THE NATURE OF TRUTH Its Union and Unity with the SOULE Which is One in its Essence Faculties Acts One with TRUTH Discussed by the Right Honorable ROBERT Lord BROOK in a Letter to a private Friend By whom it is now published for the Publick Good LONDON Printed by R. Bishop for Samuel Cartwright at the Bible in Duck-lane 1641. THE PREFACE to the Reader Shewing what first gave Birth to This Discourse of TRVTH READER WIthout an Epithet for you must expect no complements I am now a Pleader and so am forbid {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Yet with submission to That Severe Court * I hope 't will be no offence by breaking their First Injunction to keepe their Second One Word then by way of Preface may perhaps not seeme unseasonable unnecessary and so not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} This Divine Discourse of Truth comming to me from so Noble an Hand I could not envy it the Publique Light For what heart could indure to stifle such a Beauty at its first Birth at its first Breath Nay though Cruelty should scorne to take a check yet Power it selfe might plead impotent for such an Act. For where or who is He that can resist the struglings of Divine Truth forcing its way out from the Wombe of Eternity Where or who is Hee that by a Viperous wreaâ—he * or other assault can smoother Hercules though yet but sprawling in his cradle View then This new-borne Beauty mark its Feature proportion lineaments Tell mee now was Its Birth an object of pity or rather of envy at least admiration for Envy findes no place in Noble spirits One thing yet I must excuse which yet indeed needs no excuse A Second Conception is here First borne yet not Abortive no but by mature thoughts 't is againe decreed the elder shall serve the younger For That was meant the Act This but the Prologue ushering in That yet more curious Concept if such be possible which was an Embryo before This but is yet Vnborne The truth is This Noble Lord the Author of this following Discourse having dived deep in those Prophetick Mysteries at which his first lines glaunce in this was even forced by that occasion upon a more exact and abstract speculation of Truth it selfe naked Truth as in her selfe without her gown without her crown At first view hee saw her sparkle with most glorious luster But her Rayes daz'led his eyes so that he durst not hee could not enough behold admire and adore her perfect Beauty exact Proportion Divine Harmony yet though daz'led he viewed still remembring that of the Arâ—opagite Earthly Bodies are best seene in and by Light But Spirituall Beauties {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in and by Divine Clouds Divine Darknesse This This is the best Perspective to Divine Objects and the Brightest Starres shine best sparkle most in the Darkest the Blackest Night That which ravisht his Soule most and most inforc'd him more to pry to adore more Was the experience of that which Plato speaks When our Soules saith he glance first upon Divine Light they are soon ravisht and cannot but pry more and more because in it they see {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} somewhat of Kin to themselves And this Kindred if I mistake not is the neerest possible more then Consanguinity I had almost said more then Identity it selfe For alas that Corporal Vnion in Materials which we miscall sometimes Identity is at best but a cold touch in a point or two a most disdainful embrace at greatest distance in those Beings which have much {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and but little {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Plato's Mastet taught him long agoe But in Spirituall Beings and in These only is True Harmony Exact Convenience Entire Identity Perfect Vnion to be found Such even Such is That neer Relation That neere Kindred between the Soule and Truth as will fully appeare in This following Discourse of Truth which was never meant nor now published but as a Prodromus to a Future Treatise about Prophetick Truth revealed now in Scripture Of which I shall only adde this Read it if it displease Read it again and yet again and then judge It needs not my Apology if so I might truly say When 't was first VVrot 't was intended but a Letter to a private Friend not a Critick and since its first writing and sending 't was never so much as perused much lesse refined by its Noble Author One VVord more I must speak and so have done If any Ingenuous Reader shall Dissent in any Particular of Consequence and freely yet ingenuously manifest the Reasons of his Dissent Nothing can bee more gratefull to This Noble Lord who promiseth the Fairest Answer for His Aime is only Search of Truth which His Lordship well knows is oft best found as Sparks in the Flint by much Contusion Yet if any shall wrangle not dispute rudely thrust or strike not like a Gentleman His Return will be only a Rationall Neglect I. S REcensui tractatum hunc qui inscribitur The Nature of Truth per illustrissimum piissimumque Dominum Robertum D. Brooke editum apprimè sanè Doctum profundisque conceptibus insignitum quapropter dignissimum arbitror qui in summam utilitatem typis mandetur Novemb. 19. 