 13. 2. When God by the destruction of his Enemies and deliverance of his owne testifyeth of his Church that he is with it on earth Isay 64. and the contrary Psal. 68. 19. Ob. If God be everywhere how is he then said to dwell in heaven Psal 2. 4. Sol. In respect of his essence God is every where and in every thing as well as in heaven but he doth more manifest his glory wisedome power and goodnesse and bestowes his grace more liberally on his Angels and Elect in heaven then he doth here below Ob. How can God be said to depart from man if he be every where Sol. He departs not in respect of his essence but in respect of the manifestation of his presence The Schoolemen say God is five wayes in the creatures 1. In the humanity of Christ by hypostaticall union 2. In the Saints by knowledge and love 3. In the Church by his essence and direction 4. In heaven by his Majesty and glory 5. In Hell by his vindicative justice 1. This may teach the godly to be sincere and upright because they walke before God Gen. 17. 1. he is present with them understands their secret thoughts and imaginations Psal. 139. 7. 8. Jer. 23. 23. 24 This should curbe them from committing secret sinnes and incourage them to perform private duties Matth. 6. 6. approving themselves to their Father who seeth in secret Solitarinesse should not imbolden us to sinne nor hinder us from well-doing It was Josephs reason to his Mistresse how can I doe this great evill though they were alone God was present Two religious men took two contrary courses with two lewd women whom they were desirous to reclaime from their ill course of life the one came to one of the women as desirous of her company so it might be with all secrecy and when she had brought him to a close roome that none could prie into then he told her that all the bolts and barres which were could not keepe God out The other desired to accompany with the other woman openly in the street which when shee rejected as a mad request He told her it was better to doe it in the eyes of a multitude then of God 2. This serves to confute the Lutherans who hold Ubiquity to be communicated to Christs body and therefore they say his body is in the Sacrament and every where else because it is assumed by God but this is false for the reason of Gods omni-presence is the infinitenesse of his nature and therefore it can be no more communicated to the body of Christ then the Godhead can for his humane nature might as well be eternall as everywhere Christs body is a finite creature and though it be glorified yet is not deified It is an incommunicable attribute of the Deity to be in many places at one and the same time 3. Let us esteeme God a greater good then any creature friends are distant one from another God is with us in our journies and families He onely is the object of Prayer for he is everywhere to heare thee and so are not Angels God himselfe comforts his people by promising his gracious presence Gen. 46. 4. Exod. 3. 12. Josh. 1. 9. Isay 43. 1. 4. No man by wit or policy flight or hiding himselfe can escape the hand of God for he is everywhere present Amos 9. 1. 2. 5. This is a terrour to the secret devisers of wickednesse their Plots are discovered God is Eternall Eternity is a being without limitation of time Time is the continuance of things past present and to come all time hath a beginning a vicissitude and an end or may have but Gods essence is bounded by none of these hedges First he is without beginning he is before time beyond time behind time as it were and above all circumscription of time From everlasting to everlasting thou art God He is what he is in one infinite moment of being as I may speak I am Alpha and Omega Rev 1. 8. In the beginning God made all things and he that made all things could not have a beginning himselfe What
made and adorned so it is probable that the Angels were made together in a great multitude After the Heavens their habitation was finished Chemnit in loc commun Gen. 2. 1. The Heavens and all the host of them It is plain from Job 38. 7. that they were made before the Earth When God laid the foundations of the earth and laid the Corner-stone thereof then the Sons of God that is the Angels Job 1. 7. Snouted for joy An Element is that whereof any thing is compounded and it selfe uncompounâ—ed Each element is superiour to other not more in place then dignitie The dry land is called earth which is a firme cold dry Element round and heavie hanging unmoveably in the midst of the world fit for habitation The Psalmist describes the creation of the earth Psal. 104. vers 5 Who hath laid the foundation of the earth or founded the earth upon his Basis that it should not be removed for ever The earth is the heaviest and lowest element It is so made that it doth stand firme in its place so that neither the whole earth is moved out of its place nor yet the great parts of it This is an exceeding wonderfull worke of God to settle the earth so upon certaine foundations that it is not shaken out of its place Take a little piece of earth not bigger then ones fist nay then ones eye or the apple of it hold it up in the aire let it fall it will never cease moving till come to lye upon some solid bodie that it may hold it up stay the motioÌ„ of it Now how is it that this whole lump of earth the whole body I say of the earth hangeth fast in the wide and open aire and doth not sway and move now hither and now thither what is it that holdeth it up so stedfast in the very midst of the aire It is Gods worke who hath founded it on his Basis that it cannot be moved This worke is often mentioned in the Scripture Joh 26. 