who are given to deep and Divine Contemplation of Immaterial and Spiritual Substances can witness so saith Fonseca lib. 2 Metap cap. 1. q. 2. sect 6. lib. 1. cap. 2. q. 3. sect 6. Alluding still to Plato's Imaginary lines of the Soul viz. the Direct and Sphaerical consider O my Soul the use of these with thy self The direct line points to the knowledge of all things here without and beneath thee Phe Sphaerical to all within and above thee That knowledge which is acquired in the direct line is fetcht from Objects External and so hath Sense for its base looking at things External Corporeal Mortal which are all below the Soul of Man And though by the knoâ—ledge of these Externalls wee may come to the notion of Internal things by the knowledge of others to know our selves by sensible Objects to Intelligible Forms whereby our Souls may be represented Yet that knowledge must needs be imperfect confused and very un ertain no Quidditative knowledge of things Spiritual and Immaterial as the Schoolmen call it which is fetcht from effects and not from the Cause from the direct line of External Corporeal and inferior bodies and not from the Sphaerical of Intellectual spirits A straight line is full of imperfection and deformity whereas the Sphaerical is the perfectest fairest and capaciousest of all the rest Sphaera which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek signifies beauty because of all other figures it is the fairest and as it is fairest so it is the perfectest and most Capacious of all the rest and therefore it is the Heavens are in a round and Sphaerical not in a long and straight figure for if the heavens were in the Form and figure of long or direct lines there would be beyond them some place and body or else a Vacuity which argues a deformity an emptiness and imperfection so saith Aristotle in his second Book de caelo and his fourth Chapter Even so in the Soul of Man the Sphaerical line is the fairest perfectest and the most capacious the Circular line reflecting upon it self that eye of the Soul which contemplates it self and hath its Objects Internal that Soul which can see it self in it self and commune with it own heart is undoubtedly the divinest and perfectest and Beautiful of all others For to fetch our knowledge from outward Objects and to bend our studies to know the Heavens Elements and all other Material and Corporeal creatures is that imperfect line beyond which is somthing else or a Vacuity and though thou cast discourse of the Nature of all things here below though thy line of knowledge be drawn from North to South though it extend to all things from the Artick to the Antartick Pole though thou givest thy heart to seek and search after Wisdom as the wise man saith of all things that are done under Heaven of all works under the Sun and yet art ignorant of thy self all is but labour and travel which God hath given to the Children of Men to be exercised therein and without this Circumflex line viz. the Souls self-Inspection and knowledge of it self the end is Vanity and Vexation of Spirit In brief this Circular Sphaerical knowledge and Inspection of the Soul is that Encyclopaedia which comprehends all other Sciences within it Learn then this Platonick Idea and Imaginary Circle O my Soul by which thou maist reflect upon thy self and find thy self in thy self by that Eye of right Reason who fetcheth its knowledge from Internal Objects and Intelligible Forms whose base is Reason lower it looks not nor yet is hurried and tossed about with the Counter-motions of inferior faculties may soar aloft sometimes in Contemplation of Caelum Empyreum where those Divine Immutable and Impaâ—ible Essences which Aristotle speaks of do inhabite the highest Heavens where is the Throne of the most high God and Quire of Innumerable Saints and Angels may in a holy rapture somtimes with St. Paul be caught up to the third Heaven and there learn the secrets of God which is not lawful for Man to reveale may know things happily above Reason above it self but never contrary or below it self This is a Science Metaphysical properly so called which Grace not Nature teacheth a Science Theological a truth not acquired by Humane Art and Industry but by Divine Revelation taught us by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures Stude cognoscere te quia multo melior laudabilior es si te cognoscis quam te neglecto si cognosceres cursum siderum vires herbarum complectiones hominum naturas animalium haberes omnium caelestium terrestrium scientiam St. Bernards Meditations cap. 5. fol. 1054. Frustra cordis oculum erigit ad videndum deum qui nondum idoneus ad videndum seipsum prius enim necesse est ut cognoscas invisibilia spiritus tui quam possis esse idoneus ad cognoscenda invisibilia dei si non potes cognoscere te non praesumas apprehendere ea quae sunt supra te praecipuum principale speculum ad videndum deum est animus rationalis intuens