est qui non clauditur loco nusquam non est qui non excluditur loco God is no where because concluded in no place and God is every where because excluded from none 6. God is ens simplex actus purus and this simplicity is sufficiently manifested in holy Writ I am that I am saith God to Moses and again I am hath sent me unto you that is as Doctor Preston hath it a pure Act all being whole entire a simple and Uniform being without parts accidents or any Composition not like to the Creatures for the best of them although they have not a Substantial and Physical simplicity i. e. no◠compounded of Matter and Form nor consisting of Integral parts yet a Metaphysical and Accidental Composition they have and no simplicity for as much as they are compounded of Essence and Existence of Act and Power or of Actions and Qualities which whatsoever it be called cannot he said of God who is a simple and Indivisible Essence whose Essence is his Existence and whose Act is Power Power in God is neither objectiva nor passiva such distinctions are not in God whose Power is purè activa and all that is in God is but one God so do those words impart viz. I am that I am as much as to say whatsoever is in me it is my self in God is nothing but himself nihil in se nisi se habet saith St. Bernard hear him further But God is a Trinity what then do we overthrow Gods Unity by confessing a Trinity no but we confirm the Unity we acknowledge the Father and so the Son and so the Holy Ghost yet not three Gods but one God what means this number and no number as I may so speak For if three how is it not a number And if but one where then is the number But I have saist thou both what I may number and what I may not the Substance is one the Persons are three and what Ridde or Mystery lies in this none at all if we may divide the Persons from the Substance but since these three Persons are that one Substance and that one Substance those three Persons who can deny a number for they are truly Three yet who can call a number that is but truly One Or if thou hast as thou thinkst sufficiently numbred them by professing three what dost thou number Their Natures That 's but one their Essence It 's but one their Substance It 's but one their God-heads It 's but one but thou wilt say I number not these but the Persons which are not that one Nature that one Substance one Essence and that one God-head Thou art a Catholick and maist not profess this The Catholick Faith believeth the properties of the Persons is no other than the Persons themselves and that the Persons are no other than one God one Divine Nature Substance and Supreme Majesty reckon therefore if thou canst either the Persons without the Substance which they are or the properties without the Persons which they are Qui duplici impietate numerum trinitati minuit tribuit unitati Bernard Epist 190. fol. 1581. G. Or if any go about to divide and sever the Persons from the Substance or the Properties from the Persons I know not how the Trinity will own him for a Worshiper wee may therefore acknowledge Three but not to prejudice the Unity and acknowledge One but not to confound the Trinity This is a great Mystery and a sacred if any would know how this Plurality is in Unity or Unity in Plurality I answer it is rashness to search Piety to believe life everlasting to know 7. To these we may add another Attribute appropriate to God by which he is made known unto us in his Word viz his Invisibility where it is expressed as in the place before mentioned To the King Eternal Immortal Invisible and onely wise God no man hath seen God at any time neither indeed can see him with Mortal eye and though this manner of Invisibility be not the proper Attribute of God so doth not sufficiently set forth the Divine perfection being common also to all Spiritual Substances as well the Rational Soul in this life as Souls abstracted and Spirits Intellectual for as much as no Spirit is Visible with Corporeal eyes yet God in a more eminent manner is Invisible There is a twofold sight one of the body another of the mind the light of the body is the Eye the light of the mind Understanding with the bodily eye no Spirits can be seen but with the eye of the mind they are Visible not properly and fully in this life we know not any thing but per species impressas by Intelligible Forms imprinted in our Understanding from some sensible Objects not our own Souls much less those purer Intellectual Natures But the Intellectual Spirits and separated Souls do see themselves and other Created Substances though Superior and so are they Visible with an Intuitive Vision from Innate and Connatural Forms which way notwithstanding God is not Visible to any Created Intellect And thus Invisibility comes to be Appropriate to God alone and not Communicative to any besides no Created Substance can see God as he is in himself by any Natural way of Created Intuitive Vision of the Understanding without the infusion of some other Supernatural Endowments which agrees with the rules of our Faith and of Sacred Writ professing God to be Invisible and to dwell in an unaccessable light Yet may we not otherwise but according to Catholick Faith believe that God is Visible too 1. He is Visible to himself as he is Comprehensible of himself because he is equally Intelligent and Intelligible non minus Intellectivus quam intelligibilis as hath been elsewhere said therefore Visible in respect of himself though Invisible in respect others 2. Visible in respect of others viz. all the blessed Saints and Angels these enjoy a full Fruition and Beatifical Vision of him not a glimse as I may say or some Created brightness and illumination in a glass per aenigma either in the glass of his Creatures as Naturalists with the eye of Reason or in a more Spiritual glass as Christians with an eye of Faith in this Vale of tears may behold him but face to face clearly and as he is in himself Intuitively not in any Natural Created light but by an eye and light of glory unexpressibly Supernatural by which God is pleased to convey Intelligible Forms of his own Essence unto us which Vision is meant and signified by Saint John in his 1. Epistle 3.2 Wee shall see him even as he is viz. in a glorified estate per lumen gloriae by a light of glory unexpressible Of the Knowledge and Will in God CHAP. V. Chap. 5. Book 2. WEE have treated of God and his Attributes which are of the Essence of God we come now to treat of the Knowledge and Will in God as much as