7. There is nothing which might hold it up yet behold it hangeth still and quiet as if it had some pillar or base upon which to rest it selfe The Lord doth in larger words commend it to the consideration of Job when himselfe comes to speake with him Job 38. 4. 6. God there compareth himselfe to a builder that layes the foundation and then sets up the building by line and measure and convinceth Job of his weaknes that knoweth not how this earth should be set up or founded whereas the Lord himself effected this building long before Job was David telleth of it Psal. 24. 2. as a ground of Gods right unto it and to all things that are in it for saith he He hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the flouds And Solomon mentions it Prov. 8. 29. and 30. 4. Eccl. 1. 4. This is a great work because it is both necessary and unsearcheable It is necessary for it is the cause of the order of things in all the world and of their not being jumbled and confounded together If the lowest part of any building be not firme all that is built upon it will totter and tumble and come downe quickly so if the earth this lowest part of the world should shake or reele and be apt to move hither and thither the things that be upon it by nature or that are built upon it by the workmanship of man could not possibly subsist or endure Rivers and Channels would be daily altered dry ground would ever and anon become Sea and Sea dry ground trees would often totter and fall or else be changed from place to place building and houses would still bee falling and tumbling down off the earth did it not keepe its own room nay heaven earth would come together utter confusion would overturne the face of the earth and men beasts and all things below would come to nothing So needfull it was for this great Architect to set the Corner-stone of the earth fast firm and immoveable But the cause of it is unsearcheable who can find out to the full the reason of this so necessary a work Every heavy thing we see must have something to keepe it up something on which to rest it selfe that it may goe no further but abide where it is but what doth this earth rest on How is it held so even in the very midst and sweyed neither one way nor another who can tell me a full just satisfactory reason in nature We must not thinke that God doth hold it up by an immediate violent supernaturall or miraculous working but in a naturall way by ordering the principles of nature so that they shall necessarily concurre to effect this setlednesse Philosophers give this reason of it they say the simple bodies were made some of a light subtill thin and spirituall nature and their propertie is to ascend to goe upward still so as the light still flies higher and some of a more grosse thicke and heavie nature and the property of these is to move downward and still the heavier to make it selfe a way through the lighter and to presse toward the Center that is the middle point of the whole round of the world for it must bee confessed that the world is round Wherefore seeing every part and portion of the earth presseth toward the very middle point of all it cannot be but that all must stand fast in the midst seeing each part thronging the other and leaning upon the other toward the very middle all will bee quiet if the parts be even poised But now how heavie things should be made so to move toward the Center and how each part should so evenly move and a number of other questions more let them answer that are able especially seeing the earth doth not carry in it selfe to sense a perfect even and smooth roundnesse it is hard then to answer to the question which God propounded to Job upon what bee the sockets of it fastned It is a worke of God exceeding our capacitie and must therefore quicken and call up our admiration We should blame our selves for so seldom putting our selves in mind of this great work to stir up our selves to magnifie the Author of it and make it an argument of our blessing his name for which David speaketh of it Psal. 104. or of humbling our selves before him in acknowledgment of his power and wisdome and of our weaknesse and follie to which end it is mentioned in other places or indeed to any good purpose of informing our selves the better either of his nature or our dutie Oh how brutish and blockish are we So strange so mightie a worke is done and continued in our sight here it was done before I was here and here it will remaine and bee continually done after I am gone hence I enjoy the benefit of it as well as any other and with all others and yet
