are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him § 5. Secondly as Religion a term which both Austine and Lactantius derive à religando because by the true Religion improved mens souls are tied and fastened to the supreme Being it unites us to God and to Christ The graces of union are especially Faith and Love Christian Religion is made up of these two Kiss the Son saith David Psal 2. 12. which implyeth the affection of love Blessed are all they that put their trust in him which holds forth an expression of faith Hold fast the form of sound 2 Tim. 1. 13. words saith Paul which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus Love is the fulfilling of the Law faith the fulfilling of the Gospel both the fulfilling of Christian Religion These two pipes being rightly laid from a Christians soul to the fountain of living waters fetch in from thence a dayly supply of such grace as will certainly end in a fulness of glory whereas worldlings all the pipes of whose spirits are laid to cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water must needs continue empty still and for want of Christ who is not seen but by those two eyes nor embraced but by those two arms fall short of happiness how eminent soever they may be in the pursuit of by-ways Thus to discover and to unite are acts of prerogative not communicable to other professions For to maintain as some do that a man may be saved in an ordinary course I meddle not with extraordinary dispensations but leave the secrets of God to himself by any Religion whatsoever provided he live according to the principles of it is to turn the whole world into an Eden and to finde a Tree of life in every garden as well as in the paradise of God EXERCITATION 2. The insufficiency of other Religions for bringing men to the enjoyment of God inferred from their inability to discover his true worship John 4. 24. opened God to be worshiped in and through Christ a lesson not taught in Natures school Faults in Aristotles Ethicks § 1. IT hath appeared already in part by what hath been hitherto discoursed that as the other Patriarchs sheaves made obeisance to Josephs so other Religions must bow down to Christianity by name those three grand competitours Paganisme Judaisme and Mahometisme as also those other leading books by name the Talmud the Alcoran and the much applauded writings of heathen Philosophers must all do homage to the Bible Yet will it not I suppose be unworthy of my pains and the Readers patience further to clear the insufficiency of all exotick doctrines by an argument taken from divine worship to which I proceed by certain steps Exerc. 2. I. Religion is a thing which distinguisheth men from beasts more then reason it self doth For some brute beasts have appearances of reason none of Religion Man is a creature addicted to Religion may perhaps be found as true a definition as that which is commonly received Man is a living creature indued with reason II. Some kinde of Deity is acknowledged every where throughout the world and wherever a Deity is acknowledged some kinde of worship is observed Should a Synode of mere Philosophers be convented to consult about the matters of God I make no question but in the issue of their debates they would pronounce one Anathema against Atheisme and another against Irreligion Among the Romanes Parcus Deorum cultor infrequens Horat. lib. 1. Ode 34. to worship sparingly was accounted the next door to being an Atheist III. None but the true God can discover what the true worship of God is As that glorious eye of heaven is not to be seen but by its own proper Desine cur nemo videat sine Numine Numen Mirari Solem quis sine sole videt light A million of torches cannot shew us the Sun so it is not all the natural reason in the world that can either discover what God is or what worship he expects without divine and supernatural revelation from himself § 2. IV. Before the settling of Christianity and spreading the Gospel throughout the world many every where were unsatisfied concerning the worship they performed and inquisitive after some teacher who might help them therein by his advice This may be gathered not onely from that which was said by the woman of Samaria in that dispute of hers with our John 4. 25. Donec in terris apparuerit sacratior aliquis qui fontem veritatis aperiat c. Marsil Ficinus in vita Platonis Vid. Livium Galan praetar pag. 8. Saviour about worship I know that Messias cometh which is called Christ when he is come he will tell us all things But also by what Ficinus reporteth concerning Plato to wit that being asked by one of his scholars how far forth and how long his precepts were to be obeyed he returned this answer Untill there come a more holy one by whom the fountain of truth shall be opened and whom all may safely follow V. The precepts and practise of such as teach and profess other Religions are inconsistent with those Gospel-rules which Christ and his Apostles have given for the regulating of divine worship Two whereof I shall instance in The first is that which fell from our Saviours own mouth God is a Spirit John 4. 24. and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth Where Spirit in the latter clause seems to stand in opposition partly to the formality of the Jews who did so wholly addict themselves to outward observances in a spiritless way as to give our Saviour occasion of saying well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites as it is written This people honoureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me In vain do they worship Mark 7. 