Fruition of Good there is that in God which corresponds to the Will in Man by which he may enjoy good And seeing there is nothing in God which is not essential to him as he eternally necessarily primarily actually knows so doth he also eternally necessarily primarily actually will or love and since there is nothing which has an eternal necessary Being sect 1. par 6. to be so beloved save only God He eternally necessarily primarily actually loves himself And because this Love or Respect to the Object beloved is a Relation to another for another for Love and the Thing beloved are relatively distinct and mutually oppos'd there is another Relation besides the two former of knowing and being known found in God to wit Loving or Love which Relation in that it has an immediate Respect to Good for Good is the proper Object of Love Good known to be good ignoti nulla cupido is the Correlate to Love. Wherefore in regard that nothing but God himself can be the Object of his eternal-necessary primary-actual Love he alone being eternal God known to be good must be the Correlative of that Love. And forasmuch as Truth is the Good and Perfection of an intelligent Being God known to be Truth is that very Good. And seeing Truth known is the express Character of the Object in the Knowers Intellect without any dissimilitude whatsoever from it in it self God in God is God known to be Truth Since therefore God to be in God is the Father to be in the Son par 5 7. the Relative which is Love must be related to the Father and the Son directly according to their very joint-Relation and consequently seeing every Relate denotes Distinction from its Correlate LOVE which is the third Relative is distinct from the FATHER and the SON according to their very joint-Relation of Father and Son. Whence it must of necessity be that because nothing is in God which is not God sect 1. par 11. LOVE is God distinct from Father and Son and so an intellectual incommunicable Substance and consequently a Divine Person and thus a Third Person is found in God. 10. And because this Third Person is related to the Father and the Son as Father and Son whence they are both but one joint Principle of Love there are but three Relatives in the Deity and consequently three Persons only or a Trinity of Persons in Unity of Essence 11. But yet albeit the Third Person proceeds both from the Father and the Son he nevertheless proceeds principally from the Father because Good as Good is that which produces Love though it cannot be beloved unless known And therefore though Good known to be Good be the adequate Principle of Love yet the whole Force of moving in Good known is in the Good and Knowledge is but the application of it that it may move Whence appears a considerable Ground of Reason why our Blessed Saviour and some of the Primitive Fathers might very well be induced to speak of the Holy Ghost's procession from the Father without mention made of his procession from the Son. 12. Why the Third Person is called the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit and the Lord and Giver of Life seems to be in respect of the Church which is the peculiar Office of the Holy Spirit sent by the Son from the Father to enliven with Grace and to breath or inspire Sanctity into and not in respect of the other two Persons in whom Life and Holiness abound no less than in the Third 13. Lastly Whereas the Divine Essence is both Subjectum and Terminus of the Relations in God and that Relatives are simul natura cognitione it s plainly consequent in regard the Divine Essence is an eternal Being sect 1. par 4. and that the Divine Persons are eternally related to each other par 4 9. of this Section that the whole Three Persons in the Blessed Trinity are co-eternal together and co-equal Obj. 1. That God should necessarily know himself and be known by himself and likewise necessarily love himself appears not to be any such great Mystery as that of the adorable Trinity has been ever held by the Catholic Church to be Solut. The stupendious Mystery of the Trinity in Unity appears not so plainly in that as in the Consequent of it namely that God necessarily knowing himself and being necessarily known by himself constitutes two distinct Persons and that necessarily loving himself constitutes a third Person distinct from both the other two whilst every one of them by reason thereof as hath been shewn is an incommunicable Substance notwithstanding that there be no more but one only Substance in God. Object 2. Inasmuch as every one of the Three Persons is said to be an incommunicable Substance there seems rather to be Three entire Substances than only one Solut. It doth not necessarily follow that because the Father is an incommunicable Substance the Son an incommunicable Substance and the Holy Ghost an incommunicable Substance that therefore there are three several Substances for the Substance of any one of the three Persons is not a several Substance from the Substance of the other Two whilst the very same numerical Essence Nature or Being is God knowing himself God known of himself and God loving himself known And yet because there is nothing at all accidental in God sect 1. par 11. but every thing in him is substantial and that to know and to be known and to love what is known as such cannot possibly be the same we