seipsum fol. 3131. And doubtless this Inspection and knowledge of our selves and our own Souls is a Metaphysical Supernatural and Theological Science 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nosce te ipsum is a Divine Lesson so accounted by the Heathens when Graven upon the door of Apollo's Temple 't was feigned to have descended from Jupiter by the knowledge of our Souls wee come to the knowledge of our selves what we were what we are what we shall be by the knowledge of ourselves we come to the Unity of the God-head by it to the Trinity of Persons by it to the Hypostatical Union of the two Natures in Christ by it we are confirmed in the most Mysterious Articles of our Christian Faith by it Gods Essence is represented and lively Portraid look wee into our Souls and God is our Object whose Form we are whose similitude we retain when no other created Form can be given which may represent the Divine Nature as it is in it self God is pleased to Imprint an Intelligible Form of his own Essence upon the Reasonable Soul by which God is United and made known unto us for this is certain Et Suarez Metaphys disp 30. sect 11. part 27. divina essentia unitur intellectui creato beatorum more speciei intelligibilis it is the general opinion of the Schoolmen and other Divines See Fonseca lib. 1 Metaph. Gods Image we are the sacred Histories are express but principally in respect of our Souls let us make man after our own Likeness saith the Text and again God made Man in his own Image in the Image of God created he him Lift up now thy thoughts O my Soul to this thy Divine Exemplar and think how that every perfection of the Image is placed in the Resemblance it hath with its Pattern for though the Pattern should be deformed such as is usually imagined of
ΨΥΧΟΣΟΦΊΑ OR NATURAL DIVINE CONTEMPLATIONS OF THE PASSIONS FACULTIES OF THE SOVL OF MAN In Three Books By NICHOLAS MOSLEY Esq 1 PET. 2.11 Dearly beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the Soul Ignat. Epist ad Philip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed for Humphrey Mosley at the Prince's Arms St. Paul's Church-yard 1653. TO My Honoured Kinsman ROBERT BOOTH Esquire T Is not dear Nephew Blood 't is not Consanguinity those several ties and relations of Nature more than a virtuous Mind and understanding Soul those Powers and Faculties of your Soul which I have known from your Childhood Active and Industrious and now find crown'd with Habits Intellectual These have layd an Obligation upon me of a more sacred civill reverence and respect unto your person such Homage will I ever owe to the man where these are seated for though I my self fall very short of such perfection yet is it not the least of my comfort here that I am a Philosopher a Lover of Wisdome and Learning where ever I find it my hand and heart is for it to no petition against it or the Nurseries thereof for which cause I have entred my self a Student in the School of Nature and of Christ there to find out this noble Science of the Soul what I have met with here and there dispersed I have endeavoured to recollect and compile into this Volume It is not therefore my own I am no discoverer of New Lights no teacher of Strange Doctrines I challenge in this Piece nothing but the Composure the Substance or Matter you may find in the old and beaten path of Faith and Truth which our Forefathers have trod and whose Footsteps we may securely follow To you then as no affecter of Novelty but a lover of Truth doe I dedicate these my labours as a pledge of my Love and part of that Debt owe you accept then of these from him who shall ever remain Sir Your obliged Uncle to serve and honor you NICH. MOSLEY The Epistle to the Reader EVery man naturally desires to know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle it is the ground the Philosopher hath laid and placed in the very frontispiece of his Metaphysicks this innate desire to knowledge comes with the Soul of man even that which Forms him and distinguisheth him from beasts and makes him like unto God which is the Reasonable soul immortal and intelectual for when God said Let Vs make man in our own image after our own likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the foul of the air and over the cattell and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth man is not Gods Image in respect of his Body but his Soul which is a spirit as God is and the Image of God in man consists in that wherein man excells and hath dominion over other creatures now man excells not nor rules over Beasts in the parts of his Body which are far stronger in many beasts than in man but in the faculties of his Soul having a minde endowed with reason will and understanding which the soul of a beast is not capable of This Intellectual facultie of the human soul hath one property viz. that it is capable of all knowledge and herein is the excellency of our soules again