the divinest Divines both in the School and from the School Orderly Subjection and Superiority bud forth and blossome rais'd in the bud and promoted in the blossome by a first direction and motion of pure Nature For even in Heaven the Created Spirits are all rallyed in Order Of these and their Orders Dionysius Areopagita that knowing Dionâ—s Aâ—eop in Eccles Hierarch Vide Nâ—ceph Eccl. Hist lib. 2. c. 20. Mose Bâ—r Ceâ—h de parud p. â— Vide Perer in Gâ—â—ej cap 2. Scholar of Saint Paul to whom he had imparted the Secrets of the third Heaven And in the pure Condition of Innocency there was a most Eminent Superiority first in Man over all other Earthly Creatures and of this Moses Bar-Cephas Secondly in Man over Woman not only because the Male is by right of Nature Suâ—eriouâ— to the Female and because Reason is more reasonable and Strength more vivid and strong in him but also for mystical Considerations And had they continued in Eden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Garden of Pleasure or Delights untill Adam had been a Father there should have been Patria Patestas a Fatherly Power and Superiority or the Commandment with a promise Honora Patrem tuum Honour thy Father is not a moral precept And when Children had broached themselves into Families even there also must have been Superior Potestas a Superiour Power or the best Life upon Earth must have wanted one of the greatest created Perfections consequent to Diversity Disparity Multiplicity upon Earth and in Heaven which is Order Let not our Brethren of the Scotch Mist exalt the Perfection of their Parity with such a noise Because Disparity in it self whatsoever may happen Casually and disorderly is not a Witness of Imperfection For this very State of Innocency would not have been void of Disparity even amongst Men and Women as in their Sex so in their Age Knowledge Justice And their Bodies were not so far exempted from the Laws of Nature that they should not have received divers Helps from Meats and also different Dispositions from the Air and Stars advanced by which some should have been greater fairer stronger But with a Restriction that no Defect should have harboured in those either in Soul or Body who should have been excelled had they been viewed not comparatively but in themselves Yet This Power meerly natural and of Paradise is only a directive not a coercive Power by the which Fathers should have governed their Children and the lesse Wise such there should have been to maintain Dependence and Subordination have been ruled by the Wiser Propter Obtemperantium Bonum chiefly for the Good of the Persons Obediently Subject This being immoveable All Governors are engag'd from Heaven to reform and bring back their Government as home as they can to the Government of Paradise as all our work of Godlinesse in all Kinds draws altogether towards Paradise from the which we fell and set before them in all their Acts the godly Direction and Christian welfare of those whom they govern Therefore O Governour Si Regiminis tui Acies aliquantulùm hebescat tu illam excita when the Edge of your Government grows a little dull and flat degenerating Times ever contracting Corruptions pull it back to the Primitive Edge and sharpness not sharp severity that sharpness was not Primitive but the sharpnesse of Perfection Severity-being only a Child of Necessity And no Generation of Men is so degenerous or usque adeò Struthiocamelus ut ferrum potuerit decoquere so much an Ostrich as to digest Iron For Princely Honours and other Privileges of Kings in their first Fundamentals were not allotted and heaped with a full Eyâ— or half a look set upon Imperial or Princely Dignity But were chiefly given to the Vigils Labours and Troubles of a King undergone in his industrious Contriving the Good of his People ut Oneri Honos responderet that Honour might Answer to the Burden Otherwise no man would stoop his tender Shoulders and be a Governour for the many Cares intending and lying heavy upon him in his Government And Aristotle dividing Arist lib. 8. Ethic. cap. 10. betwixt a King and a Tyrant parts them by this That a Tyrant seeks altogether his own profit as if he were the great and absolute God of the People and of Nature a King or Prince principally the Good and Profit of his People Power is not a Vertue neither are the Acts of Power morally good or evill in themselves but are made such or such by their Concomitants good if accompanyed with Mercy Justice Truth Holiness if otherwise evill Wherefore the Legislative Power being of God who as God hath Supreme Dominion over us and may therefore law us falls under certain Conditions and Rules And four Conditions make a Law just The first ex Parte Finis That it be ordained to the Common Good For a Princely and just Vide Arist ubi suprà Law differs from a Law that is tyrannicall by this tending to Good common or private The second ex Parte Agentis That the Law be prescribed by One in