Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	false_a	true_a	worship_n	4,780	5	7.8086	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42724	The trvth of the Christian religion proved by the principles, and rules, taught and received in the light of understanding, in an exposition of the articles of faith, commonly called the Apostles Creed : whereby it is made plain to every one endued with reason, what the stedfastnesse of the truth and mercy of God toward mankind is, concerning the attainment of everlasting happinesse, and what is the glory and excellency of the Christian religion, all herethenish idolatry all Turkish, Jewish, athean, and hereticall infidelity.	Gill, Alexander, 1597-1642.	1651 (1651)	Wing G700; ESTC R39574	492,751	458

their understandings when they are separate from the body that universall unitie or confusion of soules would cause a lesnesse or abatement in the glory and end of the understanding and consequently an abatement of mans love to the Creator seeing the greatest understanding could not aduance the meane and low understanding of fooles and ignorants but contrariwise in that confusion should by them be abased But this is contrary to the nature of the understanding of the will of perfect love c. Therefore impossible to bee 7. The excellency or greatnesse of every thing hath the greatest concordance with being as the littlenesse or meannes of being inclines to not being and hath some agreement there-with From whence it will follow of necessitie first that if there bee one common or universall soule or understanding which is divideable into very man this division takes away that universall unitie For how can it be one in number if it be divisible yet not materiall or bodily but that excellencie which is in the common soule by that infinite division among so many millions of men is brought almost to not being Secondly there must be different understandings of all men both living and dead that the excellencie of all trueth may find some understandings by which it may bee apprehended 3. Seeing nothing is truely beloved which is not first knowne or understood the love and that understanding which man hath of God by this division suffers such detriment as cannot bee made up againe For the soule being parted among all men alike one cannot love nor understand more than another So neither the excellency of one man can be more than another nor the glory or happinesse of one man more than another 8. Common experience and the difference which is in men shewes the position to be false and foolish and so let it go branded You may see what Cusa brings to this question Idiotae lib. 3. cap. 12. And Tho. Aquin. contra gent. lib. 2. cap. 73. and the decree of the Lateran Councell Sess 8. Object But you will say If the soules of all me● be onely of one kind and that their difference is onely in number then this difference of the soules must arise onely from the bodies to which they are allyed from whence these inconveniences must follow necessarily First that the soules of men are materiall formes for the particular being of every thing depends upon that from whence it receives the individuation So that the soule of man depending on the body and having the originall of the particular being from the body either it dies with the body as the soule of the beast or if it remaine after the body yet seeing it receives the particular being from the body when it is parted from the body it must run into the common Chaos of life seeing that whereby the distinction was made that is the particular bodies are now taken away Answere The suppositions of this objection that the difference of mens soules is onely in number or depending upon the particular individuation of their bodies are false For the particular endowments of every soule make such differences as is fit to bee in soules as I gave instance before in numbers to every one of which an unity added or taken away makes the number so different as that it cannot be any other number than that it is Although numbers are not truely said to bee different Species but onely to bee distinct or divers individuals For in Spirituall substances as the soule of man is whereof wee know so little as wee doe wee must be content to hold the generall trueths when we cannot know the particular or precise differences That the holy Religion and Faith of the Christians is onely true and none other beside it § 3. ALl true Religion must have the beginning from the true God So neither the seruice of the false gods of the Painims nor the will-will-worship either of the Iewes or of the Christians can come into any account of true Religion And because the true God onely knowes what seruice is acceptable unto Himselfe and therefore hath ●om time to time taught his people what He requireth of them therefore this question which is now to be decided is onely betweene the Christians and the people of the Iewes or Israelites seeing these onely have received the lawes and words of God how they ought to serue Him For whatsoever the Turks may pretend for their religion which their false