1640. Johannes Hansley R. P. Episc. Lond. Capell domest. THE NATURE OF TRUTH Discussed in a Letter to a private Friend SIR I Have according to my poore talent essayed to finde out the true sense of the Spirit in these * two Chapters and in this Inquest have improved the labours of the piously learned from whom I have received little other favour than this that they have not seduced me they not having approached so neere to the truth as to dazle it I confesse that Reverend that bright man Master Brightman hath clothed his opinion with such a Sirenian glory that he had almost been to me an ignis fatuus I had almost in following the old lost the young lost the nest of Lapwings But with all respect to his Worth if I am not mightily mistaken I have escaped that Syrtis and yet dare I not with the Philosopher cry out {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for * who is fit for these things Every truth is * a mysteâ—y what must that be then which is purposely vailed by the Spirit Iesus Christ who is styled in Scripture the * way truth life light and these things are apprehended by sense and are common is to * the Iewes a stumbling blocke and to the Greekes foolishnesse May we not then justly say of him that dares pry into the Arke with hopes and thoughts cleerly to unfold the mysterious the propheticall part of Iesus Christ to unknit the Gordian knot May wee not say of him what GOD saith of Iob Who is
this that darkeneth wisedome with counsell Alas are we not all since Adams lapse buried under the shadow of death and lost in the region of darknesse Who is there that knoweth truth * He that thinketh hee knoweth any thing knoweth nothing as he should Morall truth which as some thinke is yet more within our reach than those sacred mysteries is unknown to us both in the universall nature and in the particular actings of it Difficilia quae pulchra Indeed Truth is that golden apple which though it hath in some sense beene offered to the fairest yet the most refined wits the most high-raised fancies of the world have courted her in vaine these many ages For whilst they have sought with a Palsie hand this glorious star through the perspective of thicke reason they have either mounted too high and confounding the Creator with the creature made her God or descending too low and deserting the universal nature have cōfined their thoughts to some individuall Truth and restrained her birth to severall parcels within the Chaos THE NATURE OF TRUTH It s union and unity with the SOULE CHAP. I. The Vnderstanding and the Truth-understood are one TRUTH is indeed of the seed Royall of Progeny Divine yet so as to be for I may say of her what the Spirit saith of Faith * neere us to be in us And when she is pleased to descend into our valleys and to converse with us shee erects her own pavilion and doth fix it in whatsoever is lovely in us The Vnderstanding is her throne there she reigneth and as she is there seated as she shineth in that part of the soule she appeareth to me under two notions which are also her measure through the whole sphere of Being as will be discovered more hereafter when these lesser streames shall have emptied themselves by progresse into a larger river First that very Being which immediatly floweth from above and is the rise or the first and uniforme ground-work in this particular Being which we now treat of and which under this notion wee call the form or substance Secondly those workings which breathe from thence as all actions and sayings which are in our phrase the effects of a reasonable soule I shall first in few words treat of the first and then very briefly conclude with a word or two upon the second part of Truth This first Truth is the Vnderstanding in its Essence for what is the Vnderstanding other than a Ray of the Divine Nature warming and enlivening the Creature conforming it to the likenesse of the Creator And is not Truth the same For the Beauty of Truths character is that she is a shadow a resemblance of the first the best forme that she is light the species the sparkling of primitive light that she is life the sublimation of light that she may reflect upon her selfe That she is light none will deny that light in reasonable creatures is the fountaine of life is manifest For the forme of a reasonable soule is light and therefore when the soul informeth and giveth life to Animal rationale it enableth the creature to work according to light and upon Her accesses the organs can entertaine light as the eye then beholds the light of the Sun upon Her retirements they are dark and uselesse Thus whilst life is light and light is Truth and Truth is conformity to God and the understanding as we yet discourse of it is this light to the soule the Vnderstanding and Truth can be but one CHAP. II. The second Argument proving that truth is the Nature of the Vnderstanding I Know the learned choose rather to stile the understanding a faculty and so institute a soule recipient a Being scil. Truth received and a faculty which is the understanding whereby the soule receiveth and acteth according to what it doth entertaine But with submission to their better judgement I should crave leave to make one Quaere Are there not to the constitution of every Being three notions requisite First the Fountain communicating Secondly the Channell entertaining Thirdly the Waters imparted I confesse we must not in Metaphysicall Beings expect Physicall subsistencies yet {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} all learning doth allow of But where shall wee finde these in the understanding whilest the