must of necessity hold that the Divine Nature is substantially One but relatively More or that the Substance of God is distinguished yet not into more Substances but into more Relations subsisting in the same Substance whence there are three Subsistences in one Substance or a Trinity of Persons in Vnity of Essence SECT III. The Vniverse was created by God. There was no prae-existent Matter whereof it was made It is not of the Nature and Essence of God. It neither could have been eternal for Duration nor infinite in Extension There is no Endless Number of Worlds The Vniverse is only one the best for Kind that was possible to be created 1. VVHereas it was proved sect 1. par 6. that there is only one First-Being whose Existence alone has no dependence on another it must needs be that the Universe is either God himself who is that first Being or that it was originally derived from him in every part and parcel thereof 2. And that the Universe is not God himself is plain from this that God is one simple uncompounded Being sect 1. par 10 11. whereas the Universe in every part of it is some way or other compounded as for example Body is composed of several material Atoms Man of Body and Soul and Angels of Essence and Existence and all these again of Substance and Accident The Universe therefore with all that therein is was originally derived from God alone 3. And since
from the exercise thereof by some special Compact or Promise But it is not so certain and undoubted a Truth as it is taken by the quoted Author to be for since he himself tells us that Dominium est libertas propriis facultatibus secundum rect am Rationem utendi and rightly it is evident that no Authority has a Right to exercise Dominion otherwise than according to Right Reason and therefore it is not only injurious to revoke a free Gift contrary to Compact or Promise but also if in any other Respect whatsoever it be not according to Right Reason to do it this being the absolute Rule for the exercising Dominion by as from the following Instances will I think be evidently made appear the first of which shall be in a matter of small moment A Pinner makes a Wire-pin and when he has done clips it into pieces and throws it away meerly because he will or for his sole Pleasures sake in doing this he neither wrongs any Person nor the Pin because it is his own and he made it yet in that he does an irrational Act in regard that Reason obliges every man to act in every thing for some good End whereas this is plainly a vain and frivolous Action tending to no good he violates thereby his Rational Nature and so injures himself which because Reason tells him he ought not to do he exercises his Dominion over the Pin not according to but against Right Reason which he is not impower'd by the Right of Dominion to do The second Instance shall be in a matter of moment as follows A Sovereign Prince has a just occasion to make War against a potent Enemy and after due Consultation had with his most wise and faithful Counsellors resolves at length on a Person undoubtedly the fitest in all the Kingdom to be his General and thereupon makes him so The Prince afterward notwithstanding he still upon prudent grounds esteems him a Person in every respect for Fidelity Valour and Conduct more requisite to be employed than any other in that Service yet nevertheless out of Fancy takes his Commission from him and bestows the Command of the Army upon another who through his ill Management is occasion of its Overthrow in this case though the Sovereign does his Subject no wrong in removing him from the high and honourable Trust of being General and conferring it on a Person far less worthy yet nevertheless he wrongs his own Reason and to be injurious to ones own Reason is the principal Wrong if well considered that any man can do because of the most intimate Concern to every one as being that which does Violence to Man 's very Natural Constitution which is Rational and thence becomes the Original of all Injury which any one does either to himself or others The third and last Instance of many that might be brought shall be in God himself in manner following Suppose the Almighty when he created the World to act therein as sure 't will be readily granted he did according to exact Wisdom and that there is no less Reason to continue it being made then there was at first to make it God in this case could not reduce it again to nothing without contradicting his own Reason which because it is impossible for him to do it's impossible likewise to annihilate the Universe upon the account of its being the free Product of his Will not but that he has strength infinitely more then is sufficient to do it but forasmuch as the Universe is the Result of his immutable Wisdom and Goodness that it can never enter into his Thoughts to do it If it be asked what advantage a Man has by Propriety in a thing above another Person that has no Right thereto at all if he may not dispose of it as he pleases I answer this advantage that he may make use of it according to Right Reason at his Pleasure whereas any other who is not the Proprietor cannot without the Owners Leave first had ever lawfully use it at all Objection 6. From the infinite Goodness and Perfection of God Divines usually prove the Necessity of the Eternal Communication of his Divine