manifested that nothing is able to know all things besides God the Angels and humane Intellect But forasmuch as human understanding is ignorant of many things and yet the Arch-philosopher saith it understands all things we must distinguish twixt the power and act and then there will be no contradiction the Understanding knoweth not all things actually that is proper to God the Understanding knoweth all things potentially this is true of the humane Intellect thus is Aristotle to be understood This Soul of man hath an innate desire an aptitude and ability of knowing all things which kindles a desire of knowing all things actually and makes the Intellect practick and to be in action Hence are found out so many arts sciences of all sorts the arcana naturae the very depth and secrets of nature comprehended within that general division of Moral Natural and Metaphysical as for that Theological science how hath it been enlarged and exemplified by writers on all points thereof yea upon the deep mysteries of Divinity of the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity of the two natures of Christ of the incarnation of the Son of God and the like all which shewes that even to this day the Tree of knowledge still workes in all men as well Christians as Heathens we still account the attaining of knowledge a thing to be desired and be it good or evill we love to be knowing all the sort of us In this ensuing treatise thou hast Gentle Reader for thy benefit intended what in my Meditations for my own behoof I had digested a discourse upon the Soul of man a Science than which of all that ever were or can bee attained to by the strictest disquisition of humane learning none more necessary as being most excellent most profitable most pleasant and therefore none more desirable if thou beest inflamed with a desire of knowledge learn to know thy own Soul By the knowledge of the Soul we come to the knowledge of our selves which how necessary it is the very Heathens may convince us Christians of by that notable famous sentence which was engraven upon the door of the Temple of Apollo at Delphos and said to descend from Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 know thy self for a vain and foolish thing it is to understand other things and to be ignorant of our selves to bend a mans studies to know the Heavens Elements and other things and not to know himself is the part of a fool and not of a wise man Zabarell de mente humana saith the Philosopher But we come not to the true knowledge of our selves but by the knowledge of our Soul with its faculties and operations for then wee are said to know our selves when we know our Soul more than our Bodie Especially the Intellectual facultie of our Soul by which we are that we are by which we are distinguished from beasts by which we are made like unto God In one part of this discourse is handled the state of the Soul in the body of man not somuch before the fall of our first parents as in his lowest and weakest condition cloged and pressed down with the fetters of Original sin and depraved Nature inclosed and intombed in these bodies of ours which carry about them a body of sin And thus the Soul is considered as the Formal part of a Man Form and Matter making one Compositum And this takes up the first Book being of the Physical Science of the Soul In another part is handled the state of the Soul of Man not so much in its essence
accidens but the first act of the body not Artificial nor Mathematical but of a Natural body nor of every Natural but that Natural body which is Organical and consists of many parts and members and this body Natural and Organical having life not actu sed potentia this is the Definition given by Aristotle in his book De anima where he also defines the soul to be that beginning by which we have life sense Lib. 2. ca. 1. Another Definition of the soul Lib. 2. c. 2. and understanding chiefly the which as it is a full and perfect definition of the Rational soul so take it disjunctively in it several parts and it will agree with the soul of Plants and of Beasts for the Soul of Plants is principium quo primò vivunt the soul of Beasts quo primò vivunt ac sentiunt the soul of Men quo vivunt sentiunt ac intelligunt primò the Soul is the beginning of life and Vegetation chiefly for when the soul is gone out of the body it ceaseth to live or grow any longer the soul is the beginning of Sense chiefly for the soul being absent the body is altogether insensible and the soul is the beginning of Understanding chiefly for the carcass or cadaver is voyd of understanding when the soul is departed out of the body And it is sayd chiefly because though the body Natural and Organical may be said to be the beginning of life sense and reason yet that is but Organically and Secondarily the Soul is the begining chiefly and primarily TotuÌ„ composituÌ„ dicatur principium ut quod cum sit illud quod