Prophet Mahomed taught them yet they have no authoritie from heaven neither by their law may they question any thing which they have beene taught But concerning the Iewes though it must bee yeelded unto them that they were the true Church first called and separated from the world to be a peculiar people unto God who first received the covenant of Circumcision and after under Moses the other ceremonies even untill the time of reformation came by Iesus Christ yet because they did not looke unto the end of the law nor see how all the law was finished in Him in whom all the Nations of the earth were to be blessed therefore they dwell still in their old and beggerly rudiments being still seduced by their Rabbins teaching them that their law is an eternall law as it is yeelded unto them concerning the inward meaning or substance that is Christ and His eternall Redemption But concerning the outward obseruances the Law is not eternall as divers of their owne both by Nation and sometimes by opinion have manifested unto them I name unto you onely Paulus Ricius who hath made it plaine both by the Scriptures of the Prophets and and by the Talmudists their expositors in his second booke de coelesti agricultura That the rootes as they call them or Articles of the Iewish faith are not a sufficient direction to bring them to heaven but that the Christians by their faith may bee made partakers of the ioyes to come For first hee prooves that the doctrine of the Trinity of Persons in the unitie of the deitie is agreeable to the holy oracles of God and the exposition of their Talmudists Then 2. That the mysterie of the incarnation and the deitie of the Saviour of the world is according to the Scripture 3. That His birth ought to bee of a Virgin and therefore His conception by the Holy-Ghost 4. That the mysterie of His passion and 5. resurrection are likewise manifest by the Scriptures And 6. that the first comming of the Messias is already past as you might see all these Articles confirmed before And because these things are necessary to bee knowne and beleeved to everlasting saluation and that the Iewes doe not beleeve them neither can be brought to beleeve them till the Redeemer appeare the second time to judgement that he may turne away the iniquitie from Iacob that all Israel may bee saved as the promise is Let us rejoyce in our most holy faith and pray that their returne to the

sacrae et ratter is Psal 87.1 Foundations as that it only is able only worthy to binde the conscience of a reasonable man whereas all other religions or rather false worships although examined in themselves onely by their owne principles are found to be false and against common sense what triumph is this of a Christian over all Heathens and misbeleevers that will they nill they if they will bee men and stand to reason they must confesse that the Christian religion is onely true And seeing the world hath beene called to the marriage of the Kings Son Luc. 14.16 c. First by the voyce of nature declaring the wisdome and power of God in the creature and that they that were so called would not come because their mindes were set on earthly things Secondly by the Law but the Iew who sought righteousnesse by the Law would try what his five yoke of oxen that is his keeping of the Ceremoniall Law contained in the five bookes of Moses could doe and so would be excused Thirdly by the Gospell but the carnall Gospeller and false Christian could not come because he is marryed to pleasure and worldly lusts what remaines but that they who are yet strangers and walke in the broad wayes of sinne and the by-paths of their owne inventions should by reason that servant of God bee compelled to come in And seeing the time cannot bee farre off that all the nations of the earth are to bee called to the knowledge of Christ For great shall his name be from the rising of the Sunne to the going downe of the same Psal 103.3 What hinders that the truth of Christ bee taught according to common reason whereto every man doth listen For it cannot bee but that all Idolatry and false worship all heresies and dissentions about Religion must then cease when the truth is taught in the evidence of that Spirit whereby every man is guided For as God made man reasonable so doth hee command nothing to bee done which in true reason is not the best nor require any thing to bee beleeved which in true reason is not most true You will say is there no difference then betweene faith and reason yes very great For Reason is busied in the proofe of some generall conclusion which is to bee held for a truth and so received of every man but faith is the application of that conclusion to a mans owne selfe As if it be concluded that because Christ being so conceived and so borne had no sin and therefore he suffered not death for himselfe but to save them that should beleeve on him faith applies this generall conclusion thus but I doe beleeve and therefore I shall be saved Now this application is not made by reason but by the speciall instruction of the Spirit of God in the heart of the beleever although it were