whom resides original Authority For no Power can impose a Law but upon such as are lawfully subject to the Power The third ex Parte Materiae That by the Law neither Vertue be repulâ—ed nor discountenanced nor Vice induced or indulged to The fourth ex Parte Formae That the Law be constituted promulgated after a due Manner and Order to wit That the Law keep that Proportion in the distribution of Honours and imposition of Burdens which the Subjects have hold in order to the Common-wealth S. Aug. lib. 1. de libero Arbitrio cap. 5. in which the Law is given Unjust Laws are not properly and in right speech Laws as St. Austin lawfully declares Unjust Laws ratione Materiae that is which jarre with and are contrary to divine Right do not only not oblige but also should not by any means be received or observed in agreeement to St. Peter and the other Apostles Acts. 5. 29. We ought to obey God rather than Men. But the Laws which are unjust in regard of the End or Author or also of the Form or Manner may and must be kept in case that a Scandal would break in upon us if they should not This is evinced and evidenced out of the saying of Christ Matth. 5. 40. And if any Man will sue thee at the Law and take away thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also Verse 41. And whosoever shall compell thee to go a mile go with him twain For the Doctrine hence issuing is not that we should thus alwaies depart from our Right and crumble away our Goods and Privileges but that we be ready to doe it whensoever the Circumstances becken us to it and such a Work or Works shall be call'd upon as necessary and greatly advantagious to the Manifestation of the Glory of God To this that place of St. Peter holds a Candle which Candle
lose these Infinites or this many and one Infinâ—te and cannot restore an infinite Satisfaction for the loss of it is it not equall that the Sentence of Iustice should pass upon him according to his Fact and give him over to an infinite Punishment I answer Secondly The Person is infinite against whom and the Law is infinite against which we Sin and therefore Justice demands that we should be punished in infinitum into infinite and moreover by reason of the infinite Person against whom we Sin Sin is an infinite Evill and should not infinite be punished with infinite and by Sin we are turned from our last End which is infinite and have turn'd our Intention to a finite and vile Creature as to an infinite End For as Aquinas answers 〈◊〉 D. Tho. â—râ—mâ— secundâ— quaest 1. â—rt 7. ad 1. qui peccant avertuntur ab eo in quo verè invenitur ratio ultimi Finis non autâ—m ab ipsa ultimi Finis Intentione quem quaerunt falsò in alijs rebus They who Sin are turned from that in which the fulness and perfection of the last End is truly found but not from their intending the last End which they falsly seek in other things I answer Thirdly Sin with and in which the Sinner dyes sticks alwayes to the Soul Because Death gives utter denyall to Repentance by the which onely the Soul is washed Therefore where Sin alwayes sticks it is just that Punishment should also adhere Ye may turn again and avouch confidently The Angels being Spirits chang'd from good to evil And why may not a Separate Soul change from evil to good The Angels were then in Viâ in their School of Triall and in their Way The Separate Soul is ultra Viam and in Terminâ— beyond it and out of it and we go not forward after the end of our journy I answer Fourthly God gives eternall Happiness to us if we keep his Lawes therefore if we break them he may by a fit Analogy reward us with everlasting unhappiness Fifthly I answer The Sinner is everlastingly punished because he would everlastingly Sin S. Greg. lib. 34. Moralium in Iob. if he could Which reason St. Gregory illustrates Ad districti Judicij Justitiam pertinet ut nuâ—quam careant supplicio quorum mens in hâc vit â nunquam voluit carrere peccato nullus detur iniquo terminus â—ltionis quia quamdiù valuâ—t habâ—re noluit terminum Criminis It pertains to the Iustice of strict judgement that they never want Punishment whose Minde in this Life would never be wanting of Sin And there be given to the unjust Man no End of Revenge who as long as he could be faultie would hear of no End of committing faults The same Divine Author speaks again Iniqui ideâ— cum fine delinquunt quia cum finâ— vivunt Idem lib. 4. Dialogorum cap 44. Nam voluissent utique sine fine vivere no poâ—uissent sine fine peceare The Vnjust ones therefore Sin with End because they live with End For their desire is to live without End that they may sin without End This their Actions testifie The Canon gives in an Evidence Qui nunquam cessant peccare dum vivunt oftendunt De Poemit Dist. 1. cap. Importune Sect. Sive autem quia semper in peccato vivere cupiunt They who give not over sinning while they live tell plainly and speak it in their behaviour that they desire to live alwaies in sin And the Iustice