6 7. me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men Partly to the Idolatry of the Gentiles who in stead of tendring service sutable to a spiritual Being worshipped God in and by representations and images of this or that visible creature The word Truth in like manner may probably seem to be opposed partly to the typical worship of the Jews in which there were many resemblances and shadows of things to come as sacrifices incense and other rites the truth whereof was exhibited in Christ and in Gospel-service partly to the perfunctory worship of the Gentiles who for want of Scripture-light framed to themselves sorry forms of devotion which the wisest among them were altogether unsatisfied with yet as knowing no better and being loth to give offence observed them onely for fashions sake so worshipping in shew rather then in truth § 3. Doubtless what Seneca profest in his time was a principle which the most judicious Heathen walked by both in that and the ages foregoing He speaking of their religious observances plainly said A wise man
neck of the true Spouse of Christ which makes her to look pleasingly and amiably in the eyes of her Beloved and distinguishes her from all false and counterfeit lovers To all this we may finally add what it is in the very work it self and the contrivances of it wherein not to anticipate the thoughts of others that shall peruse it soundness of judgement with elegancy of expression Sublimity of Notion with sobriety of spirit Variety of reading with accurateness of composure Sweetness of wit with savouriness of heart do seem to be linked together in so rare and happy a conjunction as which makes this Chain of Principles to be a chain of Pearls The Lord by his holy spirit set home the Truths in it upon the hearts of all those who shall be made partakers of it To him be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen Cambridge Novemb. 2. 1659. THOMAS HORTON WILLIAM DILLINGHAM A Collection of the several Aphorismes and Exercitations contained in the ensuing TREATISE APHORISME I. Pag. 1. MAns blessedness consisteth not in a confluence of wordly accommodations which are all vanity of vanities but in the fruition of God in Christ who onely is the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 2. Psal 144. end opened Blessedness what Solomons scope in Ecclesiastes Why he stiles himself Coheleth His testimony concerning the creatures Their threefold transcendent vanity Intellectual accomplishments brought under the same censure by reason of the folly enmity anxiety and insufficiencie that attend them An apostrophie to the world EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 20. A gloss upon Psalm 36. 8. God in Christ a soul-satisfying object The circular motion of humane souls and their onely rest A threefold fulness of God and Christ opposite to the threefold vanity of the creatures EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 29. Two conclusions from Psalm 73. 25 26. The Psalmists case stated The frequent complication of corporal and spiritual troubles How God strengtheneth his peoples hearts against their bodily distempers how under discouragements of spirit The secret supports of saving grace What kinde of portion God is to the Saints A congratulation of their happiness herein EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 43. The first inference grounded upon Isaiah 55. 1 2. by way of invitation backed with three encouragements to accept it viz. The fulness of that soul-satisfaction which God giveth the universality of its tender and the freeness of its communication The second by way of expostulation and that both with worldlings and Saints A conclusion by way of soliloquy APHORISME II. Pag. 61. We are conducted to the fruition of God in Christ by Christian Religion contained in the divine oracles of holy Scripture EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 61. The safe conduct of Saints signified by the pillar in Exodus performed by the counsel of God himself the abridgement whereof we have in the doctrine of Christian Religion How that tends to blessedness EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 72. The insufficiencie of other Religions for bringing men to the enjoyment of God inferred from their inability to discover his true worship John 4. 24. opened God to be worshipped in and through Christ a lesson not taught in natures school Faults in Aristotles Ethicks EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 84. Oracles of God vocal or written Books of Scripture so called in five respects viz. In regard of their declaring and foretelling their being consulted prized and preserved EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 95. How Scripture-Oracles far excel those of the heathen in point of perspicuity of piety of veracity of duration and of Authority The divine authority of Scripture asserted by arguments An inference from the whole Aphorisme APHORISME III. Pag. 111. Scripture-Oracles supposing it sufficiently clear by the light of Nature that there is a God make a further discovery of what he is in his Essence Subsistence and Attributes EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 111. 1 Corinth 15. 