inferred upon such a conclusion as was proved by reason I have not endevoured herein to heap up arguments by numbers but by weight and therfore have Ilet passe all reasons from forrein autority and all that were but likely onely and of small importance neither have I brought any one but such as seemed to mee sufficient of it selfe to confirme the question The reasons here used are for the most part from the goodnesse power wisdome and other dignities of God because the questions are concerning the things of God and no arguments can be of greater force and more immediate then such as are drawne from the verie being or immediate properties of the things in question they are handled by necessities and impossibilities to shew that all things that are and are not stand for the truth of the promises of God to us that by all meanes wee might have strong hope and comfort in Christ And though I sometimes bring one argument for divers conclusions yet it is not therefore of lesse force no more than a good toole is of lesse worth because it serves for divers uses I have studied for plainenes as much as I may and therfore have I sometimes handled the same reason both affirmatively and negatively that he that cannot take it with one hand might hold it with the other for that purpose also are divers reasons brought though all satisfying as I thinke yet perhaps all of every one not equally understood but he that understands all may upon these grounds or the like bring many other to the same purpose and give glorie to that infinite mercy which hath so fortified this glorious truth which hee hath bound us to beleeve with such walles bulwarkes ravelings and counterscarpes of reason that all the power of hell all the batterye of Atheists Turkes Iewes and other adversaries shall never bee able to overcome it And because a little light is soone lost if dispersed as in the Starres called Nebulosae and those of endlesse number and distance in the milkie way I have proposed the reasons together in as short and few words as I can that the light of the reason may more easilie appeare For oftentimes while men desire to enlarge themselves the reason vanishes into words The autorities of the sacred Text I bring as need is that the Christian may see whence the Article of faith in question is taken and whereon it is grounded and that in the proofe thereof I bring no other doctrine than the holy Scripture doth reach Let no man carrie my words or meaning awry for although in this search of causes and reasons other conclusions offered themselves yet I held it not meet to propose any other things than the holy Church of old thought fit to be held as sufficient for the saving faith of Christians conteined in the Creed which is called the Apostles as being gathered from their writings and that according to that order as it is therein delivered yet with such prefaces and notes as the necessitie of the things did drive me unto leaving those other things to the higher speculation of them whom God shall vouchsafe to enlighten for their further progresse from faith to faith from knowledge to knowledge till all the holie Church come to bee partakers of those things new and old that are kept for her in store when she shall come unto the fulnesse of the measure of the age of Christ that is the perfect knowledge of all those things which our Lord in his time taught his Disciples who were not able then to beare them till they had received the light of the holy Spirit from above If any man learned bee pleased to read in this booke let him forgive me the harshnesse of my speech being to teach the unlearned in English a language not taught that nicetie of words whereby to expresse the difference of things which I easilie hope he will doe because hee knowes that the infinite differences of things do much exceed the sharpnesse of our understanding and yet the subtiltie of mans understanding doth goe farre beyond the rudenesse and scarcitie of all words

THE TRVTH OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION PROVED By the Principles and Rules taught and received in the Light of Understanding In an exposition of the Articles of Faith commonly called the Apostles Creed Whereby it is made plain to every one endued with Reason what the stedfastnesse of the Truth and Mercy of God toward Mankind is concerning the attainment of everlasting happinesse And what is the glory and excellency of the Christian Religion over all heathenish Idolatry all Turkish Jewish Athean and hereticall Infidelity Written by a learned Author lately deceased PSAL. 116. VERS 10. I have beleeved therefore have I spoken LONDON Printed for for Joshua Kirton and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Kings-Armes 1651. TO THE RIGHT VVORSHIPFVLL the Master VVardens and Assistants of the Honourable Companie of MERCERS in London my worthy friends and Patrons c. IT is now six and twentie yeares since by the great love and favour of the Company I had the government of that ancient and religious foundation of Pauls Schole committed to my trust and care In all which time untill