absolutely infinite or illimited in being Whatsoever is uncapable of limit is uncapable of division or numericall difference For wheresoever it can be truly said This is one and that another or This is and is not That each hath distinct limits But seeing our imagination or phantasie is divisible and our purest intellectuall conceipts of infinity but finite we cannot thinke of God as infinite in power infinite in wisedome and in Essence but wee must frame a conceit of power distinct from our conceit of Essence and a conceit of wisedome distinct from both And this plurality of conceipts in us usually brings forth a conceit of plurality betwixt his Essence and his Attributes unlesse our understandings be vigilant and attentive to correct our phantasies by this following and the like knowne Philosophicall truth As we cannot contemplate incorporeal substances without imagination of some corporeall forme and yet the understanding constantly denyes them to bee like their pictures presented to it by the phantasie or to have any such corporeall forme as it doth paint them in so in this case notwithstanding the plurality of our imperfect conceipts or multiplicity of perfections imagined by us in our contemplations of the Godhead we must stedfastly beleeve and acknowledge that He infinitely is what all these severall representations intimate not by composition or mixture of perfections severally infinite but by indivisible unity of independent and illimited Being And as it is a maxime most infallible in naturall philosophie Vis unita fortior Force otherwise the same is alwaies greater united than being scattered or diffused so is the metaphysicall extract of it more eminently true in Divinity The indivisible unity of illimited being or perfection is in every respect imaginable more excellent and soveraigne than all infinite perfections by imagination possibly could be so they were though never so strictly but united From this fundamentall truth of Gods absolute infinity by indivisible unity wee may inferre He is powerfull above all conceit of infinite power rooted in the same Essence with infinite wisedome and partaker of all her fruits but not identically the same with her Wise He is beyond all conceit of infinite wisedome though sworne confederate with infinite power or linked with it or with other perfectioÌ„s in any other bond but not in absolute identitie Good likewise He is above all possible conceit of infinite goodnesse though indissolâ—bly matched with all other perfections that can bee conceived unlesse they be conceived as we must beleeve in Him they are different onely in name or mans conceit but indivisibly agreeing with it in the internall unity and identity of nature and Essence Lastly the immensity of his Majesty and infinity of duration common to his Essence and all his Attributes infinitely exceed all conceit of infinite succession or extension whose parts cannot be actually and indivisibly the same one with another or with the whole This is the bottomlesse and boundlesse Ocean of admiration wherein contemplative wits may bathe themselves with great delight but whereinto they cannot dive without great danger That the totality of every conceiveable excellency and perfection should be contained after a manner farre more excellent in unity indivisible then if their natures which they hold thus in common were laid out in severall without any bounds prescribed besides infinities proper to each kinde 6 But seeing our imaginations have a more sensible apprehension of greatnesse exprest under the notion of totality or divisible infinity then under the conceipt of indivisible unity and seeing every whole seemes much greater when it is resolved into parts as a mile by land whose severall quarters or lesse portions are distinctly represented to our eyes seemes much longer than two miles by water whose levell surface affords no distinct representation of parts or diversity of aspect it will bee very behoovefull to unfold some principall branches of being or perfection whose infinitie or totality is eminently contained in the unity of infinite Being For being thus sorted by imagination into their severall ranks like so many numbers in a table ready for addition the understanding may with admiration guesse at the product like an Arithmetician which had gone so far in Geometricall progression that he could not number the last and compleat summe yet acknowledgeth that the progresse in nature can admit no end or limit Or though we could thus proceed by addition or multiplication of perfections in infinitum we were still to allow the understanding to use the improovement of the former rule Vis unita fortior Or to admit the Platonickes conceipt concerning the masculine force of unity in respect of pluralities effeminate weaknesse to bee in this point more Orthodoxall than in any SECTION II. Of the severall branches of absolute infinitie or of the infinitie of the Divine Attributes as they are severally apprehended by us CHAP. 5. Of Divine Immensity or of that branch of absolute infinity whereof infinity in magnitude or space imaginary is the shadow ORder of nature leads us first to explicate two branches of perfection