intellect passeth under the notion of a faculty Indeed wee may discerne the last scil. those sweet beames of light which beat upon us continually But where is the second which entertaineth them If it be the understanding then the light which differēceth us from the vegetative and sensitive creatures lieth in the understanding and not in the soule and the soule which all men hold to be a spirituall Being is but a Theca to the intellect as the body is the Tabernacle of the soule Or if the soule hath light as well as the understanding then are there two enlightened Beings in one reasonable creature Non belle quaedam faciunt duo sufficit unus Huic operi Two reasonable Beings in one Compositum is too unreasonable a thing Thirdly Who is it that communicateth this light It is conveyed to the understanding either from the soule or some other way If from the soule then the soule doth not finde the defect of the understanding For if the soule can communicate light then hath it light already the same or more excellent then can it worke diffuse light and enjoy it selfe and so this faculty the understanding shall be in vaine If in any other way it must either be immediately from God or mediante Creatura If from a creature and not from the soule it must be by some other facultie intervenient For if the soule which by their consent is a more noble Agent than the understanding cannot according to their Doctrine act without a faculty how shall an inferior Being work without some such like subservient help And thus may you excurrere in infinitum which according to the Philosophers may not be done for Entia non sunt multiplicanda nisi necessariò If the truth come from God then why is it not immediately intrinsecally infused into the soule it selfe But however the understanding bee enricht with this treasure of Truth if it be imparted to it then is it it selfe that Truth that light which I contend for For God doth not communicate light by light which I take in a Metaphoricall sense I understand some spirituall excellency and such light I say God doth not offer but to light For quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis Cleopatra her dissolved union would have been to Esops cocke of lesse value than a barly corne And if the understanding have not light it cannot take it unlesse by being turned into the nature of it For what giving and receiving can here be besides that which maketh both to become one and the selfe same Light came into the world
but it was refused by darknesse Ignoti nulla cupido Thus the understanding and light are different in names may be different in degrees but not in nature For what that Reverend man i Doctor Twist saith most acutely of a spirituall gift I may say of spirituall light The soule cannot refuse a spirituall gift I now speak in his phrase The soule and any spirituall Being doe not as corporeall things greet each other by the help of the Loco-motive faculty but when Grace is given by God to the soul there is as it were da veniam voci an hypostaticall union betwixt the gift and the soule and the soule cannot reject it because they are no more Two but one So to be in the capacity or act of receiving light is to be light Lastly how passeth this light from the understanding to the soule Will not here be left as vast a gulfe as they make betweene the understanding and the will which make them divers whence grow those inextricable disputes How the the will is made to understand what the understanding judgeth fit to bee willed CHAP. III. A prosecution of the second Argument wherein these three notions are applied to the understanding being made one with the truth ALl these rubs are easily taken out of the way if you make that which you call the understanding truth For then have you First the Father of mercies dispencing light and truth Secondly light and truth dispensed Thirdly the totum existens consisting of matter and forme of materiall and immateriall Beings as wee distinguish them called a reasonable creature thus informed or constituted which we name the recipient of this light and truth Doe not tell me that I thus make the recipient and thing received all one that is not strange in emanation divine In Scripture you have a parallel of this 1 The fourth viall is poured out upon the Sun scil. the Scriptures and the Scriptures are the viall it selfe the Scripture is emptied upon it selfe it is agent and patient receiver and received I know learned Mede to prevent this which to him is a difficulty imagineth the Emperour to be the Sun but in two words that is thus disproved First the Emperour is no where called the Sun in this book when he receiveth a metaphoricall typicall title he is called the Dragon Secondly the Scriptures are in the Revelation divers times set forth to us by the Sun So that if you refuse the sense which I fix upon then you doe not onely forsake but oppose the Scripture-phrase But were not this truth mounted in a celestiall chariot Reason it selfe would evince it For consider any individuall Being you please vegetative or rationall or what you will who is it that entertaineth this Being but the Being it selfe which is entertained Who is it that receiveth from the womb of Eternity that reasonable creature but the creature received The ignorance of this Point hath raised that empty Question Whether the Soule or the Body be contentum For if every Being be