is founded upon a tripple Basis First That he who does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fight against God in suo aeterno in his own Eternity which Eternity is the Continuance of his Life should being arrested by Sickness and conquered by Death God's Messengers and Officers lye in God's â—aile and be punished by God in Deiaeterna in God's Eternity which Eternity is the Duration of his Life enduring for ever and ever Secondly That whereas God sees the neer Connexion of our Will and Deed in respect of themselves and whereas an efficatious Will is as the Deed putting all the Requisities to it on it's own part It is a firm part of â—ustice that God should punish an Everlasting Will as an Everlasting Deed. Thirdly It is just that he who would never stop in Sin if he might live alwayes and would live alwayes that he might alwayes Sin should live alwayes that he might alwayes be plunged and engulfed into punishment Therefore all Sinners dying in Sin and everlastingly punished for it are in the number and black List of those of whom the Apostle sayes Rom. 3. 8. Ending the verse with the End of wicked Men Quorâ—m Damnatio â—usta est whose Damnation is just 'T is just so I see before me that though Sin be not in every turn Benoni the Son of Grief yet is it alwaies Aboni the Father of all our Griefs and Sorrows gliscente in dies malo this evill growing forth into an evil without End And therefore in the Hebrew Language Sin is most conveniently nam'd Aven which as it offers it self to signify Sin a Lye an Idol Vanity Iniquity that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inequality injustice injury perversity So it signifies great labour weariness affliction And Aven is reduc't per Crasin Grammaticam by a Contraction prescribed also in the Hebrew Grammar to On which being translated sounds Grief Sic abeunt in vanum Cacodaemones ingenti post se relicto foetore So the Devil in his vanishing leaves a noisom and pestilentiall stink of all Evils behinde him O most dearly Beloved Can it be unsavory now Is it not apprimè uâ—ile greatly profitable to prevent Grief with Grief with temporall Grief Grief eternall Prov. 22. 9. He that hath a bountifull Ey shall be blessed The Vulgar Latin hands it forth Qui pronus est ad Vulgatus Interpres Misericordiam benedicetur He that is prone to Mercy shall be blessed The Hebrew gives immediately Qui bonus est oculo Text. Heb. He that is good of Ey And the Chaldee follows in the footstep Qui bonum Chald. Paraph oculum habet He that hath a good Ey Then we have a mercifull Ey when we look mercifully upon those who are in misery Zanchius is ours Indè dicta est Misericordia qùod Cordi nobis sit aliena Zanch. de Natura Dei lib. 4. cap. 4. quaest 1. Miseria Thence Mercy was by the Latius called Misericordia because by Mercy we lay close to our Heart an other's Misery Yea Zanchius we may be Similia habet S. Aug. contr Advers Leg. Proph. lib. 1. cap. 20. mercifull to our selves if the misery hath not yet irrevocably attached us or if our deliverance from it stands within the Verge of our own power or in a Ray of the Divine Beames cast upon our Industry Thus much Pace tuâ— with your good leave and favour And who walks tottering upon the brink and edge of eternall Misery but he
Cause of that Sin Which freeth a Father also from concurring to that Sin in the begetting of a Child he not concurring to that the whole Commission of which is past and blown over Indeed God hath a speculative Knowledge only of Himself be-because Vide S. Tho. part 1. qâ—aest 14. art 16. he is not operable But of all oother Things he hath a speculative and a practical Knowledge A speculative Knowledge because he knows all things speculativo modo after a speculative manner A practical Knowledge of those Things which in Time he doth And the Evils of Sin although they are not operable by him yet fall under his practical Knowledge as he permits or hinders or as he orders them and disposes of them as Sicknesses fall under the practical Knowledge of the Physitian when he cures them by his Art Whence it goes off clearly that God knows a thing which may not possibly be done by him because it jars with his Perfections A zealous Christian desires to know the fairest Foundation in point of Vertue upon which he may place his Worship of God Sound Learning laies it out by the line in this manner There be many Reasons and Motives by the which we are bound and urged to give and yield all Obedience Observance Veneration and Worship to God For first We owe him Duty as one infinitely better and greater than us And this Act is proper to a Vertue called Reverence or Observance whose charge and business is to make us respectfull and submissive to our Betters Secondly We owe him Duty as he is the Supreme Lord whose all Things are and to whom all things are due which we have And this Act is proper to Justice as far as a man can exercise Iustice towards God which is not like the