infinite that answer unto a kind of infinitie so frequent and obvious to our thoughts that our imaginations will hardly suffer it to be severed from those subjects which our understandings by light of reason may and by the eye of faith must confesse to bee finite to wit time and place The cause of this difficultie in abstraction was signified before to be this No event there is observed by sense but is husked in the circumstance of place and time whence it is that these two accompany many Phantasmes after they bee winnowed from all the rest into the closet of the understaÌ„ding The conceit of mathematicall or metaphysicall space is so naturally annexed to our imagination of time and place physicall that albeit reason aswell as Scripture demonstrate the world to be for Physicall magnitude finite yet our phantasies cannot be curbed from running into imaginary locall distance beyond the utmost surface of this goodly visible worke of God yea beyond the heaven of heavens The Philosopher which thought all place or locall distance to bee contained within the utmost sphere it beeing contained in nothing else for extra coelum nihil est was his saying might in congruity have granted a like termination or circumscription of succession or time unto which notwithstanding our imaginations will not easily subscribe For though our understanding oft refute their errour which deny the beginning of Time yet our senses still nurse an imaginary successive duration much longer before the creation of this visible world than the continuation of it hath beene And which is much to bee admired some Schoole-braines have beene so puzled in passing this unsoundable gulfe as to suspect that God which is now in every place of the world created by Him was as truly in these imaginary distances of place and time before the creation was attempted Thus have they made place commensurable to his immensitie and succession or
all things againe are in his power as strength or force to move our limbes is in our sinewes or motive faculty The perfections of all things are truly said to be in Him in as much as whatsoever is or can bee done by their efficacy or vertue Hee alone can doe without them Hee could feed all the beasts of the field without grasse heale every disease without herbe mettall or other matter of medicine by his sole word not uttered by breathing or any other kinde of motion not distinct from his life or essence Hee is life it selfe yet is not his life supported by any corporeall masse or praeexistent nature nor clothed with such sense as ours is for sense in as much as it cannot be without a corporeall organ is an imperfect kind of knowledge Paine hee cannot feele as we doe because that tendeth to destruction which is the period of imperfection yet what soever paine any sensible or materiall object can inflict upon us He alone can inflict the same in an higher degree The measure of paine likewise which we feele by sense He knows much better without sense or feeling of it But when wee say all things are in Him after a more excellent manner than they are or can bee in themselves Wee must not conceipt a multitude or diversity of excellencies in his Essence answering to the severall natures of things created We must not imagine one excellencie sutable to elementary bodies another to mixt a third to vegetables a fourth to sense c. one to the humane nature another to the Angelicall And if Plato meant there were as many severall Idaea's eternally extant whether in the first cause of things or without Him as there were substances specifically distinct one from another his opinion may neither be followed nor approved by any Christian In all these Divine Excellency as one face in many glasses of different frame is diversly represented being in it selfe more truly one than any other entity that is termed one or then any bond of union betweene things united Of natures extant some to our capacity represent Him better some worse not the meanest or basest but is in some sort like Him not the most excellent creature that is not all the excellencies of all can so fully represent his nature as an Apes shadow doth a Mans body But what in other cases would seeme most strange infinite variety best sets forth the admirable excellency of his indivisible unity 3 Touching the question proposed Whether he were one excellency or all excellencies whether he were one perfection or all perfections Respondent ultima primis The answer is in a manner given in the beginning of this Discourse Though hee that saith God is all perfections excepts none yet hee includes onely perfections numerable and participated And to say He were onely one perfection implyes onely perfection limited and therefore perfection borrowed not independent Or admitting there be a meane betweene all or some perfections and one perfection which may fitly be expressed by all perfection yet he that should thus say God is the universall unity or totality of perfection had need to distinguish acurately of universality and totality and define Vniversale ante rem more exquisitely than the Platonickes doe that he may acquit his meaning from suspition of such totality or universality as ariseth not onely by