agat forma vero principium ut quo cum agat beneficio formae instrumenta denique per quod cum per ipsa operetur Sennert These are the Definitions given by Aristotle the former being drawn from those things which are notiora secundum naturam though nobis ignotiora the latter from those things which are secundum nos notiora though secundum naturam ignotiora and those are the Effects and Faculties of the soul which are called the second act of the soul not the first act and are the companions associates of the soul neither of which do we reject but make use of both since in the subsequent Chapters we shall consider the soul not onely as it is principium corporis animalis tanquam forma or the act and perfection of a Natural Organical body which is according to the former Definition but as it is principium operationum tanquam eftrix as it is considered in the latter so making of two one Definition thus The Soul is the act the perfection and beginning of a Natural Organical body endued with life sense and understanding And now having traced thee O my soul from thy original the place and person à quo to the place and person ad quem from Heaven to Earth from God to Man and find thee clothed in humane nature I shall not raise a consideration from that close conjunction and mysterious union which is betwixt the soul and body flesh and spirit that being formerly couched in the first Chapter of this Book but finding thee seated in humane nature intombed and imprisoned in a body of flesh consider O my soul into what a body thou art come the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato is quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul's prison and sepulcher a dungeon foul and noysom in materiâ primâ even in its first and best matter of which it is made slime and mud red earth and clay For God made man saith the Text of the dust of the ground And again Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return And again Behold I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes And this first matter if we look into its original it was of meer nothing not of any other praeexistent matter for then it would not be materia prima It's true in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth but as true not out of another Heaven and Earth but of meer nothing and thus much of the first matter of this body of flesh But if we look into the second matter this body of sinful flesh contracted by the fall of our first Parents what is it but sanguis menstruus worse than a menstruous cloth or polluted rag which is a thing so vile and filthy as cannot be expressed the eyes refusing to b hold and the hands to touch it and the mind abhorring to think of it into to such a dungeon art thou cast O my soul fettered and fast bound in the chains of carnal lusts and concupiscence having thy Understanding darkned and thy Will and reason captivated and scarce the essence and definition of a soul remaining in thee thy act being turned into power nay rather impotency and weakness thy perfection into much imperfection thy beginning of life into a beginning of death and misery There was a time when the soul of man enjoyed more immunities and though a prisoner as it were in the body yet as Joseph who was made ruler and overseer of the whole house and had the command of all in the prison and whatsoever was done there that did he The soul was not a captive to the flesh so long as man continued in his innocency but contrariwise had the care and command of all the body was subject to the soul the flesh unto the spirit the inhaerent justice in which man was created subjected the inferior and Sensual parts to the superior Intellectual faculty without the least predominancy at any time so long as the superior continued in obedience and subjection to God the body was obedient to the command of the soul but after that the soul had rebelled against God the body took occasion to rebel against the soul so that to this day there hath bin a continual civil war within us the law of our members warring against the law of our mind and bringing us captive to the law of sin which is in our members this is the miserable estate of mankind by nature that in the deep sense thereof we may all cry with Saint Paul O wretched creature that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death But stand thou still O my soul and see the salvation of our God seest thou thy self in the state of nature dead in trespasses and sinnes an heathen an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel without hope without God in the world There is a law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made thee free from the law of sin and death this Christianity teacheth to this Christian Religion not Heaâ—henish superstition leadeth There is a state of Grace which is Christian as well as a state of Nature corrupt and hea henish Rom. 6.14 they that are under this law sin hath power on but they that are under Grace sin shall have no power over Vnto this state