Nature to the Son and Holy Ghost and thence infer that the World was not a necessary but free Product of the Divine Goodness since otherwise the Almighty should have communicated Being to the Creature no less necessarily then he did his Essence to the Second and Third Person in the Blessed Trinity and consequently an infinite Perfection contrary to what is demonstrated Sect. 3. Answer Though I speak of Gods being necessitated to create Sect. 3. Yet I expresly there say that it is only by his Eternal immutable Wisdom and Goodness and that they no otherways engage his Will save only to make the best Choice not that God was ever undetermined in his Will since it is impossible that his Wisdom being essential to him should not perpetually necessarily know and his Goodness no less essential to him should not perpetually necessarily incline him to will what is best or most agreeable to both and equally impossible that his will not really but notionly only distinct from either whatsoever is in God being God Sect. 1. Par. 11. should not act according to them so that as all the internal Actings of God are essentially wise and essentially good so are they likewise essentially necessary whilst the Divine Wisdom Goodness and Will are essentially the same and his internal Actings nothing else but his very Will essentially actuated with Wisdom and Goodness and by consequence eternally and necessarily so actuated And therefore the Instance from the necessity of communicating the Divine Nature by the Father to the Son and Holy Spirit for proof that the World was not necessarily created in stead of disproving the necessity of the Worlds Creation is clearly an Argument for it For seeing the Communication of the Divine Nature is rendred by the Objection and truly the necessary Result of the infinite Goodness and Perfection of God it plainly argues a greater Perfection in an intelligent Being to act out of necessity of Nature then to act with that Freedom which supposes a Liberty of acting or not acting or pleasure and consequently in regard there are no degrees of Perfection in God who is essential Perfection it self that the Creation was as well a necessary as voluntary Product of the Divine Will and that the reason why the Universe is not of infinite Perfection answerable to the Maker of it is from the Incapacity of the Subject accordingly as was shewn Sect. 3. Par. 1 2 3 8. the World being a Complex of Things the perfectest that could be created ibid. Objection 7. If the World could not have been eternal as it is said in Sect. 3. Par. 4. that it could not the reason thereof must be either because God could not have created it from Eternity for want of Power or because the World it self was incapable of existing eternally But
intelligent Nature 4. That God is differently related to and within himself may without farther Enquiry be gather'd hence that being possessed of the plenitude of Perfection he must necessarily have Understanding and having Understanding in that he is eternal sect 1. par 4. and a pure essential Act sect 1. par 9. he must actually from all eternity understand something and seeing nothing was from Eternity but himself sect 1. par 6. and that therefore he is the Source Fountain and Comprehension of all Being it evidently follows that his Understanding was from Eternity necessarily and primarily actually carry'd towards himself and by consequence that God's Understanding has an Eternal-necessary-primary-actual Respect to himself as understood And forasmuch as there is nothing in God but what is his whole entire self sect 1. par 11. 't is clear that God's Understanding is God and consequently that God as knowing himself has an Eternal-necessary-primary-actual Respect to himself as known and therefore since a Knower as a Knower is plainly distinct from the thing known as such and vice versa because relatively oppos'd to each other there must of necessity be different Relations and answerable Relatives thereto in God which was the first thing to be proved 5. The mutual opposite Relatives of Knower and Thing known are therefore evidently in God. And forasmuch as to know is to have the Likeness of the thing known in the Understanding of the Knower to know a thing perfectly is to have the exact likeness of the Thing known without any the least dissimilitude whatsoever in the Knowers Intellect Wherefore since God is infinite in Perfection sect 1. par 7. he has the express Likeness of himself without any the least dissimilitude whatsoever in his Intellect that is in himself for whatever is in God is God sect 1. par 11. And seeing there are no Accidents in God sect 1. par 6 11. the express Image or Character which God has of himself in himself is substantial and consequently the Relations found in God are substantial and not accidental Relations which Relations since they are in an intelligent Being and distinct one of them from the other each of the Relatives included therein must needs be an incommunicable Substance of an intelligent Nature which was the second thing to be proved Both which together viz. that there are different Relations in God and that the Relatives answering thereto implied and included in them are each of them an incommunicable Substance of an intelligent Nature make it plainly appear that there are distinct Persons in the