aggregation of parts but whose extent is no more than equall to all its parts For every other universall or whole is fully equalized by all the parts taken together whereas the Divine Nature infinitely exceeds all particular natures or perfections possible though in number they could be infinite It is then if any man list so to speake such a totality or universality as cannot bee augmented much lesse made up by multiplication of any other perfection though prosecuted in infinitum neither diminishable or exhaustible by multiplicity or division of particulars derived from it But whether wee consider this His infinite Essence in it selfe or as it eminently containes all things possible the incomprehensibility of it is in both respects more fully intimated exprest it cannot be by indefinite formes of speech than by addition of any definite termes whether of singularity universality or totality Hee speakes more fully and more safely that saith God is being it selfe or perfection it selfe than he that saith he is the onely being or all being the onely perfection or all perfection the totality of being and of perfection So all plurality be excluded we expresse his being and perfection best by leaving them as they truly are without all quantity 4 That all plurality not onely of Idaeall perfections answering to the natures of things numerable or created but of internall perfections whose different titles necessarily breed plurality of conceits in us must be excluded from the true orthodoxall intellectuall apprehension of the illimited Essence may from the former maine principle be thus evinced In that Hee is without beginning without end without all cause of being without dependence we cannot imagine or at least our understanding must correct our imaginations if they shall suggest his power to bee as the stemme wisedome goodnesse and other like atributes as branches growing from his being or essence as from the Root For if his Being or Essence be absolutely independent it is absolutely illimited and being such what could limit or restraine it from being life from being power from being wisedome from being goodnesse from being infinitely whatsoever any thing that hath being is He that affirmes any of these attributes to bee what another is not or divine Essence not to bee identically what all those are must grant as well the Attributes as the Essence to be finite and limited If power in God have a being distinct from wisedome and wisedome another being distinct from goodnesse one must needs want so much of infinite being as another hath of proper being distinct from it and at the best they can bee but infinite secundùm quid or in their ranke Againe if any of them be what Essence identically is not Essence cannot bee infinite because wisedome power and being have their severall beings distinct from it And the nearer these come whether severally or joyntly considered to the nature of true infinity the more naked and impotent they leave their mother-Essence if we once grant Essence and them to bee distinct as Parents and children or as root and branch or to what use should powerlesse Essence serve to support these branches of infinity this it could not doe without infinite power And those branches if they need a root or supportance their being must needs bee dependent and therefore limited 5 From the former definition of absolute infinity Infinitum est extra quod nihil est We may conclude that unlesse all power unlesse all wisedome unlesse all goodnesse unlesse all that truly is or can possibly be supposed to have true being bee identically contained in Gods Essence He could not be
activity to assimilate other things to themselves or to preserve symbolizing natures In bodies lesse grosse and more unapt to resist violence offered as in the windes vapours or exhalations or in the spirits or influences which guide our bodies we may perceive an active force or power motive fully answerable to the greatest passive strength or resistance Other Elements or mixt bodies are indued with an operative power of producing the like or destroying contraries Celestiall bodies the Sunne especially have a productive force to bring forth plants out of their roots to nourish and continue life in al things It is perhaps impossible for any thing that hath not being of it selfe to receive infinity of being in any kind from another though infinite Impossible for the fire because the substance of it is finite to be infinitely hot but were it such it would be infinite in operation 2 As the Author or first setter forth of all things operative who alone truly is surpasseth all conceit of any distinct or numerable branch of being so is his power more eminently infinite in every kinde than all the united powers of severall natures each supposed infinitely operative in its owne kinde and for number likewise infinite can bee conceived to be Now what was generally observed before that things by nature most imperfect doe oftentimes best shadow divine perfections hath place againe in this particular Gods infinite power is clearliest manifested in creatures which seem least powerful Where wast thou said God to Iob when I laid the foundations of the Earth