this sleep brings us to our bed the grave and this part of our life is attended with those impurer motions of corrupt Nature Diminution and Alteration whose ends are to bring us again to our original our first Parents viz. Corruption our Father and the Worm our Mother and our Sister and thus we tread the Maze and run the round like the Suns yearly course in the Zodiack ascending from the lower most House in Capricorn through those two seasons of the year Spring and Summer to the highest House the Tropick of Cancer and there 's the Solstice where the Sun is got to that height that higher it cannot but turns retrograde and down it descends through the other seasons of Autumn and Winter to its Vertigal point the Tropick of Capricorn from whence it came the four Ages of man to wit Infancy Youth Manhood Old age being like the four seasons in the year viz Spring Summer Autumn Winter or like the Suns Diary course in the Firmament Psalm 19. which goeth forth from the uttermost part of heaven and runneth about unto the end of it again or like the Winds or like the Floods to all which the Wiseman compares the travels of man upon earth saying Eccles 1.4 5 6 7. One generation passeth away another cometh but the earth abideth still the Sun ariseth the Sun goeth down and returneth to his place that he may there rise up again The Wind goeth towards the South and turneth unto the North fetcheth his compass whirleth about goeth forth and returneth again to his circuits from whence he came All Floods run into the Sea and yet the Sea is not filled for look into what place the waters run thence they come to flow again And this is the Felicity that miserable man laboureth for under the Sun and here 's the fruit of all viz. Death for the end of all things is Death And thus much of the Vegetative faculty in the state of corrupt nature There is to answer this sinfull Generation and Procreation by our Parents in the flesh by which we are made corruptible mortal subject to a transitory short and miserable life but to an endless everlasting death For all flesh saith the Apostle is as grass Pet. 1. and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass the grass withereth and the flower thereof sadeth away So doth the Psalmist compare the transitory life of man to the grass Psal 90.6 which in the morning is green and groweth up but in the evening is cut down dried up and withered to answer this I say there is a Spiritual Generation a new Birth and this is not of corruptible Seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever But it is with the Christian as it is with the Natural man in this that none are generated and produced in their full and perfect stature but in the tender age of Infancy there are Babes in Grace as well as in Nature which before they can attain to the stature of a man require daily food and nourishment and much growth and augmentation of parts much is required for the perfecting Eph. 4.13 for the increase and edifying of the body of Christ before any Christian come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ these operations after our Generation then of Nutrition and Augmentation are requisite to bring up a Christian from his Infancy to his Youth and riper years and these continue with us to the day of our departure hence because none attains to full age here our perfection is hereafter But we now begin our growth here after our conversion and new birth first in Childhood and Infancy and in this state we continue so insinuates the Apostle calling us children as long as we are tossed to and fro Ibid. ver 14 and carried about with every wind of Doctrine from Childhood we skip not straight to perfect and full age but by Youth and middle age for after we are born to Christ in Infancy debemus adolescere saith Calvin upon the place we must not stay in Childhood but Youth-out our time here grow on to middle age and be no longer Children in understanding and this stronger and riper age of a Christian the Apostle seems to exhort to where after his dehortation from Childhood Be no longer children he adds but speaking the truth in love grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ and in this age we pass the time of our sojourning here Hitherto this twofold Vegetative faculty by Nature and by Grace have been examined and agree in their operations but now we shall shew a difference and that a vast one 'twixt the workings of the one and the workings of the other and first in the first note of the natural operation in this Chapter observed The Soul in the Natural state cannot be said to be subject to The first difference or passive in those several motions of Generation Corruption Augmentation Diminution c. because it is impatible incorruptible indivisible but the body or compositum onely properly is generated corrupted augmented diminished