Divine Essence or God. 6. Farther in regard Knowledg or the Character of the Thing known proceeds from the Object or the Thing known God as knowing himself proceeds from God as known and so is God of God. 7. And forasmuch as a Son imports an intelligent Being proceeding from an intelligent Being according to Identity of Nature which among Men is said to be begotten and that God as a Knower is an intelligent Being eternally proceeding from God as known an Intelligent Being according to Identity of Nature it follows that God as a Knower is the eternal Son of God as known and consequently since Father is the Correlative of Son that God as known is the eternal Father of God as a Knower whence it is apparent that there are two distinct Persons in the Deity the Father and the Son. Objection The Identity of Nature which is in Father and Son of human off-spring is specifical but the Identity of Nature in the mentioned Divine Persons is numerical and therefore since the Appellation of Father and Son is transferred from Man to God the Notion of them is improperly attributed to God. Solution There is nothing at all not so much as Substance or Being which is univocally predicated of God and Man. For the Divine Substance whose Essence is pure Existence and stands thereby immediately of it self in a necessary contradictory Opposition to Non-Entity is of a Nature infinitely different and distant from the Nature of all created Being which is the whole Mass of Being besides God alone as will in the next Section be made appear whose Existence in that it is not essential to them may be or not be and accordingly before the Creation was not Yet nevertheless when we transfer Names or Notions from Man to God they are not untruly spoken of him because he who speaks them has no Design to be understood as that he conceived the Name or Notion he makes use of to be a true and perfect Representation of what is really in God but only that there is that in God which has some Analogy or Resemblance with that thing whereof he transfers the Name or Notion from Man to God. And therefore when we call the First Person in the Blessed Trinity Father the Second Person Son by reason the Second Person we say proceeds from the First by way of Generation we do not intend to signifie thereby that we take the Generation which is Diwine and that which is Human to be in all things so alike as the Generation of two Sons by two Fathers in Mankind is alike it being manifest that the one is Spiritual the other Carnal the one by communicating the same Numerical Nature the other by communicating the same Specifical Nature only And yet in that there is a communicating of Natures though after a different manner both by God and Man from the Resemblance arising thence proceeds the interchangeable Notion and Name of Father and Son. 8. How the Second Person of the Sacred Trinity is God of God the Son of God and the express Image or Character of the Father hath already been seen Why he is likewise called the Word of God and also Light of Light shall be now shewn God is Truth it self by which the Truth of all other things is estimated and therefore forasmuch as God the Father is in God the Son as in a Knower par 5 7. the Son is the Knowledg of the Father for what is Knowledg but the express Image of the Thing known in the Knowers Mind And so because Knowledg is an internal Speech Word or Expression of Truth the Son of God is thence rightly called the Word of God. And for the like reason is he said to be Light of Light for Knowledg is intellectual Light and the Divine Knowledg which is the Son being totally and substantially derived from the Father par 6. is thereupon not improperly said to be Light of Light. 9. Thus we see how the First and Second Person the Father and the Son are founded in the Notion of KNOWING But besides the Knowledg of a Thing there is in intelligent Beings Delight taken in the thing known when apprehended to be good which Delight is called a loving of the Object and the Power or Faculty from whence it proceeds is named the Will. Wherefore in regard that God is an intelligent Being and so capable of Delight taken in the
Luke 12. 4 5. Whosoever shall confess me before men him shall the Son of man also confess before the Angels of God But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the Angels of God Luke 12. 8 9. If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For whosoever will save his Life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his Life for my sake shall find it Matth. 16. 24 25. So that the committing of Idolatry to the eye of the world tho to save a man's Life is an heinous Sin both in the sight of God and all good men If you say that in some case even external Gestures of Body are appropriated unto God as namely when and where Divine Worship is solemnly paid by the Congregation to him I return that if it be really so then in that case the giving external honour to any thing besides God is I own Idolatrous But the example of the Jewish Congregation 1 Chron. 29. 