saltishnesse drowth adustion Our Uurine and excrements for the same reason are also salt the purest part of our nourishment being employed in and upon the body Lydiat attributes it to under-earth or rather under-sea fires of a bituminous nature causing both the motion and saltnesse of the Sea Aristotle affirmeth that the Sea in Summer toward the South is more salt then else-where and is fresher toward the bottome then top The Sea is salt 1. to keepe it from putrifaction which is not necessary in the floods because of their swift motion 2. for the breeding and nourishing of great Fishes being both hotter and thicker 7. What is the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea There have been many opinions of the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea De quo plura pro ingeniis differentium quam pro veritatis fide expressa Some say it is the breathing or blowing of the world as Strabo Albertus Magn. One said it was because the waters getting into certaine holes of the earth were forced out again by Spirits remaining within the earth Macrobius said it was by meeting the East West Ocean Cicero seems to ascribe it only to the power of God others for the most part ascribe it to the various light or influences of the moone which rules over all moist bodies Some attribute it to certaine subterranean or under-Sea fires The final cause of the Seas motion is the preserving and purging of the waters as the aire is purged by windes Coelius Rhodiginus Antiq. lect l. 29. c. 8. writeth of Aristotle that when he had studied long about it at the last being weary he dyed through tediousnesse of such an intricate doubt Some say he drowned himselfe in Euripus because hee could finde no reason why it had so various a fluxion and refluxion seven times a day at least adding before that his praecipitation quoniam Aristoteles non cepit Euripum Euripus capiat Aristotelem Since Aristotle could not comprehend Euripus it should comprehend him But Doctor Brown in his Enquiries seemes to doubt of the truth of this story Other questions there are concerning râ—vers What is the originall of springs and Rivers what manner of motion the running of the rivers is whether straight or circular As one part of the waters and the farre greater part is gathered into one place and much of it hidden in the bowels of the earth and there as it were imprisoned or treasured up by making the Sea and dry land so another part of them was appointed to runne up down within the earth and upon it in springs rivers which rivers are nothing but the assembling of the waters into divers great channells from the fountains and springs which the Psalmist describeth by its matter and use or effect He sendeth the springs into the valleyes which run along the hills that is He made the springs and fountaines to conveigh waters from place to place the use of this is to give drinke unto the beasts even to the wilde asses who quench their thirst there There be many other uses of springs and rivers but this is noted as the most manifest and evident Another use is for the fowles which have their habitation in the trees which grow neere and by meanes of these springs there they sit and sing These spring bring up so much moisture to the upper parts of the earth as causeth trees to grow also for fowles to build and sing in Some of the waters also were drawn up into the middle region of the world changed into Clouds that so they may be dissolved and powred downe againe from thence upon the hills also and other places which cannot be watered by the Springs that so the whole earth may be satisfied with the fruit of Gods works The Poets faigned that Jupiter Neptune and Pluto divided the Universe and that Neptune had the Sea for his part which is called Neptunus either à nando from navigation or a nubendo from covering because the Sea covers the earth and Pontus the nations about Pontus thought no Sea in the world like unto their owne and doubted whether there were any other Sea but that whence Pontus was used for the Sea in generall The Sea is a wide and spacious place Psal. 104. 25. The great deepe the wombe of moisture the well of fountains the great Pond of the world The reason of the greatnesse and widenesse of it is the multitude of waters which were made by God at the first which because they did cover the earth and inclose it round it must needs be farre greater then the earth and therefore when God saw fit to distinguish the dry land from the earth must needs have very great ditches cut for it in the earth and caverns made to hold it therefore the earth in Scripture is said to be spread out upon the Sea because a great part of it is so in respect of the waters that are under it Again the use the principall use of the Sea waters therof was that it might supply vapours for making of the clouds by the attraction of the Sunne and native heate of the Sea in respect of some fire which God hath mixed with the earth and waters that they may be more fit to give life to living things Now if the superficies of the Sea were not very large and wide the Sunne could not have power enough by its attractive heate and warmth by which it doth attenuate make thin the waters into vapours which after the cold of the aire when they come into the middle region of it doth againe thicken and turne