Iustice betwixt Man and Man Because the Dominions of Men may be equall and unmingled when yet nothing can be exempted from the most high Dominion of God Thirdly We owe him Duty as he is the first Beginning and Creator of all Things to whom therefore our highest Worship is due by the direction of the Vertue of Religion Fourthly We owe him Duty as a Father who therefore is Venerable and who hath made us being most unworthy of so great a favour his Children by Grace and Adoption And the payment of this Duty is an Act belonging to the Vertues of Christian Piety and Filial Fear Fifthly We are his Debtors as he is our great and most liberal Benefactour And the Works of this Consideration are all under the Protection of Gratitude Sixthly We are subjected to him as being most high potent and over all And the Vertue that performs the Commands of these Thoughts is Humility Seventhly We have a reference to him as he is our Summum Bonum and most diligible And the Vertue that stirs here is Charity And as the Ey of Faith and Love discerneth more of these Motives so the Act hath more Reasous of Honesty derived from the different Species of these Vertues being like an Heavenly Rainbow beautified with many Colours with which we shoot and wound our Beloved to the Heart If therefore ye will know with sound Reason that God made the World not by Coaction but with affection to our Good that the Lawgiver is Himself holy If ye will know how to make the best of your best Devotions and Worship yee must sit at the Feet of sound Learning as Paâ—l at the Feet of Gamaâ—iel In these close Cabinets of Truth Thousands of like Truths present themselves And I am forced here to imitate the Painter who endeavouring to shew to the Ey and gather a great multitude of Men within the narrow-limited Compass of a small Table and fearing lest they should offend one another if crowded together discovereth in some onely their faces in others their backs of some the tops of their Heads of others one onely Foot and sometimes a small Cheek and one Ey stands for a Man while he leaves the rest for our Imagination to paint which truly performeth a fair deal more in the Table than the Painter And in those rare Works of honest and laudable Curiosity those famous Reliques of Time in which the Shapes of many both Men and Women were compelled within the Circle of a Penny the part that was the Head in one Man was the Brest of another and perhaps another limb in a third serving for divers parts as it was diversly applied and looked upon In Cases of Conscience An honest Soldier futurorum anxius anxious of minde concerning Things to come is desirous to know the Conditions of a just War Sound Learning is only able to answer his Desires And says The Conditions of a just War are 1 Auctoritas legitima a lawfull Authority Which is The Authority of a Supreme power or of a Prince Because Princes and Supreme Powers have no common Tribunal at which they may accuse other Supreme Powers and Princes 2. Causajusta a just Cause Which is The repulsing of notorious and great Injury the repulsing of which is a more eligible Good than the Good lost by the Evil of War that the Supreme Power may defend the People subjected to it now greatly damnifyed by the Enemy This Cause must not be doubtfull Yet in a doubtfull Cause a Person lawfully subjected to the Power may fight under it a Stranger may not Because Persons lawfully subjected ought not to discuss the Commands of the Supreme Power in Matter of Doubt as neither ought an Executioner to discuss the Commands or Sentence of a lawfull Judge 3. Intentio bona a good Intention For the End of War being the Peace and Tranquillity of the Commonwealth in the Possession of her Just Rights no other End can bear the weight of War We must therefore first endeavour that Satisfaction be made by Peaceable Meanes 4. Modus debitus a due Manner Which enjoyns the taking of all possible Care that the Innocent be not endamaged These Conditions every word being weighed in the Ballance of Justice and of the Sanctuary speak a just War A well-meaning Man having it larum'd howerly in his Ears that our Kirck-Innocents have had of late dayes their faithfull Martyrs is importunate from the Desires of his distressed and troubled Heart to know the Conditions required to Martyrdom Learning readily gives them out of her Store-House Five Conditions must concurre to the baptizing of an Adulâ—us or grown Man Baptismo Sanguiâ—is in his own Bloud by the Name of Martyr or God's Witness 1. Death must be inflicted upon him in the hatred of Christ or of Christian Religion or of some Verity of Faith or because he hath done some Act of Vertue Causa non Poena facit Martyrem The Cause not the Punishment makes a Martyr 2. Death must be Piously accepted by him 3. He that is martyred must not resist his Persequutors in Act or Desire And therefore even Christian Soldiers fighting in God's Cause are not Martyrs though kill'd Because they