Nature gave place unto extreme age and infirmitie if my abilitie assisted with industrie hath advanced those that were commended to my institution in manners and learning I desire that they may render and attribute the sole thankes unto you For by your courtesie and discreet liberalitie I was cherished and furthered not onely to doe you service in my selfe but likewise to give such education to my sonnes as hath made them fit in their qualities to performe the like dutie Now so it is worthie Gentlemen that Nature being not onely declined in me but almost quite worne out by reason of a sedentarie life much studie and continuall paynes I thought it fit before I goe hence in gratefull acknowledgment of the many and great obligations which your goodnesse hath from time to time fastned upon me ever since my entrance into your service to dedicate the best of my labours to your acceptance This is it which if it have the blessing to doe as doubtlesse it will in some measure any benefit to the Church and country wherein I live I shall likewise intreate them to conferre the thanks upon you by whom I was enabled to perfect a worke of so high and necessary an argument I shall not live to receive your thanks my selfe and therefore I beseech you to accept of them as the legacie of a dying man and with them the dedication of this worke Which as it was begun and finished under your roofe so I know none more fit to patronize the worke than your-selves who have been the Patrons of the author Thus in all humility I take leave committing you to God my surviving sonnes to the continuance of your love and care and this other chyld of my old age to your fostering a more living witnesse of your favours towards me and my thankefulnesse towards you Your much obliged Servant ALEX. GIL THE PREFACE to the Reader WHen in the yeere 1601 I gave out a little treatise concerning the Trinitie of persons in the Vnitie of the Deity for such reasons as appeare therein I made a conditionall promise of a further assertion of every Article of our Christian faith This promise of mine hath oftentimes since that beene exacted both by friends and strangers That treatise tryed the common fortune of all bookes some slighted it because it brought nothing but that which was common others condemned it as thinking it unfit that matiers of faith should be perswaded by reason They of the first sort were not onely mine acquaintance who might commend my Booke for affection to me but some strangers who for their liking of the booke became afterwards my friends And these encouraged me to the performance of my promise The second sort did not a little comfort me because I had in no sort troubled the peace of the Church The third sort have held me disheartned untill now for although I there shewed that even in matiers where faith is most required both our Lord and his Apostles perswaded by common reasons as also the Prophets before-time had done yet though I knew no reason of their dislike I did forbeare because I would not offend of ignorance But seeing the everlasting saving or losse o● the soule is a thing which of all other concernes a man most to thinke of and that all sorts and sects of men which farre exceed us Christians in multitude See Brerewoods enquirie of Religion Chap. 14. have hope of immortall life aswell as wee it concernes us not a little to see wherein our advantage is and what assurance wee have more than they Now to let passe the false Religion of the Paynim idolaters in Lapland in Africa in the East and West Indies and that great continent of the South what is our preheminence over the Iewes Turkes and Heretickes of the former times of them that are and still will be untill the time that all things shall be restored The Iewes hold firmly as we the authoritie of the Old Testament and denie the New The Turkes also though they speake honourably of Christ as of more than a Prophet yet of the holy Scriptures which wee receive they make little reckoning and although they reade the Psalter Azoa 7. yet they set up their Alcoran as their Idole which they worship Doe not the fathers Tertullian contra Marcionem and Augustine de Haeres Cap. See also the epistle of Orig. cited by Iohn Picus Miran pag. 206. witnesse how the authoritie of Scriptures was abased by the Heretickes some they rejected the rest they corrupted by false interpretations by adding and taking away what was for their purpose It seemes therefore that the authorities on all sides respectively being of like regard the maine advantage which we have is in reason as it shall hereafter appeare in every Article of our Faith And therefore they that denie us the use of reason in a matier of so great importance as our Religion is bereaue us of our chiefe advantage and as much as in them is turne us out of the fold of Christ to chuse at large what Religion we like best But if man were created in the image of God that hee might know and serve him as he ought and if common reason rightly guided be that image of God in us yet remaining as it is plaine because that image and wisdome of the Father is that light which lightens every man that comes into the world Iohn 1. I see no cause why reason that especiall and principall gift of God to mankinde should not be serviceable to the principall and especiall end for which man himselfe is created that is his drawing neere unto God by faith in him for the excellencie of every thing is in the excellencie of the End for which it is And that common sence and reason have their especiall use in things pertaining unto God it is most manifest For