34. expounded Opinionists compared to sleepers and drunkards Three observations from the end of the verse What knowledge of God is unattainable in this life What may be had The knowledge we have concerning God distinguished into Natural Literal and Spiritual EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 120. That there is a God the prime dictate of natural light deducible from mans looking backward to the creation forward to the rewards and punishments dispensed after death upward to the Angels above us downwards to inferiour beings within our selves to the composition of our bodies and dictates of our consciences about us to the various occurrences in the world EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 129. Reasons three ways of discovering God fall short of manifesting what he is The expression in Exod. 3. 14. most comprehensive A brief exposition thereof Satans impudence Nature and art both unable to discover the Trinity What Scripture revealeth about it Basils memento Julians impiety Socinians branded The three Persons compared to those three wells in Genes 26. EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 143. Divine Attributes calling for transcendent respect They are set down in the Scripture so as to curb our curiosity to help our infirmity to prevent our misapprehensions and to raise our esteem of God Spiritual knowledge superadding to literal clearness of light sweetness of taste sense of interest and sincerity of obedience APHORISME IV. Pag. 155. Goodness and Greatness are Attributes so comprehensive as to include a multitude of divine perfections EXERCITATION 1. Pag. 155. God described from goodness and greatness both without and within the Church A lively pourtraiture of his goodness in the several branches thereof Exod. 34. 6 7. Bowels of mercy implying inwardness and tenderness Our bowels of love to God of compassion to brethren Mercy not to be refused by unbelief nor abused by presumption EXERCITATION 2. Pag. 169. Grace what From it spring Election Redemption Vocation Sanctification Salvation A Caveat not to receive it in vain It purgeth and cheereth Glosses upon Tit. 2. 11 12. and 2 Thess 2. 26 27. The exaltation of free grace exhorted to Long-suffering not exercised towards evil Angels but towards men of all sorts It leadeth to repentance is valued by God and must not be sleighted by us A dreadfull example of goodness despised EXERCITATION 3. Pag. 181. The bounty of God declared by his benefits viz. giving his Son to free us from hell his Spirit to fit us for heaven his Angels to guard us on earth large provisions in the way and full satisfaction at our journeys end John 3. 16. James 1. 5. and Psal 24. 1. Glossed Isai 25. 6. Alluded to Inferences from divine Bounty beneficence to Saints not dealing niggardly with God exemplified in David Paul and Luther Truth in God is without all mixture of the contrary It appears in his making good of promises and threatnings teaching us what to perform and what to expect EXERCITATION 4. Pag. 201. Keeping mercy for thousands explained Men exhorted to trust God with their posterity Luthers last Will and Testament Iniquity transgression and sin what Six Scripture
oracles for their use then that they have God for their authour Many large volumes have been written for to make good this assertion It is a thing wherein the Spirit of God who indited the Scripture gives such abundant satisfaction to the spirits of godly men as to make other arguments though not useless yet to them of less necessity He alone bearing witness to the divinity of holy writ and to the truth of his own testimony so putting a final issue to that controversie But because there is need of other reasons for the conviction of other men I have produced certain arguments Tâ—ctica Sacra lib. 2. cap. ult elsewhere and shall here make an addition of two more which are not mentioned in that discourse one from consent another from continuance § 6. From consent thus Writings of men differ exceedingly one from another which made Seneca say Philosophers Tunc inter Thilosophos conveniet quando inter Horologia would then be all of one minde when all clocks were brought to strike at one and the same time Yea it is hard finding an authour that doth not differ from himself more or less if he write much and at various seasons But here is a most harmonious consent The word since written fully agrees with that which in former times was delivered to the Patriarchs and transmitted by word of mouth As the word God is the same to day yesterday and for ever although not incarnate till the fulness of time came and then made flesh So the word of God although till Moses received a command to put it in writing there wanted that kinde of incarnation was for substance the same before and after And as the written word agreed with the unwritten so doth one part of that which is written harmonize with another The two Testaments Old and New like the two breasts of the same person give the same milk As if one draw water out of a deep well with vessels of different mettal one of brass another of tin a third of earth the water may seem at first to be of a different colour but when the vessels are brought near to the eye this diversity of colours vanisheth and the waters tasted of have the same relish So here the different style of the historiographers from Prophets of the Prophets from Evangelists of the Evangelist from Apostles may make the truths of Scripture seem of different complexions till one look narrowly into them and taste them advisedly then will the identity both of colour and relish manifest it self § 7. From continuance thus Notwithstanding all the confusions that have happened in the world all the fires that have been kindled the massacres that have been executed and the battels that have been fought against the true Christian Religion the store-house thereof hath continued to this day and these Oracles of God been preserved in spite