it into waters I say the Sunne could not else have power to draw out of the Sea sufficient store of these vapours for watering of the earth with showers So the multitude of the waters and the necessity of having much of them drawn up for raine required that they should not have little receptacles but one so great and spacious a receptacle which we call the Sea Oceanus the Ocean is that generall collection of all waters which environeth the world on every side Mare the Sea is a part of the Ocean to which we cannot come but by some streight In the Sea are innumerable creatures small and great there walke the Shipps there play the Leviathans What living mountaines such are the Whales some of which have beene found 600. foote long and 360. foote broad rowle up and downe in those fearfull billowes for greatnesse of number hugenesse of quantity strangenesse of shapes variety of fashions neither aire nor earth can compare with the waters Another use of the Sea is that there goe the Ships as the Prophet speakes in a kind of wonderment The whole art of Navigation is a strange art the Lord sitted the Sea for this purpose that it might be usefull to transport men from place to place and other things
encompasse the earth what then is the whole globe of Earth and water and yet that whole globe is a thing of nothing in comparison of heaven and yet all that is nothing in comparison of God O how great is hee and how much to be admired Great not in quantity and extension of dimensions but in perfection of Essence How great is hee that is beyond Earth Sea and world and all more then these are beyond Nothing And let us a little compare our selves with this great and wide Sea The Sea is but part of this Globe yet hath in it water enough to drowne all the men that are in the world if either it were suffered to overflow as once at Noah's flood or else they were cast into it so that all men are but a small trifling thing in comparison of this Sea and then what am I must every one say to himselfe and what compared to God the maker of the wide Sea and this wide world Oh how nothing is man am I my selfe among other men and why am not I humble before God why do I not cast downe and abase my selfe in his presence and carry my selfe to him as becommeth so poore meane and small a creature to so Infinite and great a Creator Let us morally use the things wee see else the naturall knowledge will doe us no good at all We may see in the Sea a map of the misery of mans life it ebbeth and floweth seldome is quiet but after a little calm a tempest ariseth sodainly So must I looke for stormes upon the sea of so troublesome a world For the great worke of Navigation and so of transportation of things by Sea and for the fitnesse of the Sea to that use wee must praise God every man hath the benefit of it By vertue of it wee have Pepper Cloves and Mace Figs and Raisms Sacke and Wines of all sorts Silkes and Velvets and all the commodities of other Kingdomes distant a thousand of miles from us and by this they have from us such commodities as our Land affords above theirs There is no art which helps more to inrich a Nation and to furnish it with things for State pompe and delight And yet how is it abused by Marriners who behold Gods wonders in the Deepe being the worst of men and never good but in astorme and when that is gone as bad or worse then ever The materialls of a ship are wonderfull First it is made of the strongest and durablest wood the Oake and Cedar Now it is a strange worke of God to make such a great tree out of the earth 2. The nailes in it are made of iron that the pieces may be closely compacted 3. Tarre and pitch to stop every crevise that no water or ayre might enter this they learned of God himselfe who bid Noah to plaister the Arke within and without with pitch 4. Cords made of flaxe a multitude of strange things concur to this worke What pitty is it that Souldiers Marriners as was said who are sosubject to dangers have such frequent experience of Gods goodnesse and mercy to them in their preservation should generally be so prophane and forgetfull of God For the Souldier it is an olde saying Nulla fides pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur And for the Marriuer nautarum vota is grown into a proverb In the third dayes worke were likewise created grass herbs plants and trees The first is grasse or greene herbe which is that which of it selfe springs up without setting or sowing 2. Herbe bearing seed that is all herbs which are set or sowne and encrease by mans industry The third trees and plants which are of a woody substance which beare fruit and have their feede which turnes to fruit in themselves God by his powerfull word without any help of mans tillage raine or Sun did make them immediately out of the earth and every one perfect in their kinde grasse and herbs with flowers and seedes and trees with large bodies branches leaves and fruites growing up suddenly as it were in a moment by Gods word and power The great power of God appeares in this Hee is able to worke above nature without meanes the fruitfulnesse of the earth stands not in the labour of the Husband-man but in the blessing of God He also caused the earth to yeeld nourishment for such divers herbs and plants yea herbs of contrary qualitie will grow and thrive close one by another when those which are of a nearer nature will not do so The herbe was given at first for mans use as well as beasts Gen. 1. 