of God they utterly forget that hee is Iust Vnto which infinite Iustice of God if they had taken due regard the same light of reason would further have shewed unto them that the soule that sinnes must beare a punishment answerable to his sinne And because by every sinne against God an infinite Iustice is offended therefore it is impossible that any man by his owne righteousnesse which can never bee any more than by the Law of God he is bound unto should bee able to make any satisfaction for his sinne Vpon which true principle it will follow necessarily in the light of reason either that there is no possible returne to the favour of God which conclusion a man would by all meanes avoid or else that the reconciliation of mankinde unto God must needs bee by the mediation of a man in every respect free from Sinne who bearing the punishment due to sinners might finde redemption and mercy for all them that would beleeve it and live worthy thereof But because all men conceived in lust and sinne are originally tainted therewith for out of uncleannesse who can bring that which is cleane therefore must the generation of this Mediator bee wonderfull and not after the common manner of all men but so that no sinne or taint of the flesh must bee therein So that being both borne and living without sinne hee might by his death become a ransome acceptable for the sinnes of others And although reason could not conceive nor finde how this should bee yet seeing that in the necessitie of the divine justice it must bee thus reason would as easilie yeeld that it might bee as it did finde and see the creation of mankinde and the whole creature out of nothing as by the discourse ensuing it will hereafter appeare If this were not thus how should the whole world of Infidels and misbeleevers bee liable to the justice of God for their ignorance of him for their neglect and for their unbeliefe So taking it as granted till it doth further appeare by the Treatise following that reason hath right good and necessarie use in the things of faith it is too manifest that these wretched times are such as seeme to call aloud for the publishing of some such worke as this for though the fooles that have said in their hearts there is no God dare not in words profes it yet by their continuance in their sinful deeds they do proclaime that their thoughts are so Neither are they altogether wanting which say that Religion is but a politicke invention to keep men in civill obedience but if the conclusions of the Christian Religion bee inferred upon necessarie principles then are they not made out of policie as these Atheists say but cannot prove it except they could also make it appeare that policie was able to make naturall reason I will not denie that Mahumed setled his religion so as they say but hee forbids to dispute of the principles thereof because it is against both reason and Scripture and so perhaps it may bee said of those will-Will-worships that are or have beene among other Gentiles to whom God vouchsafed not the knowledge of his Law But our most holy faith because it alone is true hath no other author than God himselfe who hath revealed it by his word and because no man shall bee excused if hee beleeve it not hee hath commanded reason whereof all men are partakers to seale thereto in everie point but because in the Treatise before mentioned and by the whole practice of this booke this thing is manifest I will here turne mee onely to answer those doubts which may bee brought against the perswading of matiers of faith by humane reason First it may bee objected that the matiers of faith are farre above humane reason and that therefore it is a great presumption to question or skan them thereby for it is said by S. Paul Rom. 11.33 that his wayes and wisdome are past finding out I confesse we know nothing of God but what he hath revealed of himselfe by his workes or by his words for hee dwelleth in the light that none can approach unto even as S. Paul speakes there of his calling and election to faith a will unrevealed but the Articles of our faith hee hath most plainely taught and revealed And further to the argument I confesse that humane reason turning it selfe to behold the divine truthes is as the eye of a Bat to looke on the Sunne But yet the eternall and infinite truthes are so apprehended by mans finite understanding as the light of the Sunne is by the eye that is verely and indeed the same light and no other for though the eye cannot receive all the light of the Sunne yet that which it doth receive is truly that same light which is in or from the Sunne But you say that