its own contentum this Question will seeme to be no more a difficulty And if there happen any neare union betwixt two Beings as the Body and the Soule the first is not continens the other contentum but as husband and wife each bringeth his part towards the making up of the compositum Thus without any violalation of Reasons right I seeme justly to conclude that the totum existens consisting of matter and forme the reasonable creature is the Recipient of this truth CHAP. IIII. This Argument further cleered by more objections propounded and answered BUT still it is demanded why may not the understanding supply the third place why may it not be this Recipient To whom I give this answer That if they make the understanding but a quality and depending upon some other Being it cannot as I have proved in this Discourse course be the recipient but if they look upon it as this light this truth it selfe then the dispute is reconciled Some conceive all these difficulties are cured if you make the understanding only virtus quâ concluding with the Philosopher that ibi subsistendum est without inquiry after a further progresse I could Iurare in verbamagistri I could acquiesce here but that I desire to be convinced by reason and not by termes I shall therefore humbly ask this question What difference is there betwixt virtus quâ and a faculty as in a knife the cutting ariseth from the sharpnesse and this sharpnesse is virtus quâ or the faculty whereby the knife doth cut If it be but a faculty then I repaire to my former answere but if something else than a faculty it must either be a nominall Being or reall existence If the first it beareth no weight If the second then I say it must entertaine species for all spirituall glories doe operate by the communication of their divine species and then will you be cast upon the former rock Yet still they say the understanding being a spirituall Being receiveth light in some way which we know not and so they proceede to obscure distinctions and voluminous discourses concerning intellectus agens intellectus patiens or passibilis But the wiser sort of them perceiving the thinnesse aerialnesse and crazinesse of this Spiders web have with greater probability made God to be intellectus agens by his influence upon the understanding Respon. Is not this the Athenian Altar which groaned under that Superscription * To the unknowne God I would I could discover with S. Paul to them this light this truth which they know not that they might love it and imbrace it But secondly I dispute not against things I know not They know not this I know that I may better maintaine the other that the Understanding is not the Recipient of this light than they averre that it is in a way whereof they never hope to finde any footsteps CHAP. V. The Soule and truth in the Soule are one I May yet be pressed with this objection All these difficulties may be urged against the Soule which have been produced against the Vnderstanding Resp. Are not these like the untrue Mother who will kill the childe because she cannot call it her own If these inconveniences be justly urged against the Soul it will not deliver the Vnderstanding But I will deale ingenuously and confesse that if you take the Soule under any other notion than Truth If you deeme it first to be a Being and then to be light as God made Adam first I meane the body and then breathed life into him if I say there be first a Being and then an infusion of light you will be pressed with the former arguments But if you make the Understāding the Soul Light Truth one then are you quite delivered out of all these straights and then is it true which I averre that that degree of light which we enjoy
in the inward man is the specificall difference which distinguisheth between us and brutes deservedly called reason that ample Sphere of Truth which is the All in us and besides which we are wholly nothing Are not wee said to be made after the image of God and if in any thing we are honoured with this inscription it is in the most noble part Now God is unus purus simplex actus For with submission to his better learning and judgement I cannot subscribe to D◠Ames his manner of expression who saith first there is God and then his attributes are in him * tanquam in esse secundo If then we do beare his impresse quanquam non passibus aequis it must be in that which is as farre as we can judge DEI formalis ratio which is to be purus simplex actus In this our shadowy resemblance of the Deity I shall not challenge perfection for though the Scripture say * We shall hereafter be perfect as he is perfect and doth here style us partakers of divine nature yet all this is to be understood according to our little modell Unity is that wherein wee carry some touches some lineaments of his Majesty Unity is Gods Essence Unity is all what we are For division being the birth of nothing can be nothing And thus may we raise from our Microcosme a passable Hieroglyphick of the Trinity Truth as it is in the breast of Eternity intended to the Sonnes of men resembles Patrem intelligentem as it descends from above Filium intellectum as it informeth the Soule enjoyeth and reflecteth upon it selfe Spiritum dilectum We must not then expect First a Being of the Soule Secondly a faculty whereby it worketh God and his attributes are but one mercy and justice kisse each other in him he and they are ens