9. Psalm 104. 14. Herbs are one wonderfull worke of God The greatnesse of the worke appeareâ—h in these particulars 1. The variety of the kinds of herbs 2. The variety of their uses of their shapes and colours and manner of production and of their working growth Some come forth without seede some have seede some grow in one place some in another some are for foode some for medicine and some for both That out of the earth by the heate of one Sunne with the moysture of one and the same water there should proceede such infinite variety of things so differing one from another is a wonder some are hot in operation some cold some in one degree some in another some will draw some heal some are sweete some sowre some bitter some of middle tasts In the bowells of the earth the Lord created gold silver precious stones and the face of the earth above was beautified with grasse herbs and trees differing in nature qualities and operations Plants grow till they dye whence they are called vegetables At the first herbs were the ordinary meate of men Gen. 1. 20. and they have continued ever since of necessary use both for meat to maintain life and for medicines to recover health Solomons wisedome and knowledge was such that hee was able to set out the nature of all plants from the highest Cedar to the lowest Mosse 1 Kings 4. 33. We must here condemne our stupidity and blindnesse of minde that are not provoked many times by this particular to magnifie the name of God When a man hath occaslon to travell through a Close or ground how great store of herbs seeth hee whose nature yea names he is ignorant of yet admireth not God in them nor confesseth his power and goodnesse Secondly we are to lament the fruite of our sin which hath made us blinde there is nothing hurtfull to mans bodie but some herb or other rightly applyed would cure it It is a great and worthy worke of God to make grasse on the earth Psal. 104. 14 15. and 147. 8. He maketh grasse to grow upon the mountaines The omnipotent power of God was exercised to make this creature else it could not have beene and at his appointment it came forth This is one of the benefits which God promiseth to his people upon their
did not make themselves They could not possibly be without any beginning at all for they are but parts of the whole world and no part of any whole can be eternall because there must be something before that did unite those parts together wherfore they were made by some superiour essence and more excellent then themselves and that is God How great how wise how good how infinitely excellent is He whose hand framed and ordered these things The Sunne ariseth to us constantly the Moone also keepes her course with like constancie Doth not that mighty armie of stars which in a cleare night shew themselves even speake to us as it were to consider of his incomprehensible excellencie which made and rules them Let us accustome our selves hereafter to these meditations if God had not beautified heaven with these excellent bodies light and heate could not have been equally and in due quantity conveyed into all the quarters of the world We must observe this worke so as to praise God for it to informe our selves of his nature and strive to worke more love feare obedience and confidence in our selves towards him The Apostle saith that in the times before the Gospell the Gentiles might have found God as it were by groping Acts 17. 27. Now we that have the Scripture to direct us as in the day-light shall not wee finde God out by these illustrious works of his CHAP. VI. THe fift dayes worke was the Creation of all living creatures which live and move in the two moist Elements the water and the aire viz. Fishes and moving creatures which live and move in the waters and all kinde of Fowles which flye in the open Region of the aire divers in nature shape qualities and manner of living The Hebrew verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is here translated the moving creature is derived is used as here so in other Scriptures frequently first to signifie creeping or moving forward without feete as Genes 7. 21. and Levit. 11. 19. and secondly also to bring forth abundantly as here and also Exod. 1. 7. Fishes breed and bring forth young in great abundance more then any other creatures do by the multitude of spawn they would encrease beyond all measure and number if by one meanes or other the spawne were not devoured and consumed Who can render a reason of their ability to swim so in the waters to support themselves in the midst of the waters convey themselves up and down in it Fishes are in Scripture termed Reptilia Psal. 104. 