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
Solut. That God is immutable has been proved Sect. 1. Par. 8. and therefore his changing the Course of Nature can truly import no Change in him that which may rightly be inferred from thence being only this that God from eternity determined the same should be done in time when occasion required which because it could never happen on God's account for any good that might redound thereby to himself when ever Miracles are wrought they are always done for the good and benefit of Men. And in regard nothing is truly good and beneficial to them but Holiness and the Fruit thereof everlasting Life Sect. 14. the intent of working Miracles is to cause Holiness in their hearts in order to the bringing them to Eternal Bliss And forasmuch as Holiness is not wrought in the heart but by Instruction and Motives Sect. 9. par 4. Miracles are intended for the confirmation of the Truth of some Doctrin requisite for directing the Understanding or for affording Motives to incline the Will to Virtue or for both at such certain times and on such occasions when the constant course of Providence and usual Series of Causes appointed by God to draw Men from the Love of worldly Vanities and sinful Lusts to the sincere Love of himself generally fail of effecting it not only in those who through perverseness of Will but in others also who by reason of the imbecility of corrupted Nature cannot be won thereby For as to the former sort neither the ordinary nor extraordinary workings of God unless in a juncture perhaps of some pressing Circumstances use to work a Reformation in them as is apparent by the Examples of Korah Dathan and Abiram opposing and reviling Moses and Aaron and of those Jews who heard Christ's Doctrin saw his holy Life and beheld his Miracles of Wonder and Mercy and yet would not receive him but barbarously and ungratefully prosecuted him to Death As Miracles we have seen are done for the benefit of Men so was it likewise out of design for their good that the Wisdom and Goodness of God ordered them to be done at the Instance of some or other holy Person or with reference to him For that Men whose holy Lives were known and observed by the People should be concerned about the working of Miracles was requisite on this account that notice might be taken of the great and special regard the Almighty had to Holiness which otherwise they would not have understood however not by far so well and by consequence the Miracles done would have had small or no influence on them more than to have caused astonishment or admiration and so have missed of their due and designed end of being instrumental Means of leading Men to the Love of Truth and Virtue for the gaining of everlasting Bliss Object 7. There is nothing said in all this Discourse of Prayer or the other mentioned means of Beatitude of the Power of the Holy Ghost without which notwithstanding all other Helps are not able to work a through Amendment of Life to Salvation Solut. It is readily granted that without the Power of the Spirit of God all Helps and Means whatsoever are ineffectual to the obtaining of Felicity but in the right use of the Means the Power of the Holy Ghost is evermore supposed to be present For since Christ's Ascension into Heaven all the Aids and means of Salvation are ordered and applied by his Holy Spirit whom he promised to send after his departure to abide with the Church But to assert that all the Means which God the Father appointed God the Son prepared and God the Holy Ghost makes application of to particular persons should really work nothing would be too absurd to suppose any rational Person guilty of For in case they work or effect nothing to what purpose is their use or wherefore did Christ undergo what he did both in Life and Death to prepare them and cause his Disciples also to publish them to the daily hazard and at length the loss of Life But if any thing be effected by them in what is their effective Virtue terminated Do they not reach the Understanding to convince it nor the Will to incline it if not whence is Man's Conversion wrought If you say that the Spirit of God comes after the Means used and causes by his own immediate operation the Conversion made in the Soul you attribute that to God which cannot be truly affirmed of him for since he is a pure essential Act and that whatever is in God is God Sect. 1. Par. 9. and 11. it is not possible that he should effect any thing save only by willing it without any physical action operation or emanation issuing from him and terminated in the Object whether the effect be to be brought about with or without means for if it be to be brought about without means it unavoidably follows from God's sole willing of it as the Creation did there being no need nor use of any thing besides to produce it But if Means be appointed by God to be used then will not the effect follow without the use of the Means appointed they immediately yet but instrumentally producing it by virtue of the principal Cause which employs and invigorates them to that End or wills that the Effect should be brought to pass by them If it be urged that Christ himself saith None can come unto me unless the Father which hath sent me draw him John 6. 44. I answer by granting the infallible truth thereof but withal deny that it can be gathered from thence that whom the Father draws he draws them not by Means there being no mention made of the Manner of his drawing Yea is it not plain that the Father drew men to Christ by means of a Voice from Heaven when he said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Matth. 17. 5. And what were the Works but Means to draw men to believe in Christ which he speaks of to the Jews saying If I do not the Works of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the Works John 10. 37 38. In a word since God sent his Son into the World that whosoever believed on him should not perish but have everlasting Life it is manifest that every thing our Blessed Saviour either taught did or suffered whereby men are induced to believe and trust in him for Salvation is a Means by which the Father draws them unto Christ Object 8. If the Means of Salvation through the Power of the Spirit of God assisting them be the Cause thereof why are not all men saved to whom Salvation is tendered and the means conducible thereunto applied Solut. As a material Instrument cannot effectually work on matter not qualified to be wrought upon as for Instance a Knife cannot cut Brass or Iron asunder but a Straw or Stick it can so the means of Salvation held forth by the Gospel though being