and the like but in this Spiritual condition the Soul as well as the Body is capable of some of these motions and may be sayd to be begotten nourished increased * Necesse est animam cresci dilatari ut sit capax dei porro latitudo ejus dilectio ejus nam anima minime cum sit spiritus corpoream recipit quantitatem tamen confert illi gratia quod negatum est natura crescit quidem extenditur sed spiritualiter crescit non in substantia sed virtute crescit in gloria crescit denique in virum perfectum in mensuram aetatis plenitudinis Christi crescit etiam in templum sanctum in domino ergo quantitas cujusque animae aestimetur de mensura charitatis quam habet ut verbi gratia quae multum habet charitatis magna est quae parum parva est quae vero nihil nihil Bernardus fol. 30 16. 30 17. F. G. Item super Cant. sermo 27. fol. 647. l. K. to grow as well as the body groweth in a spiritual and intellectual sense for here it is quanta as all abstracted Essences and Intelligences viz. the Angels and Heavens be quantae for as much as they be finite and so fall within quantity but not quantitatem praedicamentalem sed intelligibilem onely within an imaginary intellectual not a predicamental a metaphysical not a physical quantity as hath been said The second That compositum which is generated may be corrupted and that which is augmented may also be diminished this in Nature but otherwaies in Grace we are begotten and born not of corruptible seed but incorruptible which endureth unto eternal life without corruption without putrifaction
Essence or yet of the Operations of these Angels and Spirits Intellectual as a Doctrine less useful and necessary for Mans salvation than of the Nature of Man or God yet so much hath it imparted to her Disciples as may evidence by necessary consequence the truth of this Metaphysical Science of Natures Angelical the Fathers and Doctors of the Church having little varied in judgement from the Curiousest Naturalist and Philosopher in this point all concurring in this particular the School of Christ and School of Nature teaching one and the same thing without any grand Variation and dissenting The Creation of Angels though holy-Churches-creed is no where plainly pointed out in holy Writ otherwise than in the first daies Creation under that General notion of Heaven and Earth which may contain the whole host of Heaven so those words Genesis 1.1 In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth are by most understood viz. by Heaven not onely it but all things therein contained as Angels and the like whose proper seat is Heaven which may seem to be thus also explicated by St. Paul Col. 1.16 For by him are all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth Visible and Invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers viz. four of the Orders of Angels further also by God himself in the 38 Chapter of Job saying where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth when the morning Stars sang together and the Sons of God shouted for joy that is to say the holy Angels who were created together with Heaven and Earth even in the beginning or morning of that first day as some have hence gathered Of all created substances some were created Visible Material Corporeal others were created Invisible Incorporeal Spiritual of their own Nature that the Angels are such created Invisible Incorporeal and Spiritual substances may be gathered out of the word of God David and Paul Prophet and Appostle both terming them Spirits and if Spirits then Invisible by Mortal eye and then Incorporeal at least as unto Humane or other natural body of their own Nature for so our Saviour hath resolved it saying a Spirit hath not flesh and bone as I have And the Schoolmen have decreed and concluded that Angels are meerly Spiritual and Incorporeal substances and no bodies or Corporeal Natures and with them agree the Fathers not a few though Origen and after him Saint Jerome would seem to maintain that Angels as oft as they sinned and fell away were thrust into bodies and there remained as a punishment unto them which opinion is exploded by all both Antient and Modern as savouring of Platonism more than Christianity Yet may we not deny but that Angels have been in bodily shapes and so seen and appeared unto our Fathers of old wherefore we must either grant unto them real bodies or that they did delude and deceive the Patriarches with Phantasms and meer Apparations which is not to be conceived of the holy Angels and therefore St. Bernard put a kind of necessity in it that Angels should have bodies otherwise how could they be ministring Spirits sent out to minister unto them who shall be Heirs of Salvation to men who yet live in the body how shall they perform this Ministerial Function of discoursing of walking and talking of eating and drinking and the like without a body all which notwithstanding Angels have done as sacred Writ accordeth