necessarium And so the Soule and the Faculty is one that divine light and truth CHAP. VI All things are this one light or truth shining from God BUt if the Intellect the Soul Light and Truth are from the reasons alledged all but one this argument will presse all things that are then will all Beeing fall under the same Predicament This is that which I aymed at and why not Seeing that First all Beeing is derived from the same fountaine scil. from him who is uniforme in all like himselfe Secondly All Being is the same in nature scil. a beame of that excellent light and therefore in Metaphysicks * Truth and Being are one Thirdly All Being is entertained in the same manner by every individuall existence which is the subject receiving this light from above and all reall true reception is alone by similitude and union of nature Yet I shall not agree to confound the names of particular Beings though I doe conjoyne their natures For all Being may be compared to light in such a body it is styled the Sunne in another it is called the Moone in the third it beareth the name of a Starre and under various shapes the names of various Stars as Syrius Canopus c. but all is light and it is but light The body of waters is by us called Seas when they beate upon such a coast it beareth one name when it coasteth upon another soyle it receiveth a severall denomination All Being is this light this truth but contained within those Circles it appeareth to us under this name and againe it hath another style when it beateth upon a various object All Being is but light communicating it selfe to us through severall crannies some greater some lesse whilst all is light * Plato most excellently most acutely most truly hath madé all Being of Terminus and Infinitum The first Being appearing to us in severall bounds and measures amidst the vast infinity of darknesse or nothing The Platonick Philosophers do not erre who reduce all Beings to number making one all and the chief and the other more or lesse glorious as they have two three or foure more or lesse numbers or degrees Whence they had this Maxime I know not this I know Satan that old Serpent is very learned and can sometimes as he doth when hee calls Jesus the Christ and sonne of God can I say sometimes tell true that so hee may even by truth entaile to himselfe a certaine interest in such Disciples as refuse any other allurement than that of golden truth and it is to be feared that they have had too great and free converse with him For even this sweet point of learning have they shamefully abused to charmes and spells as that of the Poet r Numero Deus impare s gaudet Two was curst because it first departed from unity Three whereby unity againe returned into it selfe became sacred But it may be spero meliora that they received it from the Egyptians and the Egyptians from the Hebrews Now if this be true which I submit to the judgement of the wise then all Being is but one and all things are more or lesse excellent as they partake more or lesse of this first Being This doctrine of Platonists will not be so unfavory if we pay unto unity its due tribute I confesse according to true Philosophy Time is but mensura motus vel ordinis which both are the same Number calculus temporis One is principium tantùm numeri and so it is hardly a part of that which is but the handmaid of circumstance CHAP. VII How unity is all in all things BUt I should desire that we might consider whether it doth not carry something in it in nature more glorious something that may seem to informe a Being If I cannot tell what it is you will excuse me knowing how hard a thing it is to finde out the Forme of any Being and how much more hard to discover the Being of a Forme But from this reason I doe seeme to collect some glimmering light of what I now propound All Being seemeth to breath and catch after unity Gravia doe not more naturally incline downwards than all Being doth naturally seeke for unity Of Beings there are but two sorts Uncreated Created Uncreated is God only Created is Spirituall Morall Physicall Mathematicall In all these you will find Unity as it were the Forme of their Being My thoughts my ignorance my no thoughts of the first incomprehensible inaccessible Majesty I desire to propound with fear trembling and reverence If Iohn in the midst of revelation being overcome with nothing but the glitterings and sparklings of the creature did mistake and worshipped one of his fellow-servants if the Jewes refused to trample upon any contemptible scroul fearing lest in them the namelesse name of God might be included surely wee in the midst of darknesse having to doe not with the name but with the nature of Eternity ought to cloathe our spirits with much modestie I shall therefore humbly propound this to consideration Whether unity be not all