declare if thou hast understanding Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest Or who hath stretched the line upon it Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened or who laid the corner stone thereof The excellent majesty of this speech sufficiently testifies it was uttered by God himselfe though taken from his mouth by the pen of man But setting aside the majesticke phrase or resemblance farre surmounting all resemblance all observance of poeticall decorum What cleerer fountaine of deeper admiration can the eye of mans understanding looke into then this that not onely every corner stone in the world with its full burthen but all the mighty buildings or erections which are seene upon the whole surface of the earth yea the whole earth it selfe with all the mountaines and rockes upon it with all the metalls or massie substance that are within it should be borne up by that which is lesse than any corner stone by that which indeed is no body or substance not so much as a meere angle or corner Yet so it hath pleased Him by whose wisedome the foundations of the earth were layd to make that little point or indivisible Center which is farthest removed from our sight the most conspicuous place and seate of that indivisible power which is infinite Let Mathematicians imagine what rules or reasons of equipendence they list their last resolution of all supportance into the Center must suppose the same truth which the Aegyptian Magicians confessed Hic digitus Dei est The finger of God is here Impossible it were for that which in it selfe is matter of nothing impregnably to support all things supportable unlesse it were supported by the finger of God And yet if we conceive of Him as Isaias describes Him all the strength and power that is manifested in the supportance of the whole earth and all therein is not the strength of his little finger Yea though wee should imagine that as the waight of solids amounts according to their masse or quantity so the sustentative force which is chambered up in the Center should be multiplyed according to the severall portions or divisibilities of magnitude successively immensurable yet this imagination of force so multiplyed it being divisible could not equalize that true and reall conceipt of force divine which ariseth from consideration that it is indivisibly seated throughout immensity To uphold earths innumerable much weightier and massier than this is which borne by him beareth all things would be no burthen to his power sustentative so from the effects his power though in it selfe one must receive from us plurality of denominations And yet fully commensurable to this power sustentative is his active strength or power motive He that spans the Heavens with his fist could tosse this Vniverse with greater ease than a Gyant doth a Tennis Ball throughout the boundlesse Courts of immensity Rocks of Adamant would sooner dissolve with the least fillep of his finger than bubbles of water with the breath of Canons 3 Our admiration of this his active power which we conceive as incomprehensible and altogether uncapable of increase may bee raised by calculating the imaginary degrees of active powers increase in creatures divisible as well in quantity as operation Though Powder converted into smoake be the common mother of all force which issueth from the terrible mouth of the Gunne yet the Canon sends forth his bullet though more apt to resist externall motion with greater violence than the Sachar and every Ordinance exceeds other in force of battery according to the quantity of the charge or length of barrell But were it possible for the same quantity of steele or iron to bee as speedily converted into such a fiery vapour as gunpowder is the blow would be ten times more irresistible then any that Gunpowder out of the same close concavity can make The reason is plaine the more solid or massie the substance to be dissolved is the greater quantity would it yeeld of fire or other rarer substance into which it were dissolved And the greater the quantity the more violent is the contraction of it into the same narrow roome and the more violent the contraction is the more vehement is the eruption and the ejaculation swifter Thus from vapours rarified or generated in greater quantity than the concavities of the earth wherein they are imprisoned without vent is naturally capable of doe Earthquakes become so terrible These and the like experiments bring forth this generall rule The active strength of bodies multiplieth according to the manner of contraction or close unition of parts concurring to the impulsion or eruption So doth the active force or vigour of motion alwayes increase according to the degrees of celerity which it accumulates Now though the most active and powerfull essence cannot be encompassed with walls of brass nor chambred up in vaults of steele albeit much wider than the heavens yet doth it every where more strictly gird it selfe with strength then the least or weakest body can be girt For what bonds can we prescribe so strict so close or firme as is the bond of indivisible unity which cannot possibly burst or admit eruption wherein notwithstanding infinite power doth as intirely and totally encampe it selfe as in immensity How incomparably then doth His active strength exceed all conceipt or comparison The vehemency of his motive power whose infinite Essence swallowes up the infinite degrees of succession in a