if in things of common use as hony salt or any other things vegetable or minerall wee must confesse our exceeding ignorance of their nature properties and possibilities both alone and much more in all manner of compositions it may seeme that our dulnesse may much rather be acknowledged in things divine I yeeld not altogether to this consequence for to the knowledge of naturall things we have our owne witlesse experience to helpe us and the deceitfull authoritie of mistaking men but all those truthes whereon our faith relies are grounded on the infallible rules of Gods owne word revealed by himselfe unto us for this end that we should not bee deceived or mistaken And although it was impossible for humane reason ever to finde out the conclusions and most fundamentall points of our faith as the mysterie of the Trinitie the incarnation of God the resurrection of the body c. yet being by the cleer light of Gods own word made known unto us we approve the same truth by the judgement and voice of reason So the reasons that are brought hereunto are not to establish any truth new or unheard of but for that faith which was heretofore taught delivered unto the Saints if the reasons of themselves be weak and by their weakenes shew how mans understanding is dazled at the divine light yet the conclusions stand sure and unmoveable but if the reasons bee certaine and true then questionlesse they are grounded in the Word and truth of God and the conclusion true either for the reason delivered or for a higher reason which wee cannot finde To this purpose the Father Anselm de Conc. Gratiae lib. arbit saith not unfitlie Sacra Scriptura omnis veritatis quam ratio colligit authoritatem continet cùm illam aut apertè continet aut nullatenus negat Quod enim apertâ ratione colligitur illi ex nullâ parte Scripturae contradicitur quoniam ipsa sicut nulli adversatur veritati itae nulli favet falsitati hoc ipso quiae non negat ejus auctoritate suscipitur Yet you will say that this endeavour is altogether needlesse seeing the

and speech The Treatise whatsoever it is with all humilitie and reverence I submit unto the undefiled Spouse of Iesus Christ my dearest mother the Church of England and if I have done any thing herein which is pleasing to God or usefull to his Church let the glorie bee given to him by whose onelie mercie and favour I have beene enabled to performe it But let his holie Church graciouslie pardon whatsoever is herein amisse through my weakenesse or errour And if any thing bee offensive let it by her censure be as if it had never beene written or thought of Alexander Gil. Reader BEcause the Printers are unwilling to be troubled with notes on the sides therefore the authorities and references are put in the leafe thus marked 000 but seeing the words and their meaning are perfect in themselves beside those references you may passe over all such places without hurt to the sence except you thinke good to try it by the authoritie Ianuary XXXI 1634. PErlegi uniuersum hoc opus cui titulus The sacred Philosophie of the holy Scripture laid downe as conclusions c quod continet in toto paginas 492. aut circitèr in quibus reperio nihil sanae doctrinae aut bonis moribus contrarium quo minùs cum utilitate publicâ imprimi queant ita tamen ut si non intra quinquennium typis mandentur haec licentia sit omnino irrita Guil. Haywood capell domest Archiep. Cant. THE ENTRANCE to the Treatise LUKE 12.57 VVhy even of your selves judge ye not what is right THe principall virtue of mans soule is Reason unto whose power the soule would have every thing subject if it might because that is the Standard to trie the truth in the knowledge whereof principally the soule is delighted But because arguments alwayes appeare not by the weight of which reason may try the truth the soule is content to beleeve or unbeleeve such things as it cannot trie by reason either for the credit of the author or for the desire which it selfe hath that they should be so or not so The first degree then of the powers of the soule above reason is faith but because the soule is loth to bee deceived therefore will it not alwayes come so farre as to beleeve or discredit a thing but is content to hold it in opinion and yet upon a more sleight view to suppose something to be or not to be true or false for a time for a man may suppose that to be of which he will not entertaine an opinion that it is yea and have an opinion of that which he doth not constantlie beleeve yea and beleeve that for which he cannot give a sound proofe that it is So that faith opinion and supposition are of larger compasse one than another and all of greater circuit than reason Yet because the imagination that lovely Dalilah is ever serviceable to reason her Samson though never faithfull and because there is nothing in any of these three which the imagination dares not be busie with therefore by the helpe of imagination reason enquires into the workes of all these using thereto saying and gain-saying likelyhood and unlikelyhood and arguing on every side till it come to a conclusion in which it will rest at