of hell Solomons philosophical treatises which the world had no spleen against but a liking of are long since lost whereas his Canonical writings are extant still When the earth clave asunder to swallow up Korah his company there are that think some of his children were taken up by the hand of God into the air till the earth closed again then set down without having received any harm because in the titles of sundry Psalms mention is made of the sons of Korah whom Tirinus in Numer 16. notâ ultimâ they suppose then preserved to propagate these whose service the Lord had a purpose to use so long after How often hath persecution opened her mouth from age to age and swallowed up millions both of men and books Yet the bible hath been continued still by the over-ruling hand of heaven yea which maketh it more remarkable God hath so befooled the devil herein as to preserve his own Book many times by the hands of his and its enemies It is too well known how small friends the Jews are and have heretofore been to the truth contained in the old Testament yet of them did the Lord make use to keep it and they proved carefull feoffes in trust for making over the assurances of life to us Gentiles Concerning one book of the New Testament viz. the Apocalypse it is very observable that when the authority thereof was questioned of old the Church of Rome struck in with her testimony and was a special means to have it kept in the number of Canonical books not without a special providence God who made Pharaohs daughter a second mother to Moses whom he had appointed to bring destruction afterwards upon her fathers house and kingdome did then make the Romish Church a drie nurse to preserve this Book whose meaning she knew not that it might bring desolation upon her self and her children afterwards Well may we therefore conclude and say of the holy Bible as Gamaliel once did of the Apostles Acts 5. 38 39. preaching Had this work been of men it would have come to nought longere this but being it is of God the devil and his complices have not been able to overthrow it § 8. Learn we also from that hath been said to magnifie the grace of God who in order to the promoting of our blessedness hath brought us of this nation to the knowledge of Christian Religion for want whereof many millions in other parts still sit in darkness and the shadow of death It was a memorable act of Witekindus Sr H. Spelman in Aspilogia p. 71. one of the Dukes of Saxony who flourished about the nine hundredth year of Christ after his renouncing paganisme and receiving the faith of the gospel he caused the black horse which he had formerly born in his military colours to be laid aside and in stead thereof a white horse to be born in testimony of his triumphant joy for that great change perhaps because among Qui candore cum nive certabant Pompon Laetus the Romanes the manner was to make use of such coloured steeds in their triumphs It put me in minde of what we reade in the sixth of the Revelation verse the second where Christ is described as going out in the ministery of the Gospel which was then newly embraced by that Prince Behold a white horse and he that sat on him had a bowe and a crown was givne unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer Yea whereas there are sundry modes of the Christian Religion we are therefore to have our hearts and mouths filled with the highest praises of God because we have it in the purest that is the Protestant way which allows the people in general a free use of Bibles in their native language In In Hispania in Indice librorum prohibitorum Regulae sexta sic habet Prohibentur Biblia in vulgari lingua cum omnibus suis partibus Azor. Instit moral Tom. 1. lib. 8. cap. 26. pag. 714. Anglia mons pons sons Ecclesia foemina lana sundry parts even of Europe
Christ his Divinity shining as fire his Humanity darkening as a cloud yet but one person As that pillar departed not from them by day or by night all the while they travelled in the wilderness So whilest the Churches pilgrimage lasts in this world the safe conduct of Christ by his Spirit and Ordinances shall be continued But as at their entrance into Canaan a type of heaven the pillar is thought to have been removed because not mentioned in the sequele of the story and because when Israel passed over Jordan we reade not of the pillar but the Ark going before them So when the Church shall arrive at heaven her resting place the mediatory conduct of Christ is to cease and the Ordinances which are here of use to disappear § 2. Mean while this infallible counsel of God hath been most effectually administred by the Prophets and Apostles especially by Christ himself whose words were such as led directly to everlasting bliss Insomuch as when Jesus said to the twelve will John 6. 67 68. ye also go away Peter answered him Lord to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of eternal life As if he had said Go whither we will to other teachers we shall be sure not to meet with words of eternal life any where else Such are proper to Christs school taught onely by himself and his under-officers whereof one hath left this profession upon record That which we have 1 John 1. 3. seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ So the Disciple whom Jesus loved in his first epistle Another this I take you to record this day Act. 20. 