fixed instant and of motion in vigorous rest cannot bee exprest by motion so swift and strong as would beare levell from the Sunne setting in the West to the Moon rising in the East To cast the fixed Starres downe to the Center or hoyse the Earth up to the Heavens within the twinkling of an eye or to send both in a moment beyond the extremities of this visible world into the wombe of vacuity whence they issued would not straine his power motive For all this we suppose to be lesse then to bring nothing unto something or something to such perfection as some of his creatures enjoy Howbeit even such as take the fullest measure of perfection from his immensity must derive their pedigree by the mothers side from meere nothing or vacuity Homo saith S. Austine terrae filius nihili nepos Man is the son of the earth and the grandchilde of nothing And when he shall come unto the height of his glory he cannot forget he must remember that the worme was his sister and the creeping thing the sonne of his mother To produce as many worlds out of nothing as the Sunne each yeare doth Herbes or Plants out of the moistned Earth would breed no cumbrance to his power or force productive To maintaine repaire or continue all these in the same state whilest he makes as many moe would neither exhaust nor hinder his conservative vertue Multiplicity or variety greater than wee can imagine of workes most wonderfull all managed at one and the same time could worke no distraction in his thoughts no defatigation in his Essence From the unity of these and the like branches of power all in him most eminently infinite doth the attribute of Omnipotency take its denomination whose contents so farre as they concerne the strengthning of our faith shall hereafter be unfoulded CHAP. 8. Of the infinity of Divine Wisedome That it is as impossible for any thing to fall out without Gods knowledge as to have existence without his power or essentiall presence 1 BVt power in every kinde thus eminently infinite could not be so omnipotent as we must beleeve it did it not in this absolute unity of all variety possesse other branches of being according to the like eminency or infinity of perfection Strength or power if meerely naturall or destitute of correspondent wisedome to comprehend manage and direct it might bring forth effects in their kinde truly infinite whose ill forecast or untowardly combinations neverthelesse would in the issue argue lamentable impotency rather then omnipotency And hard it would be to give instance almost in any subject wherein a double portion of wit matched with halfe the strength would not effect more or more to the purpose then a triple portion of strength with halfe so much wit Archimedes did not come so farre short of Polyphemus in strength or bulk of body as the wonderfull works wrought by his Mathematicall skill did exceed any that the Gyant could attempt 2 Every choice is better or worse accordingly as it more or lesse participates of true wisedome And most unwise should that choice justly be esteemed which would not give wisedome preheminence to power Knowledge then might wise men choose their owne endowments would be desired in greater measure then strength Wisedome saith the Wiseman is the beginning of the wayes of God And shall not that branch of being by which all things were made by which every created essence hath its bounds and limits be possest by Him who gave them being and set them bounds without all bounds or limits above all measure Yes whatsoever branch of being wee could rightly desire or make choice of before others the inexhaustible fountaine of being hath not chosen but is naturally possest of as the better And therefore if we may so speake though both be absolutely infinite his wisedome is greater then his power to which it serves as guide or guardian And as the excellency of the Artificers skill often recompences the defect of stuffe or matter so the infinity of wisedome or knowledge seemes in a manner to evacuate the necessity of power or force distinct from it Howbeit I will not in this place or in our native dialect enter that nice dispute which some Schoolemen have done Whether Gods Essence and Knowledge be formally his Power But whilest we conceive Power and Wisedome as two attributes formally distinct at least to ordinary conceipts we may conceive Wisedome to be the father and Power the mother of all his workes of wonder As for Philo and other Platonicks that make Knowledge the mother of all Gods workes it is probable they dreamed of a created Knowledge or perhaps under these termes they cover some transformed Notion of the second person in Trinity who is the Wisedome of the Father by whom also he created all things who as he is the onely begotten Sonne from eternity so is hee likewise a joint Parent of all things created in time by the Father as Eve was in some sort Adams daughter and yet a true mother of all that call him father But here we speake