25. In the great and wide Sea there are things creeping innumerable both small and great so called because things when they swim seeme to creep along in the water As birds have their wings and traines by meanes whereof they cut their way and make smooth passage through the aire so fishes are furnished with finnes wherewith they guide themselves in their swimming and cut the current of the streames aud waves for their more easie passage wherein their course is directed by their taile as shtps are conducted by their Helm The Sea gives more and greater dainties then the earth those that did most affect to please their pallate of olde set great store by fishes and paid dearer for them then flesh God hath furnished them with a strong power of encreasing Birds bring forth some foure or five in a nest some three and some but two the most but twenty as the little Wren for being so little the kinde would bee consumed by the things which devoure such weake creatures if those that be did not bring forth very many but every fish brings forth a great multitude many hundreds as we may see in their spawne That God should give unto these things a power to multiply so very fast is wonderfull and it is agreeable to reason too for the fishes doe more devoure one another then the beasts doe the greater being much more ravenous then any beast as being bigger and their stomacks by an antiperistasis of the cold water more vehement in digesting They are said to bee without number Psal. 104. 25. not simply but to us for wee cannot tell the number of them though God which made them doe know the particular number of them Hee can tell how many fishes there bee in the Sea though to us they exceed the power of counting yet he hath the precise and exact number of them We know not the kinds of fishes how much lesse the particulars There be saith Plinie of fishes and other creatures living in the Sea one hundred seventy and sixe severall and distinct kindes What Philosopher can tel how many Dolphins Herrings Whales sword-fishes there be in the Sea The Echeneis Remora or stop-ship but halfe a foot long is able to stay the greatest ship under saile Keckermannus humori frigido à Remora fuso adscribere videtur qui aquam circa gubernaculum conglaciet in Disput. Phisic The Cramp-fish Torpedo is able to benum and mortifie the armes of the lustiest and strongest Fishers that be by touching onely the end of any part of an angle-rod which they hold in their hands although they stand aloft and a great way from her hence it hath its name quod torpore manus afficiat because it benummeth the hands The Naturalists tell us of one fish which they call the Uranoscope which hath but one eye and that in a verticall point on the top of the head directly upward by which it avoids all rocks and dangers There have been known Whales sixe hundred foot long and three hundred 60. foot broad some like mountains some like Islands God himselfe speaking of his owne power of all the creatures rehearseth onely two the Behemoth Job 40. 15. to the end that is the Elephant and the Leviathan Job 41. per totum that is the Whale this being the greatest among the Fishes as that among the beasts The Sword-fish hath a beake or bill sharp pointed wherewith hee will drive through the sides and planks of a shippe and bore them so that they shall sink withall The Dolphin is said to bee a fish of such exceeding great swiftnesse as that oftentimes he outstrippeth a ship under sail in the greatest ruffe and merriest wind in swiftness of course In this fish is propounded to us an example of charity and kind affection toward our Children as Plinie in his description of the nature of this fish sheweth and Aelianus l. 5. c. 18 As also of his singular love toward man whereof Aelianus produceth strange examples It may seeme strange that it should please the Pope to forbid flesh to men rather then fish i. the lesse dainty and luxurious before the more for what is of some alleadged that the curse fell upon the earth and not the Seas is fondly affirmed seeing when it is said cursed bee the earth By earth is meant the whole globe of the earth consisting
making Minerva the daughter of Jupiter and to have had her generation in his Divine braine As God the Son is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Grammer Logicke Rhetoricke carry upon them the same name There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verbam that is Grammer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ratio that is Logick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oratio and that is Rhetoricke All second causes depend on the first and we cannot proceed in InfinituÌ„ Quicquid movetur ab alio movetur Some derive Deus from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feare because the feare of him is planted in the very natures and consciences of all reasonable Creatures others a dando in English God quasi Good his daily mercies and blessings shew that there is a God Act. 14 17 The Heathens lift up their eyes and hands to Heaven in any suddaine distresse Psal. 9. 16. The pure Atheist according to the propriety of that name is hee which generally and constantly denyeth all Deity and beleeveth as he saith The stouâ—est Atheist that ever lived can not resolutely and constantly believe there is no God a Diagorus made a very eloquent Oration that there was no God but the people comming to him applauded him saying that in his Oration he had almost perswaded them but he did so â—lâ—quently that they thought hee was the God b Mornâ—eus cap. 1. de verit Relig. p. 16. c When he wanted fire he tooke one of Hercules wooden Images and made a fire of it saying go to Hercules thou shalt now go through thy thirteenth labour Psal. 14. 