day being far spent and the darkness of the night approuching Me thinks now that I preach to my self For God oftentimes speaks to us from our own Mouths Brethren I greatly desire to dye the death of the Saints pretious in the sight of God That I may to use the word of Theodor. Bals in Canones Trullanos Can. 52. Theodorus Balsamon in his sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacrifice everlasting Praises to God and celebrate a continual Feast with him in his glory and being loosed from this earthly Tabernacle be rapted away Sept. in Levit. 23. 36. alihi semâ—èr cùm idem subsit in Orig. to the blessed Thing anagogically signified by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Septuagint to bear a part with the Saints in that heavenly Song in the End I have professed for you these many years And That a Man may be joyn'd in Communion or Vnion with the Church of Rome and yet preach here as a Minister is a most false Alarum and the mad bellowing of enthusiastical and fanatical persons and answerable to Presbyterian Ignorance I will here unrip my Soul unto you He that will joyn with Rome must unroost here No Law forbids a Man to groan when his pain comes O that there had been alwaies in me Virtus altis defixa radicibus Vertue Deeply-Rooted I did once expect to have found in England one bearing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a superhumeral made of Sheeps-Wooll and signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Isidore Pelusiot the skin of the Sheep which Christ Isid Pelus l. 1. ep 136. sought found and carried home upon his shoulders and which was alwayes put on in the pronouncing of these Words according to Simeon Thessalonicensis Sublatâ Sim. Thessal in Bibliotheca Patrum in humeros Christe Naturâ quae erraverat assumptus Deo Patri illam obtulisti O Christ thou taking upon thee the Nature of Man which had erred and having ascended did'st prefer it to God thy father But Verily verily I neither found here the Patriarch that sent it nor the Bishop that wore it I found indeed the most professing and most shewing People of all others but amongst all others the most prodigiously ignorant of Right and Equality concerning Practicable Matters as is evidenced by the dayly practices of the People their Desires and Works having no Bounds or their Words Limits but the Limits and Bounds which the Law of the Land hath forced upon them over which notwithstanding they leap like the Wild-Beasts of the Forrest I hoped to have entred upon post Magellanicos Tumultus Aequor pacificum after forraign Tumults a peaceable Sea at Home But by reason of some Kirk-Sea-Monsters who disguising their Ends and bringing Non-Causam pro Causa a Supposititious Cause for the Cause it self and bleeding inwardly with grief that their Congregations grew thin low and lean persecuted me I have lived here as in the Suburbs of Hell and as amongst Conjurers wearing Devils upon their fingers in Rings In every touch I felt their Devill stir and work And because he wrought not by himself but by them I could not command him to desist The Devill in a round Ring was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Familiar giving Counsel They wear the Devil in a Ring that by devilish suggestions bring trouble and Hel-fire to every Thing they morally touch Their moral touches as their Tongues are set on fire of Hell Iames 3. 6. Fire fire the worst of all fires the fire of Hell fire fire Hell fire I have dealt in this Nation with rich-furred Beasts their Cases were far better than their Bodies lurking under the Cinamon Tree the Bark whereof is dearer than the whole Bulk In fine I have seen the very Sâ—orm and Loss which the Triremis or Gally-Tavern Athenaeus lib. 2. Cael. Rhodigin l. 17. cap. 2. in the Sicilian Agrigentum did undergo And in the last Act was horribly struck from above me with a Perhaps you have a Pension from the Pope tanquâ—mè Machina as out of the highest Seat over the Stage from the which some feigned God appear'd and spake Oracles To Walk before God with a perhaps is to walk contrary unto God Levit. 26. 21. And if ye walk contrary Vatabl. unto me Vatablus his Reading is Si ambulaveritis mecum cum Casu If ye shall walk with me by chance or at all adventures I ye build the vast and high Towers of your Scotch-Babylon upon the nodding and shaking foundation of a Perhaps For the Hebrew word Keri Occursus signifieth according to the Hebrew Bias as well Chance as Contrary And he that comes contrary to me occurrit mihi meets me running and all Chances eunt obviam eis meet those and are upon a sudden occurrent to them in respect of whom they are such Did this Child of Chance this honest-Perhaps ever understand how a Science is rais'd out of it's Principles or that Scientia procedit ex evidentibus All knowledge proceedeth from Things evident and clear by the Light of Nature or of Reason Hic de Grege illo est This is one of the old Herd And for a Pragmaticall envious eager Man-Friggoâ— stirring up every where before Women 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Word fighting and larding his Discourses with greasy Language and the same a Preacher of Novelties the Apostle describes him in his walking Coloss 2. 