whole Body Sinne in it selfe is nothing only a non-conformity to Gods Law The Twilight hath not so much light and so much positive darknesse only it hath not so much light as Noon in cleare day Here 's the defect and by this defect Light and Darknesse co-exist in the same point of ayre So though our Acts bee but one undivided by Time and Place yet to our griefe are not free from Sinne Thus the Soule Truth Light is alwayes and continually one though it appeareth otherwise to me and this appearance ought not to dazle the sight of the truth for as they say of honour Honor est in honorante so may I say of apprehension Apprehensio est in apprehendente the thing is still the same let my apprehension bee what it will bee I doe not reject the phrases of severall truths and several actings of this truth for Loquendum cum vulgo yet phrases must not mislead us For whilst I confesse loquendum esse cum vulgo I professe that sapiendum est cum paucis For to our apprehension that truth which is but one doth variegate it selfe and take divers shapes As that Sun which is one and the same is ruddy in the morning cleere at noone-day of a moderate heate early and at mid-day rather torrid Various colours meeting in the same point to make up one indivisible act of sense are by it judged divers Beings whereas they all make up but one Being they are but one and the same object of sense Reason which is exalted above Sense telleth us it must be so because that act of life is but one and the Sense is not an Ubiquitary it cannot act upon any more than one at once The Trigonall Glasse paints out to us more and more lively colours in every object which as a medium it presents to the eye than are in the Iris yet This object may be but some duskish sad thing in which there is no change of colours at all The three leading Senses have confuted Copernicus these many yeares for the eye seeth the circulations of the Heavens we feele our selves upon a stable and firme foundation and our eares heare not from the volutations of the Earth such a black Cant as her heavy rowlings would rumble forth and yet now if we will beleeve our * new Masters sense hath done as sense will doe misguided our Reason When the nimble juglers play their pranks you see and heare yet neither see nor heare So your sense is no good judge Thus let the soule be raised to its supreme height of power and it will cleerely see that all the actings of reason which seeme severall bee they as we think distinguished by time and place are but one a fixt entire unity CHAP. XII Another objection is answered drawn from the falshood in the workings of the soule BUt if these particular actings of truth are truth then when this Being which wee have so long discoursed of acteth not truth it ceafeth to bee and so where the soule entertaineth or pronounceth a false position the soule is no more it selfe Grant that it is with the soule in this moment of time when it acts upon falshood as when it acts not and so is not yet you will advance nothing till you can prove the succession of moments to have a reall being By former discourse I hope it is cleare that Time is but a Nominall Being and then this cessation depending on that distinct moment which is not is likewise it selfe an imagination But secondly I will allow it when any man can shew me that Falshood is a reall being which the soule or truth can worke upon For in every apprehension two things are to be weighed The Agent it selfe and the Subject acted upon I speake now in other mens language for I conceive the Agent together with the Subject to be One in the act Truth is alwayes truth Nemine dubitante and so it must be true whilst it acteth on a truth If that be True which it acts upon then all is well if it be False it is a vanity a lye a nothing For if Falshood have a Being then wee must either with the Manichees make Two sources of Being or else God must be the author of it which no man will affirme If then it have no Being the Soule cannot act in it and so it cannot be the act of the Soule For how shall the soule or truth act upon nothing But the Soule doth act when it pronounceth a false position He that in the twilight mistaketh a man for a tree acteth right in what he seeeth and when he raiseth a false conclusion upon the premisses he acteth not For how is it possible that a man should act falshood a vanity nothing In this action there are two things There is the seeing a Being and the seeing it under a confused notion Or which is the same You may observe first the opining secondly the opining uncertainly or falsly The opining is a good act none will deny to think let it be what it will be is good But secondly the so-thinking is that which is obscure Now certainly the formalis ratio of this so-thinking lyeth in thinking of errour which is nothing and in thinking of nothing the the soule cannot act for nothing produceth nothing A man who catcheth at the shadow of a Hornet acteth rightly in catching and stingeth not himselfe because he apprehendeth onely the shadow because so far he doth not act for to catch a shadow to catch nothing and not to act are idem And thus whilst the soule catcheth at a false position it graspeth but the shadow which can be nothing seeing evill is nothing ergo it loseth not truth for it pronounceth nothing but the truth of the position The same may be said for Paine I conceive it cannot act upon the soule nor the soule upon it because it is but a bare privation of spirit and strength And upon this ground I shall subscribe to that opinion propounded by that reverend worthy that quick-sighted Balearian-jaculator Mr Dr Twisse Whether it be not better to be in perpetuall paine than not to be at all If Paine be but a bare privation certainly Any Being is more desirable than for feare of a privation a not-being to become no-Being Hîc rogo non furor est ne moriare mori If any man shall tell me I speak against sense I shall modestly ask him this Question Whether it be not impar congressus betwixt Sense and Reason and whether in that case Sense be an equall judge Reason telleth us that Paine must either be something or nothing if nothing then it is but a privation if something it must be either good or evill if good it cannot as hath and will yet appeare more in this Pamphlet hurt us if evill it is either a nominall evill or reall if it be named an evill and is not