1. 53. 15. So Genebrard and Muis expound that 14. Ps. of indirect Atheists who deny Gods Providence Heb. 11. 6. It is not only innatum sed etiam in animo insculptum esse Deos Cic l. 2. de natura Deorum No Atheists almost can be named neither in the holy Scriptures nor in Ecclesiâ—stical Historiâ—s nor in Heathen writings which came not unto some fearfull end See Atheomastix l. 1. chap. 15. d So Domitian Dominus Deus noster sic fieri jubet Suetonius edictam Domini Deique nostri Martiall More Caligula Dominum se Deumque vocarit coegit Aurelius Victor e Psal. 48. 14. f Esay 40. 5. 8. Quid su 〈◊〉 Job 11. 7 8. 26. 14. In the Epistle to my Hebrew Critica Sacra and in the Booke it selfe judaei in legendis et scribediâ— nâ—mi nibus Dei â—ppidò quam superstitiosi sunt interpretantur tertâ—â— praeceptum nomen lehovae non esse prenunciandum librum in quo integrè scriptum est nudis manibus non esse contrectandum Of those two Greeke names See my Greeke Critica Sacra As * Jehovab Jah Ehich Exod. 13. 19. * Vocantur Attributa quia ea sibi attribait Deus nostra causâ Zanchius de Attributis l. 2. c. 11. Attributum est Divinae simplicissimae essentiae pro diversa agendi ratione diversa vera habitudo conceptio nobis expressa M. Stock on Gods Attributes * Proprietates Divinae naturae seu essentiae sunt Attributa Dei essentialia quibus essentiae Divinae veritas ac Majestas nobis innotâ—scit abaliis distinguiturs Wendelinus These Attributes differ not among themselves nor from the Divine essence Esay 43. 25. For my selfe not for my Mercy to teach us that his Mercy is himselfe and not different from his Essence as it is with us God is so light that in him there is no darknesse at all 1 John 1. 5. John 8. 12. 1 John 1. 5. 4. 16. Psal. 105. 8. Jam. 1. 17. Psal. 136. 1. and 100. 5. Psal. 117. 2. Num. 23. 10. Proprietates Dei sunt primi vel secundi generis Primi generis proprietates sunt quae ita Deo competunt ut earum contrariae omni in sint creaturae Cujusâ—odi sunt independentia simplicitas immutabilitas immensitas aeternitas Secundi generis sunt quae ita Deo competunt ut earum expressae imagines in creaturis reperiantur Wendelinus Christian. Theol. l. 1. C. 1. God is called a Spirit 1. Negatively because he is not a body 2. Analogically or by a certaine likenesse because there are many perfections in Spirituâ—Il substâ—nces which doe more shadow forth the Divine nature then any bodily â—â—ng can Doctor Ammes Theol. God is of a pure and spirituall nature To be a spirit implies 1. Invisibility 2. Efficacie and activity Ezek. 1. 20. 3. Simplicitie God is invisible 14. Luke 39. Col. 1. 15 John 1. 18. Consectaries a lib. adver Prax. de anima Rom. 1. 23. Anthropomorphites a sort of Hereticks so called because they misconceived that God had a bodily shape like man Psal. 34. 16. Zach. 4. 10. Quod de Deo dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intelligi debet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dextra Dei significat potentiam majestatem Dei oculi aures Omniscientiam The Scripture referring eyes to God by them intends 1. His knowledge and notice of things Prov. 15. 3. 2. His care Psal. 34. 15. 3. His direction Psal. 42. 8. L. 2. de Imag. Sanct. C. 8. Consectaries from Gods being a spirit and invisible Rom. 1. 9. Rom. 1. 20. a Matth. 5. 8 b Invisibile aliquid dicitur dupliciter inquit Cham. primò per se ipsa sui naturâ—â— ut Deus ut Spiritus sunt invisibiles Secundi per accidens â—um quid in se tale est quidem ut possitvideri sed al qua externa superveniente causa fit invisibile ijs à quibus vel alias potuit vel etiam debuit videri quo modo ijs qui sunt ad Septentrionem invisibiles sunt stellae ad Austrum quo modo stellae quaedam minutissimae sunt invisibiles The Divine essence is simple and altogether uncompounded Simplex proprie dicitur quod compositum ex diversis non est 2 Cor. 12. 3. The Gospell and the wayes of it are not Simple as Simplicity is opposed to the depth of wisedome for therein is made knowne the manifold wisedome of God Ephes. 3. 10. But as Simplicity is opposed to mixture Every thing the more simple in this sence the more excellent In Deo idem est esse essentia vivens vita quia Deus non vivit per aliud essentiae superadditum sed vitam habet inscipso est ipsa vita vivit à scipso per scipsum * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consectaries of God simplenesse Simplex quasi sine plicis Sincerus sine cera See prov 11. 20. * A great French paire is called Le bon Chrâ—stien the good Christian because they say it never rots at the core 22. Matth. Christ opposeth a single eye and corrupt one an Israelite in whom is no guile is worth an eccâ— a rare man Mâ—s. Elizabeth Juxton said she had nothing to comfort her but poore syncerity 1 John 5. 20. 21. 115. Psal. 4. 5. Psal. 42. 2. Rom. 9. 26. Graeci Deum vocant 〈◊〉 â vivendo quoniam solus verè vivit