18. Intruding into those Things which he hath not seen The Vulgar Latin devotes ambulans Edit Vulg. Text Graec. walking The Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is interpreted by St. Hierom is gestu corporis praeferre S. Hier. in Colloss 2. Mentis Superbiam in the garb of the Body to shew the pride of the Mind Vatablus consents Fastuosus incedens Vatabl. saith he is proud and pompous in his going and sayes in his puft thoughts with him in the Poet Seneca Aequalis Sen. in Thyeste Astris gradior I walk equall with the Stars And therefore the Apostle presses on Vainly puft up by his fleshly mind He walks in the stately Galleries of his own Fancy and his Body walks as his Soul walks in it An Act of rash and false Iudgement notabile Damnum inferens at first may carry a face of Iustice but is like a beautifull Apparition beckning to us to come and we following it into a dark place suddenly turning into a must horrid shape and strangling us For Difficile est in lubrico diu stare It is a hard Matter to stand long safe in the dark on a slippery place I could send this walking Personage a talking Page to Minister unto him But God hath uncased him The World knows it Rumor jam raucus factus est Let me pitie the People that were like the poor Lacedemonian Plut. in Lacon youth who having craftily stole a Fox ran his way craftily craftily thinking he had a rich Prize And who craftily kept the Fox so long
Arist lib. 6. Eâ—hicor cap. 4. Maxim amongst our Christian Philosophers waiting dutifully upon Divinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Edification in Doctrine growes up from known or accepted Principles from Principles clear to the eye of right Reason or of true Faith The Text here is it self a principle and set forth standing with a broad bottom in the full view both of Reason and Faith The Reasonable Man à Naturâ nondum ablactatus not yet weaned froÌ„ the Breast of naturated Nature still the Milk pearls on his lips hath willingly transcribed it out of Nature's Originall extant in his Heart being dead to God as a lively Principle of Nature and acts from it but hath not assentingly took it upon the best account If one write a Will or Testament and hold the Pen with a dead mans Hand that Will will not hold in Law It was not his Will because it was not writ by him with virtue derived from any Principle of Life in him Neither will our Naturall Man's Will hold for a VVill in God's Law being his revealed will Some Works and Acts of the Noctuambulones or those that walk and talk in their sleep by Night though the same works in the triall of Sense with the works of the same persons when they wake and walk are not by Reason admitted or enrolled as such Behold the Ground Fix your Foot here as upon a fixed and immoveable Truth Only the acts and performances issuing from a divine Principle in us above Nature can suit with the divine Will supernaturally discovered But the Beleever hath religiously copied it into his Heart out of God's revealed will and out of God in the best and highest Construction of him as he is in the supernaturall Order the Author of it not as the Author of Nature and therefore though the same Truth eadem in Terminis the same in Terms be still imbraced by both yet now it is a Truth of the supernaturall Order and immediately apprehended by an active and fundamentall vertue from God in us and one so perfect uâ— nihil suprà that nothing in this our State reaches above or before it and which is Ground-firm and only able to meet and close in fit equipage with the supernaturality of Revelation And as the Prince of the Thomists divinely D. Tho secunda secundae quaest 6. art 1. in corp speaks Quia Homo assentiendo eis quae sunt Fidei elevatur supra naturam suam oportet quòd hoc insit ei ex Supernaturali Principiâ— interiùs movente quod est Deus Because Man by assenting to matters of Faith is elevated above his Nature this must come from a supernaturall Principle moving inwardly which is God The supernaiuraâ— Principle is the main Thing the principall Thing Examine your Principles I could render the Text like the Herb call'd the Tartar Lamb that with secret pullings attracts the juyce and virtue of and seems like a grown Lamb to put a mouth to and openly feed upon the Plants and Herbs on every side of it For though it be a Principle it is a Principle in the midst of others and lies couchant as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a rich pictured Pavement I might divide the Text too But we never wisely divide in this Manner save claritatis ergô for perspicuity and to clear up our Knowledge of Kindes and Particulars Nec ad aliorum Exempla me componam And Principia sunt