considerable part of the Divine Workmanship were at first made in the highest invigoration of the spiritual and intellective Faculties which were exercis'd in Virtue and in blissful Contemplation of the supream Deity Here we see the chief Faculties of the Soul are supposed to have once enjoyed the perfectest Bliss for quality that their Natures were capable of which if in truth it had ever been so their Condition would have been in all reason eternally happy For First The Intellect and the Will being in their highest inactuation and exercise they could not purely of themselves without some Argument or Motive desert the Beatific Object because the one most perfectly understanding and the other most perfectly loving being in their highest invigoration the same they should otherwise without regard had to any Object withdrawing them from God have left and forsaken what was most clearly known by the Intellect to be the Soul 's chiefest Good and as such practically delighted in with all the strength of the Will which is a thing impossible the Intellect being never drawn but by some Argument true or false nor the Will inclined without a Motive really or apparently good Neither Secondly could the Souls copartner the Body nor the inferior Powers of the Soul relating to the Body have drawn the supream Faculties from that which they fully experienced to be amiableness it self and the only true Felicity to gratifie any or all of them for the Soul was united with the most subtil and aethereal Matter that it was capable of inacting and the inferior Powers those relating to the Body being at a very low ebb of exercise were wholly subservient to the Superior and employed in nothing but what was serviceable to that higher Life so that the Senses did but present occasions for Divine Love and Objects for Contemplation and the Plastic had nothing to do but to move this passive and easie Body accordingly as the Concerns of the higher Faculties required Lux Orientalis Chap. 14. pag. 114. Whence it plainly appears that the Souls inferior Powers and the Body were so far from having a stronger propensity to Objects of Sense than the superior Faculties had an inclination to God that those were wholly subservient unto these in the exercise of their proper Functions and so could be no inducement to make them forsake their enjoyed Felicity Nor Thirdly could long continuance through Torpitude or Defatigation in performing their Offices be a Cause why the Soul should desert its Bliss because when it shall be re-estated therein to Eternity it shall according to the Praeexistentiaries have a Body of the like pure aethereal Matter and the same innate triple congruity for ever which it had at first For since the supream Faculties were by Creation in their highest inactuation exercise and invigoration that their Natures rendred them capable of and the Soul united to the most tenuious pure and simple Matter as the fittest instrument for the most vigorous and spiritual Faculties as the Author of Lux Orientalis Chap. 14. pag. 114. expresly says they were the first and last state of Soul and Body will not be different which if really so then if ever we had been in perfect Bliss we should have continued therein to Eternity for the last Estate of the Blessed shall abide the Praeexistentiaries grant for ever The Annotator upon Lux Orientalis I know offers pag. 116 117 118. several things to evade this Consequence That if the last estate of the Blessed be unalterable the first would have been so also for he says First That it may be a Mistake that the Happiness is altogether the same that it was before For our first Paradisaical Bodies from which we lapsed might be of a more crude and dilute Aether not so full and saturate with Heavenly Glory and Perfection as our Resurrection-Body is I answer that tho the Annotator makes some scruple whether the Body was by Creation such as the Author has described it to be yet I do not find that he differs from him as to the state of the Soul which in regard it was in its highest inactuation exercise and invigoration the Body that it might be adapted thereunto was of necessity to be of the most subtil and pure aethereal Matter that the Soul was capable of inacting as the Author we have seen says it was or else there would have been that disproportion between the Soul and Body as that the praeexistent state should not have been the best that Rational Nature was capable of which the Praeexistentiaries cannot admit of to be true without yielding the very Foundation of their Hypothesis to be subverted thereby since they lay it as hath been seen in this That the Eternal and Almighty Goodness the blessed Spring and Root of all things made all his Creatures in the best happiest and most perfect condition that their respective Natures rendred them capable of The Annotator's first Reason why happy Souls might formerly fall albeit they shall never hereafter in the future world do so again being you see of no validity let 's proceed to examine the rest for he saith 2ly The Soul was then unexperienced and lightly coming by that Happiness she was in did the more heedlesly forgo it before she was well aware and her Mind roved after new Adventures although she knew not what 3ly It is to be considered whether Regeneration be not a stronger Tenure for enduring Happiness than the being created happy For this being wrought so by degrees upon the Plastich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with ineffable groans and piercing desires after that divine Life that the Spirit of God co-operating exciteth in us When Regeneration is perfected and brought to the full by these strong Agonies this may rationally be deemed a deeper tincture in the Soul than that she had by meer Creation whereby the Soul did indeed become holy innocent and happy but not coming to it with any such strong previous Conflicts and eager Workings and Thirstings after that state it might not be so firmly rooted by far as in Regeneration begun and accomplished by the operation of God's Spirit gradually but more deeply renewing the Divine Image in us 4ly It being a renovation of our Nature into a pristine state of ours the strength and depth of impression seems increased upon that account also 5ly The remembrance of all the hardships we underwent in our lapsed condition whether of Mortification or cross Rancounters this must likewise help us to persevere when once returned to our former Happiness 6ly The comparing the evanid Pleasures of our lapsed or terrestrial Life with the fulness of those Joys that we find still in our heavenly will keep us from ever having any hankering after them again 7ly The certain knowledg of everlasting punishment which if not true they could not know must be also another sure bar to any such negligences as would hazard their setled Felicity Which may be one reason why the irreclaimable are eternally punished