26 27. that I am pure from the bloud of all men for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God So Paul in his valedictory speech to the Elders of Ephesus Which he could not have said had not the doctrine he preached among them been sufficient to have led all his hearers to the fruition of God in Christ and therein to complete happiness That by the counsel of God he intended to decipher Christian Religion is manifest because that was the sum of all his ministery as we finde him declaring elsewhere Having obtained help of Act. 2â— 22 27. God I continue unto this day witnessing both to small and great saying none other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come That Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead c. § 3. Counsel it is and therefore styled sometimes mystery and that a great one Without controversie great is 1 Tim. 3. 16. the mystery of godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Religion as others render it meaning the Christian an epitome whereof followeth God manifest in the flesh and 1 Cor. 2. 6 7. sometimes wisdome and that not among punies and novices who see not into the depth of things but among them that are perfect Sometimes The wisdome of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Maâ—t Expos fidei God in a mystery even the hidden wisdome which God ordained before the world unto our glory Which made an ancient writer affirm that the mysteries of our Religion are above the reach of our understanding above the discourse of humane reason above all that any creature can comprehend Yea it will be found the Counsel of God himself and not of man if we do but consider a few of its materials viz. principles above the reach of mans wit A resurrection of the dead a mysticall union of all beleevers among themselves and to their head A Trinity of persons in one Essence two Natures in one person God reconciled to men by the bloud men to God by the spirit of Christ with others of the like elevation Doctrines contrary to the bent of mans will As that of original sin which represents him to himself as a childe of wrath worthy before he see the light of being cast into outer darkness And that of self-deniall which taketh him off from confidence in his own abilities whereas proud Nature challengeth a self-sufficiency and will hardly be content with less Lastly Promises and threatnings beyond the line of humane motives and dissuasives exhibiting to the sons of men not temporal rewards and punishments onely but the gift of eternal life and the vengeance of eternal fire Things which not any of the most knowing Law-givers and Princes of this world did or could hold forth till the onely wise God was pleased to reveal and urge them in the sacred authentick records of Christianity § 4. Now Christian Religion promotes our guidance to the fruition we treat of these two ways viz. by discovering God in Christ and by uniting to him the former it performeth as Christian the latter as Religion First as Christian it discovers God in Christ which other Religions do not No man hath seen God at any time the onely begotten Son which is in the bosome of the John 1. 18. Father he hath declared him So the Evangelist or as others think the Baptist All things are of God who hath reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 18 19. us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given unto us the ministery of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ c. So the Apostle The poor Pagan knoweth neither God nor Christ but ignorantly turneth the truth of God into a lie worshipping creatures and in stead of Christ is directed by his Theology to the service of a middle sort of divine powers called Daemons and See M. Mede his Apostasie of the latter times pag. 9 10 sequent looked at as Mediatours between the celestial Sovereign Gods whom the Gentiles worship and mortal men The modern Jew acknowledgeth the true God of his fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob but owneth not Jesus the son of Mary for the true Christ yea disowneth him so far as not onely to expect another Messias but if writers deceive us not to blaspheme and curse him and his followers The deluded Mahometan confesseth one God the Creatour of heaven and earth yea conceiveth so well of the Lord Jesus as not to suffer any Jew to take up the profession of a Musulman till he have first renounced his enmity against Christ yet will neither acknowledge his satisfaction upon which our salvation is founded nor his Divinity by vertue whereof that satisfaction is meritorious Whereas the true and pious Christian is by his Religion taught to say with Paul in direct opposition to all the three forementioned sects We 1 Cor. 8. v. 4 5 6. know that an Idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other God but one For though there be that are called Gods whether in heaven or in earth as there be Gods many and Lords many yet to us there is but one God the Father of whom
all things that stretcheth sorth the heavens alone that spreadeth abroad the earth by my self Yea so necessary was the confession of this truth with the utmost hazard to distinguish God from Idols that to the end the Jews who were then captives in Babylon might not be wholly to seek for a profession of their faith they had this verse in the Hebrew Bible written then and so still in Chaldee letters Thus shall ye say unto them The Gods that have not made the heavens and the earth even they shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens Jerem. 10. 