hath no need of them neither with respect to any Homage and Service to be performed to the Angels for it owes no such thing to them and therefore it must be with respect to some other end And he that denyes the Being of God cannot imagine to what end the Soul should continue for ever But because there is a God who is an Eternal Being therefore are there Creatures made by him that are of an Eternal duration that in them he might have glory for ever Now that the Soul is Immortal appears Because in the Creation of the World there is distinction made in the Creatures Those that were to have Corruptible Natures were formed out of Corruptible Matter but those that were to abide for ever were by Immediate Creation as Angels as also the Souls of Men of which it is said God breathed into Man the breath of Life and he became a living Soul Which the Prophet Malachy refers to in chap. 2. 15. And did he not make One yet had he the Residue of the Spirit which shews the Divine Original of the Soul proceeding immediately from the Divine Spirit Was the Soul of Man Mortal and Corruptible God could and would have educed it out of those Sensitive Spirits that were Concreated with the Chaos as he did the Souls of Beasts Fishes and the Fowls of the Air but because he did immediately breathe it into Man it shews that it is of a different Nature from them and doth not as they do return to Corruption But to Demonstrate this from Reason as well as from Scripture which it may be supposed an Atheist will deny 1. It is Irrational to conceive that there should never be a respect given to Virtue more than Vice to Righteousness than Unrighteousness Seeing it is written in every Mans Nature that the one is better then the other Now in this Life we see it not there is one event to the Righteous and the Wicked And even in the Deaths of Men it is not visible neither For how dieth the wise Man as the Fool as Solomon speaks And therefore it must be after Death was the Soul Mortal wickedness would escape the hands of Justice and Holiness would never meet with the rewards of Grace Seeing God made the World he also necessarily must Govern it if he Govern it it is in Wisdom and Righteousness If so there must be different rewards to the Evil and the Good And therefore the Souls of Men necessarily must survive to receive those rewards 2. God hath made but two sorts of Intelligent Creatures in the Universe Angels and Men And these are more immediately made for the Glory of their Creator who as he is the King Eternal and Immortal so the Glory that is suitable to him must be Eternal and Immortal which he cannot have but from Immortal Creatures that live for ever whether it be the Glory of Mercy or of Justice And as he hath the Glory of both in the Angels some always beholding the Face of God and the others that fell cast down to Hell and delivered into chains of Darkness 2 Pet. 2. 4. So will he have the same of Men the one in those that are saved and in them that perish the other And this could not be did not the Souls of Men abide for ever 3. Whence is it that the Souls of Men have respect to a future state which no other Creatures have Some have respect to it with fear and terrour some with hope and joyfulness And however some Men that are wholly immerst in a Life of Sensuality concern themselves little about it yet when they come to leave this World they cannot but have some thoughts concerning it and then though it may be too late will be making some provision for it And if we look to the Heathen Nations that had only the Light of Nature to see by we shall find they had all some rude Notions of a future State Hence were their Notions of Olympus Elysium or a state of Happiness of their Pluto Proserpina Rhadamanthus Cerberus Styx and their Dirae or Canes Stygiae which shew'd the Notions they had in their Souls of a State of Misery after Death And the Poets fictions of Tantalus Sisiphus Ixion and others that were suffering Torments of several kinds in Hell which shews they had some apprehensions of the Souls survival after it leaves the Body And as Tertullian argues against the Heathen Imo cur in totum times mortem si nihil est tibi timendum post mortem nec experiendum post mortem c. Tertul. Test animae p. 88. If there was no survival of the Soul what need Men to fear Death You may say because it cuts Men off from the Commodities and Comforts of Life But it delivers Men from all the Sorrows and Troubles of Life which usually exceed the other And therefore for it self it ought not to be feared And when Men fear it it is an Argument of some state of Misery after it Object But these were but some confused Notions and uncertain Conjectures and so prove nothing Answ Since the Fall of Man all those innate Notions of Knowledge and Principles of Righteousness that were Concreated with the Soul are disordered and darkned and amongst the rest that Knowledge the Soul had of it self and its own Immortality But those that yet remain though Confused and Imperfect do shew the prints and foot-steps of what it once more perfectly was possessed of As the Ruins of some Ancient stately Edifice do darkly shew that there hath been formerly such a stately structure in Being When meer Nature did lead the Heathen to such though very rude Conceptions of the future State of the Soul it hath a strong Argument in it for such a State And those Natural Principles and Characters in the Soul that the Gospel doth Confirm and clear up to us to be sure were Originally placed there by God himself As it s of the Immortality is one which we find the Gospel doth give abundant Light and Testimony to And so it may be an Argument to us that have the Gospel though not to the Heathen that had it not Object But these apprehensions that the Heathen had of the future State of the Soul were at first devised for Political ends to keep people the better under Government Answ 1. Those Heathen that lived under no Government had such apprehensions And 2. Such Political devices would have had but little Influence to such an end was there not a Natural though but a confused Notion of such a state radically in the Hearts of Men For no Man came from the dead so as to tell the World of the state of separate Souls and therefore for Men to have generally some respect to a future state it shews there is a Natural and Connate notice thereof in the Souls of Men. Neither is it an Argument to be slighted whereby some have proved the Souls Immortality from Mens Natural desire to