not of that wisedome of God which is personall but of the wisedome of the Godhead as it is essentially and indivisibly infinite in the whole Trinity 3 Wisedome as all agree is the excellency of knowledge from which it differs not save only in the dignity or usefulnesse of matters knowne or in the more perfect maner of knowing them Though no man be wise without much knowledge yet a man may know many things and not be very wise But if we speake of Knowledge divine not as restrained in our conceipt to this or that particular but simply as it comprehends all things the name of Wisedome in every respect best befits it for though many things knowne by him whilest compared with others more notable seeme base and contemptible yet not the meanest but may be an object of divine contemplation to a Christian that considers not the meere matter or forme or physicall properties but the Creators power or skill manifested in it How much more may the vilest creatures whilest he lookes upon his owne worke in it and the use whereto he appointed it be rightly reputed excellent He knowes as much of every Creature as can be knowne of it and much more than man possibly can know and thus he knoweth not onely all things that are but all that possibly may bee This argues wisedome truly infinite whose right conceit must be framed by those broken conceipts which we have of the modell of it 4 Of wisedome then or usefull knowledge the parts or offices are two The one stedfastly to propose a right end The other to make and prosequute a right choice of meanes for effecting it Humane wisedome is oft-times blinde in both and usually lame in the latter Neither can we clearly discerne true good from apparent nor doe our consultions alwayes carry eaven to the mistaken markes whereat we ayme but be the end proposed good or bad
two originalls First it blindes our judgements and makes our intentions seeme upright and just to our partiall desires or at least not incompatible with the rules of equity when as to impartiall judgements they are palpably unjust Secondly having blinded our judgements it forthwith abuseth our power or authority to effect whatsoever is not for the present apprehended for a grosse and evident wrong So that nothing whereon our love or liking is for the present mainly set seemes any way impossible unto us unlesse it bee altogether without the compasse of our power And through the variousnesse of our humerous disposition that which we cannot like or admit to day will be allowed of to morrow But though there bee none that doth good no not one yet some there be doe lesse evill than others And seeing those amongst us whose love to equity is more strong and constant than their neighbours are alwayes drawne with greater difficulty to dispense with truth or approve unjustice the consequence necessarily amounting from this experimented truth is That if any mans judgement in matters of equity and justice were infallible and his love to justice and knowne equity altogether constant and invincible it would bee impossible for him to transgresse in judgement Thus as well the strength of unconstant humorous desires as the faintnesse of love or equity both which most men may experience in themselves as the contrary vertues which they may observe in some few joyntly conspire to rectifie our conceit of God in whom the Ideall perfection of the ones integrity and constancy is without all mixture of the others vice or humorous impotency 2 The first rule for right extending the former Maxime To make both parts of a contradiction true is no part of the object of power omnipotent would be this Many effects which are very possible to power alone considered or as it hath the mastery over weake inclinations unto equity necessarily imply a direct and manifest contradiction unto some Divine Attributes no lesse infinite or immutable than Almighty power Hence it followes that many effects or designes which seeme possible to the humane nature may bee impossible or most incongruous to the Divine It is more shamefull then impossible for rich men to lye cozen or for Magistrates to oppresse and wrong their inferiors albeit the ones riches or others power were infinitely increased without internall increase of their fidelity But to him that is eternally true and just yea eternall truth and justice it is as impossible to speak an untruth or doe wrong as for truth to be a lye or justice to be unjust Many things then are possible to meere power which are impossible to it as linkt with truth or love and many things againe possible to it as linkt with these which yet directly contradict the eternall patterne of justice or goodnesse and are by consequent impossible to the Almighty who is no lesse just and good then powerfull Many Pyrats by Sea or Robbers by Land might they injoy but halfe the power authority for a Month whereof ordinary Princes by inheritance are possest would doe their companions and friends more good and worke their enemies greater spoyle in this short space than any Monarch can doe in his whole raigne which holds it a point of Majestie to moderate his actions by that Princely rule Princeps id potest quod jure potest Princes can do no more than they