But it may be objected if we do grant unto them true real Visible bodies then must we also grant them all motions and mutations incident to such Bodies to wit of Generation Corruption Augmentation Diminution Altricion alteration then such as may be borne fed and nourished may die may suffer and the like as other corporeall Creatures doe how then are they meerly Spirituall and of an Incorporeall nature To which may be answered First 1 Negatively negatively True humane bodies Angels have not humane nature no spirituall substance ever assumed except the Son of God the second Person in the ever blessed Trinity of whom it is said He took not upon him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham and by whom it is verified A spirit hath no flesh and bone so no humane or fleshly Bodies are ascribed to Angels 2 Affirmatively Secondly affirmatively True reall bodies they have not newly generate created or begotten but assumed of Air and other Elements so condensate consolidate and contract together as that it may be seen felt touched c. Beyond the very nature of Air such a Body as is not essentiall but accidentall taken up for a time as we do put on our Cloathes and may be dissolved again at pleasure as soon as their Ministery is accomplish'd now such a Body is not subject to those Mutations of Generation Corruption and the like nor may it be said to die to suffer to feel o feed or the like as a humane Body may Thus is the nature of Angels Spirituall not carnall Incorporeall not corporeall and surpasseth the humane Nature in Understanding freedom of Will and externall Operations First in Understanding in regard of that Intuitive Vision they have of God per lumen Gloriae besidâ—s those superexcellent naturall Endowments Intellectual of seeing God per lumen naturae alwayes beholding his Face Vid. Hockers Eccles pol. 1. Sect. 4. fol. 53. as the Text expresseth they are so acquainted with the Mind and Will of God that Irrepercussa mentis acie divinorum judiciorum abyssum intuentur as St. Bernard hath it in comparison of which knowledge Angelicall all ours is but as that of Babes and Sucklings Out of whose Mouth notwithstanding God hath perfected his praise See Mr. Hooker his first book of Eccles pol. Sect. 6. fol. 56. or ordained strength as the Psalmist hath it here on Earth till such time as we grow up to perfect Man-hood to the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ where shall be given to us little ones an equality of knowledge with the Angels to be like unto them who alwayes behold the Face of their Heavenly Father As touching their Freedom of Will and Power of working the Angelical far surpasseth the Humane Nature Bellarmine puts these differences betwixt them First in the Power and Rule over Bodies The humane Soul can onely move his own Body at his pleasure it cannot move others after the same sort Again the humane Soul moves its own Body upon the Earth in a slow motion step by step it hath not power to bear it upon the Water or elevate it above the Air or carry it whither it pleaseth but the Angels by the Power and Freedom of Will by the meer force of their spirit can lift up mighty Bodies and carry them whither they please Thus did an Angel take up Habacuc and in a short space brought him to Babylon with a Dinner for Daniel and carried him back again into the Land of Palestine Again
est qui non clauditur loco nusquam non est qui non excluditur loco God is no where because concluded in no place and God is every where because excluded from none 6. God is ens simplex actus purus and this simplicity is sufficiently manifested in holy Writ I am that I am saith God to Moses and again I am hath sent me unto you that is as Doctor Preston hath it a pure Act all being whole entire a simple and Uniform being without parts accidents or any Composition not like to the Creatures for the best of them although they have not a Substantial and Physical simplicity i. e. no◠compounded of Matter and Form nor consisting of Integral parts yet a Metaphysical and Accidental Composition they have and no simplicity for as much as they are compounded of Essence and Existence of Act and Power or of Actions and Qualities which whatsoever it be called cannot he said of God who is a simple and Indivisible Essence whose Essence is his Existence and whose Act is Power Power in God is neither objectiva nor passiva such distinctions are not in God whose Power is purè activa and all that is in God is but one God so do those words impart viz. I am that I am as much as to say whatsoever is in me it is my self in God is nothing but himself nihil in se nisi se habet saith St. Bernard hear him further But God is a Trinity what then do we overthrow Gods Unity by confessing a Trinity no but we confirm the Unity we acknowledge the Father and so the Son and so the Holy Ghost yet not three Gods but one God what means this number and no number as I may so speak