20. seems clearly to gainsay that bodily Gestures betokening Honour even at the time and place of exhibiting Divine Worship are appropriated unto God for it is there written And David said to all the Congregation Now bless the LORD your God And all the Congregation blessed the LORD God of their Fathers and bowed down their Heads and worshipped the LORD and the King. The last Clause of this Text is rendred in the Polyglot by the interlineary Version Et inclinaverunt se incurvaverunt se Domino Regi in the Vulgar Latine Et inclinaverunt se adoraverunt Deum deinde Regem and in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By all or any of which Words there is not the least difference to be discerned of the external Honour which the Congregation gave to God and to the King the same corporeal Gesture being used alike to both and yet the honour intended to be given by that Gesture was certainly distinguished into Religious and Civil which we must therefore suppose to have been done by an internal Act of the Mind exhibiting the former unto God and the later unto the King. But besides that this particular place of Scripture necessarily requires this exposition for vindicating the Congregation from the guilt of Idolatry how plainly reasonable is it that all bodily Gestures should be no otherwise regarded or valued save as they proceed from the operation of the Soul which commands and orders them to what end it pleases since if they be considered apart from that they are nothing else than animal motion but co-operating together with it in the same individual Act whether good or bad they are partakers with it therein and from thence reputed to be virtuous or vicious accordingly as the Act of the Mind with which they concur to produce one and the same outward Action is held to be Objection 15. Although what for the surprizing Novelty of several things I meet with in your Treatise for the close connexion and consequences it is throughout continued with and for the unexpectedly satisfactory Answers given to many difficult Objections made as well by your self as others I look upon it as a Piece which if published would not only very much delight the Reader but also bring great benefit to the serious Perusers of it seeing it both clearly proves the absolute necessity of subduing mens Lusts in order to their eternal Salvation and likewise plainly shews the Way by which the thing must be effected and that so connatural and agreeable to man's Rational Nature that every Step thereof will be grateful to as many as shall steddily pursue the same Yet for all this I know not how it may please some of our Divines especially in those Sections where you treat of the Blessed Trinity of the Honour of God of the Torments of Hell and of the Meritorious Satisfaction of Christ not that I think they will be able to find any thing in them which is erroneous or unorthodox but because your Notions are unusual and peculiar to your self which to men that by a long tract of time have habitually acquired another System of Theology will peradventure not be wholly agreeable Answer As for my Notions about the Blessed Trinity they are not new for Boetius in lib. de Trinitate circa finem quoted by Aquinas p. 1. qu. 28. art 7. writeth thus Similis est Relatio in Trinitate Patris ad Filium utriusque ad Spiritum Sanctum ut ejus quod est idem ad id quod est idem intimating that there is an Identity of Substance but a Plurality of Relations in the Deity which constitutes the distinct Persons And St. Augustin explicating that Sacred Mystery by Mens Notitia Amor calls Notitia proles Mentis and Spiritus Sanctus Amor Patris Filii Lib. de Tr. alibi To these I will add one of the best and most esteemed of the Schoolmen Aquinas to pass by others of them who founds the Doctrin of the Holy Trinity of Persons in Vnity of Essence in the real Relations which are in the same divine Nature 1 P. Quaest 28. Art. 7. And whereas writing of the Honour of God I say that he requires not any thing to be given him for his own sake so as that some Pleasure or Advantage might really acerue thereby to himself but for the sole Benefit of the Creature I will produce the Sentence of two highly priz'd Authors among us that I am not singular in that Opinion for Dr. Isaac Barrow in his Fourth Sermon speaketh thus God surely doth not exact honour from us because he needs it because he is better for it because he for its self delights therein 'T is only then which should affect our ingenuity to consider his pure Goodness that moves him for our benefit and advantage to demand it of us And the Author of the whole Duty ty of Man writeth thus God who is essentially happy in himself can receive no accession to his Felicity by the poor Contributions of Men. He cannot therefore be supposed to have made upon intuition of encreasing but communicating his Happiness And this his original Design is very visible in all the parts of his Oeconomy towards Men The Art of Contentment sect 1. par 1. What I say of the Torments of Hell differs in nothing that I know of from Dr. Scot in his so much valued Book of the Christian Life Chap. 3. p. 57 58. save only in the delicacy of his Phrase whose elegant words are these Though the coming into the other World will questionless improve those Souls which are really good before yet it is not to be imagined how it should create those good who are habitually bad and if we retain in the other World that prevailing affection to these sensitive Goods which we contracted in this it must necessarily render us unspeakably miferable there For every Lust the Soul carries into the