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} divinae providentiae renuntiare velit c. Rutter Exerc. Apolog. Exerc. 1. c. 1. Sect. 8. 1 Ioh. 3.9 Difference betwixt Knowledg and Faith Object Experience collection of particular lights Knowledg reall apparent Psal. 14.1 Psal. 12.4 God mercy and sweetnesse to the divels As wee know wee love {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Arist. Eth. lib 3 c.6 vide c. 7 ciâ—ca finem What we know we are Affection handmaid to Knowledge according to some Knowledg a step to Affection according to others Knowledg affection names of different degrees in the same nature Affection perfection of Knowledge Knowledge often no Knowledge but a vaine swelling Tit. 3.6 Knowledg without power even in the law forbidden Ceremoniall law included in the Morall Mat. 5.28 Mat. 7.29 1 Cor. 11.16 Cant. 2.1 2 Cor. 13.2 God from whom all light commeth is stilâ—d Love 1 Ioh 4 16. Women in greatest number truly gracious because most affectionate 1 Tim. 5.17 The Pastor preferred before the Teacher because the truth of truth in the heart lieth in the affection Knowledge where it is eminent in truth as well as appearance there affection is equally eminent David and Salomon compared with Paul Solomons preeminence in knowledg extended to Politicks and naturall Philosophy only 2 Cor. 12.3 2 Cor. 11.26 True knowledg true affection separated from all appearances or outward advantages of the body or the like are one Apprehensions conclusions affirmations c. all one truth in the soule The operations of the soule are proved one with the essence thereof The activity which is the form of the soul not different from the actions thereof Not of a higher straine Nor of a lower Neither can it be various The distinction betweene actus primus and actus secundus examined The distinction betweene Substance and Accident called into question The nature of Beauty illustrating time and place Time and Place nothing different from the essence of the soul The definitions of time and place rejected Place Time All actions nothing if time be any thing The difficulty untied how God seeth things The same truth taking varicus shapes in our apprehensions Set forth by a similitude taken from the Sun The same act of sense perfectly one yet varied unto many formes A Similitude from the trigonall glasse Sense confuted by Copernicus * Capernic Kepler Gallilaeus de Galil Object Succession of moments apparent not reall The scule never acts falsly Object Resp. In false propositions of the soule so farre as it acts it acts truly where it is deceived it is by not acting Paine hath no reall Being Mart. lib. 2. Epigr. 80. The happinesse of our lives advanced by this opinion Mart. li 6. Ep. 70. This Vnity the fountaine of knowledg Action wholly depends on knowledg Ob. Resp. All things one piece Mat. 20.15 Propriety maketh lovely The vanity of dividing knowledg into many Sciences Confusions from division in knowledg Knowledg double of Beings of their Causes Knowledg of Beings twofold of their existencies and their natures Knowledg of existencies necessary but altogether uncertain Knowledg of the natures more uncertain than the existencies * As all those laws concerning slaves whereas a slave indeed is non ens for if any man have given away with Esau his birth right yet he hath not lost it because manhood and religion are not mei juris they are talents which God hath intrusted me with and are no more deputable than places of jud catuâ—e Et sic de caeteris In what sense Knowledg of Beings is to be wished Two only causes received God and emanation from God Aristotles materia prima brought to light Matter Forme have their matter and forme both of which meet in the emanation The vaine search of causes in Physicks * Platonici who make the world animal magnum Vide Gal. in System Ptolem Co. pernic Keplers Harmo Aristot. Prov. 30. 18.19 See Aristot. de mundo de coelo c. Like Plato's and sir Francis Bacon's Verulan Augment Scient. Many reasonable Beings placed by Philosophy in the Soule Eurip. Tragaed Seeing and doing one in the Soule as knowing and willing Vanity of dispures in Metaphysicks Darknesse in Divinity through the ignorance of unity Faith and Repentance coevall The generall promise the object of faith Declarativè The ill consequence of the division between doctrine and discipline Doctrine of mater inworship Discipline of manner both are Doctrine both prescribed by the same God The monstrous effects of division made manifest in other peices of Divinity The weaknesse of the distinction Scientia simplicis intelligentiae purae visionis Scientia maedia discussed In what sense intermediate causes may be allowed Division the policy of the Prince of darknesse Recapitulation of all The sense of the Sabbaths command All things Ordinances The intention of speciall Ordinances Mourning and joy reconciled * Matth. 24 Various sorts of Millenaries The first too earnall The second only Spirituall A third sort in some things too literall