per se nota Principles are known of themselves They are also compacted short and spritely And I will not be so like Vesalius the Anatomist who commonly did improve his Art by cutting up Men alive I shall therefore Things fairly flowing and growing of themselves Rebus probè fluentib us gently binde up the whole Doctrine into this fair sheaf The Will and Law of God and the Wills of Men in God's place which correspond with the Divine will and are therefore Law are perfect and without blemish The Law of God is most unblemished and perfect considered in it's Originall As the Divine Idea is Quaedam Ratio in Mente Divinà a certaine Exemplary Cause of Things in the Understanding of God So there is Ratio quaedam in Divinâ Voluntate a certain Rule or Measure of Things in the Divine Will which is Lex aeterna the eternall Law The first naturall Copy of it is enstamped in Angelicâ Naturâ in the Angelicall Nature The Second in Rectâ Raâ—ione in the Right Reason of Man And God's revealed Will in his outward Command or Word is an After-Copy à Sensu initâ—um habens entring upon us by the Sense as doth all our other knowledge of outward Things The Apostle album apponit calculum assents Rom. 10. 17. Fides ex auditu Faith is occasioned by hearing Saint Austin disputing against that numble and whorish-tongu'd Faustus the Manichean defineth S. Aug. lib. 22. cap. 27. contra Faustum Sin Peccatum in Commnni Dictum vel Factum vel Concupitum contra Legem aeternam Dei A Thing said or done or thought against the eternall Law of God This everlasting Rule in God because in God is essentially God and infinite as God is infinite and everlasting And quatenus est Ratio Fundamental is Agendorum as it is the Fundamentall Rule of Things to be done in Time is the very Will of God in God He that will give God a Name bearing a speciall engagement to this Law of Essence must give him his essentiall Name Jehovah of the which Himself proclames Exod. 3. 15. This is my Name Legnolam for ever Which Text the later lewes as Petrus Galatinus informs Petrus Galatin lib. 2. de Arcanis Fidei cap. 10. S. Hterom Epist ad Marcell against them have greatly distempered by a little motion or mutation reading it Legnalam to be concealed This Name of God is God's proper Name and incommunicable to a Creature as his Essence is and his Originall Will that is both a Will and a Law Saint Hierom calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. John Damascen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Jo. Damasc lib. 1 Ortâ—oâ— Fidei cap. 12. Theodor. in Exod. 3. Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Epithites conspire in this That the Name could not be spoken or uttered Because the Letters which ty'd up into a sweet Posy composed originally this Name being Insonae soundlesse enigmatically taught God's Essence imported by this Name to be unspeakeable It runs through all the Differences of Time and is aptly Englished Who was who is who will be shewing it includes the Law that is essentiall and essentially eternall It is much applyed to God in his mercifull Acts as Elohim in his Acts of judgement thereby divulging That it is in compleat Sense as agreeable to God's Will to be merciful as to be yea that he delights as much in his Will of Mercy as in his Being And his giving a Law was a singular act of Mercy as generally it is an act
of Iustice to punish the Breakers and Violaters of it Wherefore Paulus Burgensis contends that the Mercy of God is insinuated Paul Eurgens in Scrâ—tin Part. 1. by Adonai standing for Jehovah The Name Iah being the Name Iehovah with a curb or check or taken up into short and signifying I am is enrob'd in the same Perfection A Doctrine stands up here He that breaks the Law of God sins against the Divine Essence O thou Spirit of Truth assist me farther The Prophet David cries out towards Heaven Psal 8. 4. What is Man that thou art mindfull of him Where Enos which the Interpreters call Man doth not signifie Man quocunque modo but Euseb de Demonstr Evangâ—l lib. 2. cap. 7. as Eusebius learnedly Man quatenus est arâ—â—fex aut architectâ—s scelerâ—s ac immen or Dei sui The Paraphrase may be O what is forgetfull Man that thou art mindfull of him who forgets thee and himself and what he does when he sets himself against thy very Essence against thee as thou art Iehovah Who fears not to make a rude Assault upon the very substantiall Essence of God Vpon God as he is Primum Ens per se subsistens The First of all Things subsisting by Himself As he is Fons Essendi atque Existendi The Foutain of all Essence and Existence of all Being and Well Being Most Good and most Great and most greatly Good in being most Mercifull Sin proprium periculum increpuit But if there be the least noise or crack of Danger in other Things mean things starts and looks pale and puts wings to his Heels and runs to save himself crying make room for God's sake And though lying under the Rod he lets fly a multitude