and therefore they likewise hold there are rewards and punishments for souls departed according as they have acted in the flesh be it good or evill Onely they have differed about the state of souls departed in which some have held ridiculous things Touching which we will proceed to shew how far this verity is evidenced to us by Philosophical principles by the light of natural reason The Soul of man after this life remains and abides for ever whole and intire as to its essence for that is simple and undivided as hath been sayd though not as to all its faculties and operations all the faculties of the soul remain not with the soul after the death of man at least the operations in that condition as before and therefore may be said to be perished The Intellectual faculty abides for ever with the soul so is no way mortal but for as much as the Sensitive faculty is organical and cannot work without a body when the body dyes that faculty is sayd to perish but this in respect of the body not in respect of the soul which faculty abides with the soul for ever potentialiter though not actualiter but is idle and cannot work whilst the body sleepeth in the grave and as Aristotle saith An old man had he the eyes of a young man would see as well as a young man so if after death the soul should enter into a body it would doe all the operations which before it did now since all these faculties as to the soul remain though in respect of the body they are sayd to perish it is necessary and that according to the principles of Philosophy that sometime the soul should reassume a body or else these faculties are reserved and kept in vain But because no power or faculty can be in vain Vide Pacim in Arist de anima lib. 3. c. 6. sect 5. â— Et lib. â— c. 10. sect 5. yet that is in vain which is never reduced into act and that Deus natura nihil frustra operantur according to Aristotle and the rule of Philosophy therefore it must needs be confessed that the soul shall sometime come into the body again which Conclusion is confirmed by very good reason for the soul is according to its essence a Form and a Form naturally desires the Matter to which it relates and without the Matter it is but imperfect for nothing is perfect ex sola forma not by Form alone but Matter and form together so that Matter concurs to the perfection of all created compounded substances otherwise death would not be so terrible if all perfection and happiness consisted in the soul Being thus seasoned with these Philosophical verities thou maist more readily assent to those Theological truths of the soul's eternity and immortality thou seest O my soul how near nature rectified and rightly principled leads to Christ what Affinity there is 'twixt Reason and Faith Nature and Grace they thwart not one the other the Truth of Philosophy agrees with the Truth of Divinity and from this Philosocal Principle will I teach thee a Christian Article of the Resurrection of the body and life everlasting For let me argue with thee O my soul in thine own natural principles if the soul be a Form which naturally desires the Matter to which it is the Form and without which it is imperfect if it have Faculties which it cannot exercise without a body and that God and Nature have made nothing in vain therefore the soul must of necessity reassume a body it must either be the same numerical body or another different from what it had before if another then must thou grant a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Transmigration of souls an error of the Pythagoreans and is an impossibility according to the principles of Philosophy because as Aristotle every where affirmeth a determinate Form requires a determinate Matter a specifical Form a specifical Matter and a numerical Form requires the same numerical Matter so the same Individual Soul requires the same Individual Body and if the soul assume the same body then must thou hold the Resurrection of that body which Christian Religion teacheth also CHAP. III. Of the Definition of the Soul Chap. 3. Book 1. ONe and the same thing may be the subject of several Sciences though diversly handled and considered in every one of them and as it is diversly considered so may it diversly be defined Logick is not tied to certain matter but runs generally through all kind of things not standing so much upon the matter Mathematicks handles things abstracted from matter non re sedratione Metaphysicks handles things altogether separated from matter but Physicks handles things not separated from matter at all nec re nec ratione Thus are the Definitions of one and the same thing various according to the several Sciences which treat of it Aristotle puts an example of Anger that being considered in the Physical Science is defined to be A certain motion of the body for some injury received with desire of revenge being in Logick considered it s defined onely A desire of revenge the one expresseth the matter he other not The Soul of man is a subject for all Sciences Philosophical or Theological and therefore admits of several Definitions but for as much as it is not our purpose at present to treat of the soul of man either Theologically as the Image of God in man nor yet Metaphysically as incorporeal spiritual and abstracted from bodily organs in its diviner contemplative intellectual faculties which resembles the nature divine nor yet to handle it onely in its Sensitive parts which resembles the nature of beasts but as it hath assumed humane nature and is the Form of man and so a part of him who is compounded of Matter and Form who is in that respect of a middle nature 'twixt Terrestrial and Celestial 'twixt Mortal and Immortal creatures and participates of both and this nature too we consider not as in the state of integrity in which it was created but in this lapsed degenerate condition it groaneth under since the fall of man and is intombed in a body of weak and sinfull flesh and operates not but by and with the body The subject therefore of this Book is Physical material and inseparable from the body as well in its Affections which we here handle as in its Essence such then must our Definition be for quale est definitum talis esse debâ—s definitio The Definition of the soul The Soul is the act and perfection of the natural organical body having life in power I shall not stay to coment upon the words of this Definition to shew how the soul is an act and perfection which words are Synonima the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehending both and is the genus in this Definition and how this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the second act to wit the Operation and Motion which is the soules