For if three how is it not a number And if but one where then is the number But I have saist thou both what I may number and what I may not the Substance is one the Persons are three and what Ridde or Mystery lies in this none at all if we may divide the Persons from the Substance but since these three Persons are that one Substance and that one Substance those three Persons who can deny a number for they are truly Three yet who can call a number that is but truly One Or if thou hast as thou thinkst sufficiently numbred them by professing three what dost thou number Their Natures That 's but one their Essence It 's but one their Substance It 's but one their God-heads It 's but one but thou wilt say I number not these but the Persons which are not that one Nature that one Substance one Essence and that one God-head Thou art a Catholick and maist not profess this The Catholick Faith believeth the properties of the Persons is no other than the Persons themselves and that the Persons are no other than one God one Divine Nature Substance and Supreme Majesty reckon therefore if thou canst either the Persons without the Substance which they are or the properties without the Persons which they are Qui duplici impietate numerum trinitati minuit tribuit unitati Bernard Epist 190. fol. 1581. G. Or if any go about to divide and sever the Persons from the Substance or the Properties from the Persons I know not how the Trinity will own him for a Worshiper wee may therefore acknowledge Three but not to prejudice the Unity and acknowledge One but not to confound the Trinity This is a great Mystery and a sacred if any would know how this Plurality is in Unity or Unity in Plurality I answer it is rashness to search Piety to believe life everlasting to know 7. To these we may add another Attribute appropriate to God by which he is made known unto us in his Word viz his Invisibility where it is expressed as in the place before mentioned To the King Eternal Immortal Invisible and onely wise God no man hath seen God at any time neither indeed can see him with Mortal eye and though this manner of Invisibility be not the proper Attribute of God so doth not sufficiently set forth the Divine perfection being common also to all Spiritual Substances as well the Rational Soul in this life as Souls abstracted and Spirits Intellectual for as much as no Spirit is Visible with Corporeal eyes yet God in a more eminent manner is Invisible There is a twofold sight one of the body another of the mind the light of the body is the Eye the light of the mind Understanding with the bodily eye no Spirits can be seen but with the eye of the mind they are Visible not properly and fully in this life we know not any thing but per species impressas by Intelligible Forms imprinted in our Understanding from some sensible Objects not our own Souls much less those purer Intellectual Natures But the Intellectual Spirits and separated Souls do see themselves and other Created Substances though Superior and so are they Visible with an Intuitive Vision from Innate and Connatural Forms which way notwithstanding God is not Visible to any Created Intellect And thus Invisibility comes to be Appropriate to God alone and not Communicative to any besides no Created Substance can see God as he is in himself by any Natural way of Created Intuitive Vision of the Understanding without the infusion of some other Supernatural Endowments which agrees with the rules of our Faith and of Sacred Writ professing God to be Invisible and to dwell in an unaccessable light Yet may we not otherwise but according to Catholick Faith believe that God is Visible too 1. He is Visible to himself as he is Comprehensible of himself because he is equally Intelligent and Intelligible non minus Intellectivus quam intelligibilis as hath been elsewhere said therefore Visible in respect of himself though Invisible in respect others 2. Visible in respect of others viz. all the blessed Saints and Angels these enjoy a full Fruition and Beatifical Vision of him not a glimse as I may say or some Created brightness and illumination in a glass per aenigma either in the glass of his Creatures as Naturalists with the eye of Reason or in a more Spiritual glass as Christians with an eye of Faith in this Vale of tears may behold him but face to face clearly and as he is in himself Intuitively not in any Natural Created light but by an eye and light of glory unexpressibly Supernatural by which God is pleased to convey Intelligible Forms of his own Essence unto us which Vision is meant and signified by Saint John in his 1. Epistle 3.2 Wee shall see him even as he is viz. in a glorified estate per lumen gloriae by a light of glory unexpressible Of the Knowledge and Will in God CHAP. V. Chap. 5. Book 2. WEE have treated of God and his Attributes which are of the Essence of God we come now to treat of the Knowledge and Will in God as much as