of good Words and Prayers and fairly promiseth to be reform'd framing likewise a promising Countenance adjoyning an humble Voice with some groans and a goodly number of sighes the hands and eyes all the while working mainly yet the Rod being laid aside and the smart off presently â—redit ad ingenium returns to his vomit the Rod being yet in sight and Iehovah with all his Divine Essence being present and looking upon him What is Enos or Enosh forgetfull Man that thou art mindfull of him This Law of God is yet more known to be most perfect by it's Contrary For if this Will or Law of God were not infinitely great and good and perfect the Thing contrary to it could not be Malum infinitum an infinite Evill the Truth of this every Man sees nemo tam Talpa est quin videat and have infinite Imperfect on in it as it hath according to Divines and the Angelicall Doctor their Speaker speaking for them as followeth Peccatum contra Deum commissum quandam infinitatem habet ex infinitate D. Tho. part 3. quaest 1. art 2. ad 2. Divinae Majestatis tanto enim Offensa est gravior quanto major est ille in quem delinquitur Sin committed against God hath a certain infinity from the infinity of the Divine Majesty For an Offence is by so much the more grievous by how much he is more great against whom we offend The most adequate and fundamentall Reason is Because in our Elections of moral Good and Evil we hold a Ballance weighing in a manner the Creator and the Creature O great Indignity And in our Applications to Evill as if the Creature were of more weight and worth than the Creator we scornfully turn from the Creator and joyn affectionately with the Creature bidding defiance to the Creator And as the melancholy-She in Trallianus as he delivers it Putavit se Alexand Trallian lib. 1. cap. 16. uno digito posse totum Mundum conterere thought she could break to peeces the whole world with the motion of one short finger and crush it into a Miscel any with the clinching of her little Hand So we more mad and melancholy set up our selves and stretch out our Hands for the time above God and his whole Creation In the which foul Act there is Aversio à Deo Conversio ad Creaturam an Aversion from God and a Conversion to the Creature And therein consequently Bonum commutabi e praefertur Incommutabili Bono a changeable Good yea sometimes a villanous and filthy Lust O Man Siccine te ipâ—e abjicies wilt thou so debase thy self is preferred before a Good and a God that is unchangeable And the Offender ab imâ— everâ—it â—omnia overturns the whole Frame of the Universe exalting Earth to the place of Heaven and subjecting God and God's Heaven under his dirty feet From this foresight Isidor Pelufiot St. Chrysustom's apt Schollar exacts of a Isid Pelus lib. 1. Ep. 424. Religious Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an honest and truly-faithfull Holder of the Ballance And in answer to that Aversion and Conversion there is in Hell Poena Damni the Pain of Loss by the which we shall everlastingly be averted from God and Paena Sensûs the Pain of Sense by the which we shall remain for ever assigned and confined to the Creature I mean to Fire which being the most pragmaticall Busy-Body of all earthly Creatures shall actively revenge the Wrongs done to the Creator and the Creature and which because Sinners have transgressed the Law of Nature shall be promoted and elevated above Nature and beyond its own rank to act upon the Soul by Him who did not intend the burning of Spirits and Souls primariâ Intentione quâ rem propter se intend it with a primarâ—e Intention by the which he intends a thing for it self sed secundariâ quando rem vult propter alâ—ud praemissa alterius Consideratione but with a secundarie Intention when he wills a thing urged to it in the consideration of a thing premised And thus our Commission of an infinite Evil is rebus nunâ— aequâ lance pensatis things now being equally weighed proportionably and most justly punished We are averted from an infinite Good and affixed to a most intollerable Evil being a materiall Instrument of Iustice and representing our adhesion to materiall Things which in Duration à parte post shall be infinite and infinitely subject a superiour Spirit to an earthly base Body Ye demand Why God punisheth a Sin committed in Time a short Time a Moment with Hell a Place of eternall Torment Is this Law of God perfect I answer First If he to whose charge a matter of infinite price and worth is committed should by his gross default and 〈◊〉 negligence lose yea contemn and willfully disavow it ought he not to pay an infinite price for it or if he be not able to pay ought he not to suffer an infinite punishment according to the plain Rule and Letter of Iustice In like manner He to whom the infinite God is given with Grace he who is entrusted with the infinite Son of God in the sacred Symbols of our Lord's Supper he who is redeemed with an infinite price if by Sin he shall