least for a time And as every minde or soule is more noble and excellent than another for there are many more degrees of excellencie in spirituall substances than there bee in bodily so doth it exercise it selfe in the most hard and excellent things And to set all other matters aside for all other are farre beneath the knowledge of God and the assurance of our faith in him which is our present search let us see by what degrees we are come unto that taske which we have undertaken Religion is a band or tyall of the conscience in things pertaining unto God in respect of the excellency of the reward to them that doe well or of the punishment of them that doe ill for there was never any religion true or false but it was set in the service of some God whom the worshippers beleeved to bee just in rewarding both good deeds and bad and that not only in this life but much more in another where they perswaded themselves the soule was immortall as one of their false prophets truely said Virtus recludit non meritis mori Coelum Seing then that religion as every other thing that is reasonably undertaken proceeds from the knowledge of the End and that all religion doth suppose an everlasting happinesse or punishment to the soule in immortality excepting only that of the pestilentiall Sect of the Sadduces who though they confessed God yet thought that the promises and threatnings of the Law stretched no farther than to this life only and therefore denied the resurrection the soules immortality Angels Devils It might seeme that I who enquire of religion according to the discourse of reason might hold it sufficient to lay downe the reasons of the positive Doctrine without any mention of heresies or contrarie opinions and that I ought first to enquire * See Chap. 39. whether there be any such happinesse at all as is supposed in the life to come * See Chap. 40. Secondly whether the soule be immortall and so capable of eternall happinesse Thirdly whether the soule although immortall doe remaine a separate and an entyre being by it selfe or whether when it departs out of the body it doth not returne into the Chaos of life as a drop of water falling into a river for if any one of all these points faile that is if there be no happinesse at all after death or if the soule enjoy it not because it dyes or if that happinesse be not peculiar and entyre to the soule by it selfe and in it selfe then the end of all our religion is utterlie frustrate But for the present they shall be onely as postulata or suppositions the proofe shall appeare hereafter in the Article of Everlasting life And concerning heresies I confesse that in this disputing age wherein men will rather seeme to know that they may oppose the truth than willingly to submit themselves thereto I had great doubt in my selfe whether by the remembrance of them I might not give occasion to such as itch after opinions to be tainted with these stinking ulcers or at least cause a doubting or falling away of them that are weake when they consider the diversities that have been and still are concerning religion But when I remembred the saying of S. Paul 1 Cor. 11.19 There must be heresies even among you that they that are approved might be knowne I supposed that this benefit would grow thereby that men in the examination of opinions might be more firmely grounded in the truth of God while they take heed to his word as to a light that shines in a darke place Therefore as Mariners set Buoyes and Seamarkes for avoyding of shipwracke or as Physicians describe Aconitum and other

this reason and the like which wee make from our owne understanding hath a most sure foundation and ground in the truth of God for therefore is the light of reason and understanding in man as a glasse or image of the divine wisdome created by him in us Iohn 1.4 Ephes 4.24 that we thereby might be led unto the knowledge of Him and so unto that happinesse for which wee are created therefore the understanding doth evermore apply it selfe unto the truth and makes the will to joy therein and to hate that which is false and impossible For reason in man being the image of Christ the second Adam is set in the Paradise of God freelie to eate of every tree therein that is to consider the whole creature which yeelds unto reason infinite truths as fruit whereon to feed to the praise of him that hath created it but if shee that is given to him for his help that is the imagination his Hevah the mother of all living for by the imagination alone the formes of all things live and are lively presented to reason if shee I say deale treacherously with him and without him entertaine speech with the craftie Serpent then is he by her easily perswaded to taste of the forbidden fruit to follow her foolish and wicked suggestions and to let into his understanding falshood and errours which cannot stand with the light of the truth but are onely according to the traditions of Arts falslie so called and the authorities of men misled by opinions Concerning authorities See Postell de Nat. Med. pag. 16.17 and log Cap. 23. n. 8. and note a c The first