imago Dei forma servi My Soul is athirst after Christ my Saviour O when shall I come and appear before him Grant holy Jesu I may so behold thee though veiled here that when this earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved when it shall turn to the Lord and be clothed upon with our horse of immortality and glory which is from heaven the veil which to this day is upon my heart may be taken away and I may with open face behold the glory of my Lord being changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Amen Christ in the blessed Eucharist is the object of our Ears speaking unto our hearts both in secret whisperings and in shriller notes and holds a familiar conference with us he is an audible Voice and a speaking Word the sound whereof is gone to the ends of the world that Word which in the beginning was with God and was God but was made Flesh and dwelt among us God made Man the Son of God the Son of Man unicus patris filius hominis verbum quippe caro factum this Word incarnate is that Bread of God which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the World This Word is not onely audible to the Ear but penetrable to the Heart piercing like a two-edged sword to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the marrow and the joynts Those reverend thoughts and meditations we have of Christ especially in this Sacrament are nothing else but so many words of his spoken to our Soules though all our cogitations are not Christs locutions nor all his communications our meditations cum enim mala in corde versamus nostra cogitatio est si bona Dei sermo est illa cor nostrum dicit haec audit our good thoughts are Christs words our evill thoughts are our own words The fool hath sayd in his heart there is no God there 's our own words The Lord speaketh peace unto his people those are Christ's one is spoke from the heart the other is to the heart Our own words again are twofold or have two wayes of proceeding one from Natures corruption another from Satans suggestion but of all these bitter fruits and sinfull effects proceeding from within us it is a hard matter to assign a proper cause and author to demonstrate which are the works of the Devill and which be the fruites of the Flesh we are not able so exactly to distinguish inter morbum mentis morsum serpentis inter malum innatum malum seminatum inter partum cordis seminarium hostis only we may know they both are evill and proceed from evill both in the heart though not both from the heart this I know most assuredly though which to ascribe to my heart which to Satan I know not But for my good thoughts since all our sufficiency is from God I doe undoubtedly believe they are the very words of that very Word verba verbi Dei written in my heart by the finger of his blessed Spirit This is that Word which is not sonans onely but penetrans non loquax sed efficax non obstrepens auribus sed blandiens affectibus Happy art thou O my Soul if when thy God calleth thou answerest with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth or with holy David repliest I will hear what the Lord my God will say unto me Christ is the object of our Sense of Olfaction sâ—nding forth most sweet perfumes he is sweet in his Name Christ Jesus Christ i. e. Annâ—inted so much the name imports Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth he is sweet in his name Iesus a Saviour there is no other name given under heaven whereby we shall be saved neither is there any malady of Mind any disease of the Soul which this precious balm and ointment cannot cure Erit tibi sapor odor in medicinam salubrem morbos si qui fuerint repellentem venturosque caventem He is sweet and pleasant to God the Fath r he is his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased and the smell of his Son is like the smell of a field whom the Lord hath blessed he is that Lamb slain from the foundaâ—ions of the world whose bâ—dy and blood being offered as an Holocaust unto God the Father smelleth a sweet smelling sacrifise unto him and from whom issueth unto his Spouse the Church to every particular Member and to every worthy Communicant partaking of his Body and Blood such streams of precious ointment and oyl of the Holy Ghost runing down not onely to the beard of Aaron that is as St Bernard expounds it to the Apostles and Ministers of Christ but unto the very skirts of his clothing that is to the meanest of his Members in infima membra Ecclesiae quae est tanquam Christi vestimentum that even these vile bodies and soules being offered an oblation smell also a sweet-smelling sacrifise to God through Christ holy and acceptable we are anointed with oyl of gladness but Christ with holy oyl and oyl of gladness above all his fellows It falls first upon Christ the Head so runs down to his beard so descends to the skirts of his garments the meanest member in hi Church the smell of Christs garment is like the smel of Lebanon but the smel of his ointments super omnia aromata is better than all spices Christ is the object of our Spiritual Tast and that food of Saints and Angels in Heaven of which it hath pleased God to give a tast to his Saints on earth feeding them with the bread of Heaven the food of life which comes from Heaven that Heavenly Manna and food of Angels the Prophet speaks of more pleasant and sweet to the tast than honney or the honney-comb But that we might eat Angels food Christ was Incarnate the Word was made Flesh so all are partakers of Christ the Saints on Earth as well as Saints and Angels in Heaven onely with this difference Comedunt Angeli verbum de Deo natum comedunt homines verbum faenum factum pane suo vivunt Angeli in caelis beati sunt faeno suo vivunt homines in terris sancti sunt Yet doth not every man tast of the food that partakes of the outward Elements the Natural man hath no sense or tast no fruit and benefit of this Sacrament because it is spiritually discerned it is food eternal not temporal spiritual not corporal for supernatural nourishment unto Eternal life not for physical and natural which accomplisheth its ends in this life pereat hic physicale nutrimentum cibis iste non ventris sed mentis we feed on him in our heart by Faith and Thanksgiving My Body is nourished with the outward Elements of Bread and Wine my Soul is 2nourished with the inward Graces the Body and Blood of Christ not with the Bread of Affliction the corn arising from the earth but