can doe justly In this sense I think we may truly say all before Christ were theeves robbers or in respect of him very unjust not Abraham David Ezekiah Iosias not one of the Prophets might they have but halfe that power and authority cōmitted to them over Angels for a night which the Son of God from everlasting had without robbery but would have thought it very possible to have removed the Romane Army with as great terror losse and disgrace as the Angell of the Lord sometimes had done the Assyrians from Ierusalems-siege whose fatall destruction God incarnate cleerly foreseeing bewailed with teares but would not but could not prevent For to the King of everlasting righteousnesse that onely was possible which was justly possible And though he were a Father to Israel and the Prince of peace yet he approves a most bloody and mercilesse warre before an unjust peace and disgracefull to Eternall Majestie for so the Prophet had said in his name before There is no peace unto the wicked to such as stubbornely abandon the wayes of peace and wilfully neglect saving health so often and lovingly tendred unto them Hos salus ipsa servare non potuit and shall infinite power save them whom infinite salvation cannot save 3 To have smitten the men of Sodom with blindnesse before lust had entred in at their eyes had beene a worke as easie to Almighty power as blinding them in the attempt or prosecution of lust conceived But that contradiction which the prevention of this sinne did not imply unto Gods power it did all circumstances considered necessarily imply unto his Iustice by whose immutable and eternall rules they were left unguarded against these foule temptions for wilfull contempt of his goodnesse for abusing his long suffering and loving kindnesse But did it imply any contradictiō to his goodnesse or loving kindnesse to have prevented the Sodomites former contempt or abuse of them Out of question it did unto his eternall equity for all his waies are mercy and truth And these Sodomites wilfulnesse presupposed the eternall rule of his goodnesse and loving kindnesse had appointed justice to debarre them as now they are from reaping those fruits whereof his goodnesse as they were men had made them capable The principle whence the just proofe of these seeming paradoxes as also the right explication of all difficulties in this argument must be derived is a Schoole Maxime borrowed from orthodoxall antiquity now not much used but of much use in true Divinity and for this reason to bee more fully insisted upon in the Treatise of mans first estate The Maxime it self is briefly thus It is impossible for mā or other created substance to be absolutely impeccable from his creation Onely He that is infinite in being is infinitely good and infinite goodnesse onely implyes an absolute impossibility of being bad As God onely essentially is so hee onely is essentially and immutably good all things besides him are or sometimes were subject to mutability aswell in Essence as in their state and condition Power omnipotent could not from the first Creation have pared off all mutabilitie from mans morall goodnesse without perishing the onely possible root of his eternall and immutable happinesse To decline to evill implyes no contradiction to Being simply but onely to omnipotent being it is so possible to all Creatures that without this possibility it were as we shall afterwards prove impossible for them to be truly like their Creator for a moment in that attribute whose participation is the only assurance of their eternall
conceive may be done doth not exequiate or fill our conceit of power and wisedome truly infinite it is much lesse than the full extent or contents of Omnipotencie which certainly containeth power and wisedome much greater than can be comprehended by man or Angell Againe to say that God can doe all things that are possible for him to doe or may be effected by his infinite power and wisedome is to say the same thing twise and yet to leave the true notion of Omnipotencie unexpressed Were the question propounded what things can be seene or heard What things cannot be seene or heard a man should be little wiser by this answer Things visible onely can be seene Things invisible cannot be seene Things audible onely can be heard Things inaudible cannot be heard For if one which knowes no Latine nor the derivation of English words from it should further aske what it is to be visible what it is to be invisible or what is the meaning or signification of audible and inaudible the answer would be That is visible which can be seene that is invisible which cannot be seene that is audible which may be heard that inaudible which cannot be heard So that he which formerly knew the signification of these words or their forme in Latine whence they are derived should learne nothing by this answer which for reall sense is but idem per idem a diversitie of words without any difference in the thing signified by them Againe though these two Propositions be convertible 1. Every object of sight is visible and whatsoever is visible is the object of sight 2. Every object of hearing is audible and whatsoever is audible is the object of hearing yet is not