11. ' E◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. de Monarthia Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trismegistus Not unsutable whereunto is that of Pythagoras long since cited by Justin Martyr Whosoever would from henceâ—orth challenge any Diety to himself must be able to shew such a world as this and to say in truth This is of my making and that of Trismegist an heathen too in one of his books There are mainly three to be considered God the World and Man the world made for man and man for God § 2. But we have a more sure word of Prophesie and to that let us take heed It will shew us First How we Christians by faith understand that the Hebr. 11. 3. worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear Well might a Gilb. Voetius Disput Theol. part 1 p. 881. late writer conclude his Discourse of Creation with this Epiphonema Quantum est quod nescimus The truth is it is but little that we can learn from Philosophers even concerning Creation it self the onely Article of the Creed which they speak fully too unacquainted with Scripture Which made Maximilian the first to say that the Audiâ—ndi sunt Ethâ—ici non â—anquam Philomeâ—e sed tanquam Ranae Apud Voetium ibid. pag. 680. Ethnicks were to be heard not as singing Nightingales but as croaking frogs And two great Physicians betake themselves to the study of Scripture for understanding the secrets of Nature One Sennertus who findeth much fault with those who perverted the text of Moses and interpreted him out of heathen writers ausu infelici saith he non tolerando by an unhappy and intolerable undertaking The other Vallesius Huic lectioni consecrari senectutem statui in his philosophari c. Vallosius who in the Preface to his Sacra Philosophia telleth us that whereas he had in the former part of his life commented upon all Aristotles Acromasticks and many pieces both of Hippocrates and Galen he was resolved to devote the remainder of his days to the study of the holy Scriptures and to seek his Philosophy out of them for time to come By faith we understand A Christian firmly beleeves those truths concerning the time and manner of the worlds creation because he hath Scripture testimony for them That the worlds were framed speaking after the Jewish mode though there be indeed but one world in the plurall number for the Hebrews then were wont to mention a threeâ—old viz. an inferiour a middle and a superiour world as Camero Cameron Myrothec pag. 288. telleth us Framed by the word of God saith this place When Solomon was to build a magnificent Temple he needed many workmen and they many tools Not so God who did all without any coadjutour any instrument by the sole word of his command By the word of Psaâ— 33. 6. the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth Let Psal 148. 5. them praiâ—e the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created Art can work if Nature first afford it some complete matter Let an artificer have a stone he can make a statue otherwise not Nature can work if there be a principle to work upon though incomplete Let there be seed it can produce a plant let there be spawn a fish But to work without praeexistent matter Dr Jacksons Commentary on the Creed 2d part chap. 6. § 4. pag. 64. so as to bring forth the first plant without seed the first fish without a spawn yea the first principles of these and all things else out of nothing by his sole word is proper to God So that things which are seen as it followeth here were not made of things which do appear That Rule Ex nihilo nihil fit holds in natura constituta now that God hath set nature in a course of working by secondary causes enabled to produce effects like themselves but in natura constituenda it was otherwise when God wrought by his word of command and is therefore called Elohim by Moses two and thirty times in his history of creation as Mercer observeth The Schoolmen for the most part express that which is here called Things that do not appear by the term Nothing either simply Nothing or No such thing as it appeared to be at first yet when they speak of Non-ens they take not the word materially as if mear Nothing were the matter of which any Being were framed but Terminatively as the term from which the Creatour moved For example the Angels they say and the souls of men together with the Essential forms of natural bodies were not then educed ex potentia materiae as they are since in the ordinary course of generation by Vâ—ssii Thes p. 12. particular agents but induced in materiam by God himself the universal cause and had an immediate Production by the Creatour whereas some other things as the Sun Mans body had a mediate creation as being produced ex non-ente tali from such things as of themselves could not have caused such effects but by virtue of Gods creative word B. Hall contemplat of creation Doctor Hall hath given us the true notion of this in a compendious saying of his God made something out of nothing and of that something all things So as if all things be run to their first Original they will be found to come up out of the womb of Nothing from whence nothing but Almightiness could have fetch 't them § 3. That although the creatures be now subject to vanity yet the goodness of God did shine forth in their first production and is still abundantly manifested in them The creature saith Paul speaking of its present state Rom. 9. 21. was made subject to vanity Whatsoever thing had any being of it self and was not for ever but did receive a being in time and that from God is a creature saith Daneus well thereby excluding the Divinity of Christ which was Creatura est res omnis quae neque à sciâ—sa est neque semper fuit sed ut aliquando à Deo producta est Daneus Physic Christ in p. 59. from everlasting as the Angels were not but produced by God in time and sins of all sorts because though God be