Mover ceasing to move R. 14. Though this reason shew the truth of the conclusion a posteriori yet is not this argument proper to this place because the question here is onely about the inward actions of God in himselfe not that which is outward upon the creature of which you shall hereafter understand more at large in the 13. Chapter d So is his working infinitely ib. Seeing it is firmely agreed unto both by Divines and Philosophers that God is altogether unmoveable not onely by those kindes of motion properly so called See Log. introduct sect 4. Append. n. 1. but also improper and metaphoricall as change of the will anger desire or other passions it may seeme that this conclusion of Gods infinite action or working is enforced utterly against the truth because it seemes that no working can be without motion I answer that motion and operation or working are very different these are like to motions but neither are motions nor yet with motions for to feele to see to understand to will or any other action immanent or dwelling in the worker are actions operations or workings of the sences the understanding and will but yet no motions but most improperly and onely in likenesse for all working action or operation is of a thing that is in perfection but motion properly so called is alwayes with imperfection and leaves the thing wherein the motion is in possibilitie onely to a further perfection And yet the very moving from place to place may be an example of this working which I have proved in God to be infinite For if you set a ruler upon a pin and turne it with violence upon that centre you shall perceive no part of the surface ouer which it is turned which you shall not see covered every where with the ruler and the swifter it is carried about the better and more closely doth it cover it so that if you suppose that motion to be infinite in swiftnesse with continuance for a certaine time then every part of the ruler in the continuall succession of that time must of necessity be every where upon the under surface according to the length of that time which the ruler doth make from the navell point to the hemme or circumference So that you cannot more rightly call it motion than rest when every part of the ruler is continually upon every part of the surface under it And even so this working which I have proved to be in the Godhead because it is infinite may most truly according to this example be called rest because his owne action in himselfe is that wherein above all other he can take most glorie and delight as being in the perfection of goodnesse power wisdome truth and glorie c. And thus according to the measure of our weake understanding having considered what God is in his being it followes that we enquire also what Hee is according to the manner of his being The Father Almightie CHAP. XI That there is a Trinitie of Persons in the Vnitie of the Deitie Section 1. THat the wisdome of God manifested in this lower creature and all the possibilities that are therein shall at last bee made knowne to man for whose sake and use they were created I have elsewhere sufficiently proved But as yet how farre wee are from thence every man doth sufficiently know For is there any Dyer so overweening in his craft of dying as that he dare take upon him to know all the possibilities that are in the mixing and setting of colours nay in the service of that great god of our pampered gurmandizers I meane the belly is there any Cooke that will take upon him to bee able to make all those very things which are day lie sought out to please the taste if then in those things wherein our sences are most delighted wherein we studie with greedines how to please our selves we must confesse our dulnesse how much more heavie must we needs be in that whereof neither our sences nor our reason nor the highest and best part of our understanding all Nature helping us herein can give us any knowledge Who knowes the thoughts of a man but the spirit of a man that is within him how much more then is it impossible to know the mysteries of God but by that relation which hee hath made unto us of himselfe Therefore the knowledge of that mysterie of the holy Trinitie in the Unitie of the Godhead is that superexcellencie of knowledge which we have by the holy Scripture onely which truth we are so much the more carefull to know and constantlie to uphold first because it concernes that most excellent and high being even of God himselfe secondly because the revelation thereof is from God alone manifested by his word thirdly because it is the foundation of our faith and hope for if Christ our Saviour be not very God and very man the being of our Mediatour and the alsufficiencie of his merit is utterly vanished fourthlie it is one of the maine and principall differences between our most high Religion taught us by God himselfe and the false worship of Idolaters of the Iewes Turkes Arians and other hereticks which from time to time have turned the truth of God into a lye Fifthlie we follow herein the holy Martyrs and the Fathers in the primitive Church and those Councells