visibilitie the true and proper object of sight nor audibilitie of hearing To be visible or invisible to be audible or inaudible are termes relative And euery relation or relative terme supposeth a ground or root whence it ariseth or results which in nature hath precedency of it now it is the root or ground from which the relation results which is the proper object of every facultie whether it be passive as our senses are or active as our understanding is 2. This relation or relative terme to be visible or audible results from the impression which the proper object of sight or hearing make upon these two senses or at least from the aptitude which they have to imprint their proper shape or forme upon these senses The object of sight which is colour or light cannot found the relation of audibilitie because neyther light nor colour have any aptitude to imprint their forme upon the eare nor can the relation of visibilitie result from sounds which are the proper object of hearing because sounds have no aptnesse or power to make any sensitive impression upon the eye Sounds then are the proper object of hearing and the ground or root whence bodies take the denomination of being audible Light or colour is the proper object of sight the ground or root whence bodies in which light or colour is found receive the relative denomination of being visible Vnto the question then What things may be seene what things may not bee seene what things may be heard or may not bee heard the true and onely Philosophicall answer is Those things onely can be seene which are endowed with colours or participate of light those things which have no colour or participation of light cannot be seene Those bodies onely which are apt to make or give sound can be heard those which can yeeld no sound cannot be heard If it should further be demanded why sounds only are audible when as neyther colours nor other qualities can be audible or become the object of hearing The only way to assoyle this question would be to instruct him that makes it in the manner how sounds are produced how they are carryed by the ayre unto the eare how they are there entertained by the ayre which the eare or organ of hearing continually harbours within it selfe for their entertainment Hee that should see the fabricke of the eare and take the use of its severall parts of the anvile the hammer especially into serious consideration would cease to enquire why sounds are audible rather then colours and begin to admire the inexpressible skill of the Artificer which framed this live-eccho in all more perfect sensitive creatures No marvell if the eare perceive sounds seeing the use or exercise of this sense is a continuall imitation of the production of sounds And as no creature understands the expressions of our rationall internall notions save that onely which is endowed with the like internall notions of reasons so neither could the eare or sense of hearing perceive sounds unlesse it had a continuall internall sound within it selfe Hee againe that should view the severall humours of the eye the Chrystalline especially would never move question why colours should make that impression upon the eye which they doe not upon the eare 3 The point questioned in this part of Divinitie or concerning the meaning of this Attribute Omnipotencie comes to this issue Whether power infinite omnipotent have any object wherunto it is or may be so immediately terminated as sight or the visive facultie is unto light or colours or as the faculty of hearing is to sounds whence the relation or relative denomination of possibilitie doth so result as visibilitie doth from the sight or visive facultie as it respecteth colours If infinite power presuppose any other object pre-existent to possibilitie as light and colours are to visibilitie this object must needs be eyther privative or positive Something or meere nothing If wee shall say this object is a positive entitie eyther it was frō Eternitie without dependence on his Almightie power so it should be as that power is infinite Or if we say this supposed object were from him or by him or had dependance on his power then certainly it was possible and therefore cannot bee precedent to all possibilitie Whence it may seeme concluded that Gods infinite power or Omnipotencie is the onely foundation of possibilitie and by consequence cannot possibly have any object whereto it is or can be terminated or so fitted as the visive facultie or sight is to light or colours Howbeit in truth the former reasons onely conclude that the object of Omnipotencie can be no positive entitie nor the privation or negation of any determinate being But that the same Omnipotent power may have an object purely negative or including a totall negation of all things numerable though their number were potentially infinite the former reasons or the like cannot enforce us to deny All things are said to be possible unto God because by his omnipotent power he can make all things not out of positive possibilities or Entities possible but of meere nothing that is without any positive Entitie pre-existent to serve either as matter agent or instrument What shall we say then that things not possible