ultimately live to themselves Two things are requisite to Man's happiness in his present state One is That he be delivered from those hurtful Evils that are injurious or destructive to it And the other is That he possess that positive good that is suitable and every way satisfactory to his Nature as he is a rational Creature But neither of these can man effect for himself For the former Can he deliver himself from sin which is the worst of all Evils and that Wrath Curse and Death which he lies obnoxious to upon the account of it We see he cannot deliver himself from Temporal Evils which seems more in his power to do much less from those Eternal Evils which are inflicted by God's more immediate hand As to the latter Can he of himself raise up his Soul to the well-head of all true felicity and fetch thence those Living Waters that shall quench the thirst of his Soul and satisfie all his desires Can he having extricated himself from those chains of sin that held him in bondage enfranchise himself into a State and Spirit of true liberty Can he enlighten his own mind and quicken himself into the life of holiness when he is dead in sin Alass how little is it Man can do for himself in any thing much less in these great things wherein his true happiness consists Therefore is it not folly for Man to be his own and live to himself 4. Hereby Man perverts the End of his Being For God made Man for himself He is both the Efficient and End of his Being And making Man for himself he fitted him with Faculties to serve his End As every Rational Agent doth propose to himself an End in what he doth and doth forme means suitable to that End Now if Man lives to himself he serves not the End of his Creation And what is a thing good for if it doth not serve its End Would it not be a Monstrous thing in Nature if the Sun should not shine forth its light upon the World which is the end God made it for Or if the Earth should imprison within it self its seminal vertue and not send it forth in those several fruits that it had a Commission to do for the use of Man and Beast But we see these inferior parts of God's Creation do serve their End and is it not sad that the supremer part of it which is Man should not serve his May not he look upon the whole Creation and then blush at himself And the very Horse Man rides upon reproves the rider whiles he is serving of him This is the Harmony of the Creation when every part of it keeps its place and serves its End It is only Man's sin that hath disturbed this harmony by making Man live to himself and so not to serve his End 5. Man's Being is prophaned As the devoting it to God doth Sanctifie it so not to do it leaves it Common Those Beasts those Fruits under the Law that were given to God were Sanctified and the rest were Common Man doth Sanctifie his Being when he ceaseth from himself and offers up himself to God It is the Apostles exhortation 12. Rom. 1. Present your Bodies that is by a Synecdoche your selves as a living Sacrifice And then it follows holy When Man makes himself a Sacrifice to God then is his Being Consecrated As Lactantius tells the Heathen Lib. 5. p. 421. that the Christian Sacrifice was bona mens purum pectus innocens vita A good Mind pure Heart innocent Life And as we are to offer our selves to God as a Sacrifice so to dedicate our selves to him as his Temple That both Soul and Body may be his habitation And we know under the Law after the Temple was built and dedicated it was no longer a Common structure The Temple of God is Holy In nostra dedicandus est mente in nostro consecrandus est peâ—â—ore Cypr. de Idol vanitat p. 289. saith the Apostle and then addeth which Temple ye are 1 Cor. 3. 17. For seeing that he dwels not in Temples made with hands being the Maker of the World and all things therein as we read Acts 17. 24. he now dwels in living Temples made without hands which are his people that separate themselves unto him And least there should be wanting a Priesthood with respect to the Sacrifice and Temple The same that are the Sacrifice and Temple are the Priesthood also The Priests under the Law were persons separated from Common men and Sanctified to God So they that separate themselves from the principles and practise of the Carnal World and live to the service and honour of God they are his Priesthood As the Apostle St. Peter writes to the believing Jews 1 Pet. 2. 9 and stiles them a Royal Priesthood and so a peculiar not Common People for they were such as had been Converted to God by the Gospel and so were Sanctified to his service And seeing the same person is both Priest and Sacrifice that which is off'red up must needs be a Free-will offering For the Sanctified will offers up the whole Man to God And seeing it is the whole Man it is an Holocaust also that is off'red up or as stiled in the Law a Whole burnt Offering Infer III. But we may hence more particularly learn the several duties Man owes to God as his Maker 1. We owe him Love We Love them that give us gifts how much more shouldst thou Love him that gave thee thy self when Job would reckon up what God had done for him he insists first upon God's giving him Being 10. Job 10 11. c. Thou hast powred me out like Milk crudled me as Cheese cloathed me with Skin and Flesh fenced me with Bones and Sinews c. Thou hast granted me life and favour And this favour of giving thee Being is the first of God's favours and it must needs be favour for no Man could merit of God to give him Being And if the preservation and accommodation of our Being in the World should ingage us to Love God how much more our Creation that gave us Being And as every Man doth Love himself because he is himself much more should we Love him that gave us our selves and that more then our selves 2. Fear For he that gave thee Being can destroy it And he is to be fear'd above all for as he alone could give thee Being so he alone can destroy it The Body may be killed and yet Man not destroyed but to have Soul and Body cast into Hell this destroys Man now this only God can do as our Saviour speaks and therefore he is to be chiefly feared And this he will do if thou fearest him not He that made thee will not have Mercy on thee as it is said 27. Isa 11. Elihu had an aw of God upon him considered as his Maker as appears by his speech 32. Job last I know not how to give flattering titles in so doing my
a Sensitive life as Plants and Trees in this lower World Whence is it that the Ivy as if it did know it was a weak Plant and could not subsist of itself should naturally bend to the Wall or Tree that is near it there to fix and as it were incorporate itself by a strange and firm in hesion Whence is it that a Tree doth fix its Roots with that strength and Art in the bowels of the Earth that no man can imagine how it could be done better as if it did know what blasts of wind it must encounter with which threaten its subversion c. And what Wisdom is that which guides and carries the Root downward when the Boughs and Branches ascend upward as if it understood the need it stood in of the fatness and moisture of the Earth and therefore doth send forth its roots up and down through the Earth to forage and fetch it in So also If we consider how curiously the Embrio or Infant is formed in the Womb of her that is with Child the formative vertue that doth this is ignorant of what it doth and yet every part is formed to a rational End in Nature And whence is it in the upper World that the Sun is placed at such a convenient distance from the Earth and steers its motion by such a Line as is most for the benefit of it That when it is gone to its Tropic in the South it should return back again to the North as if it did rationally provide for the benefit of each part and region of the lower World In so much that the Psalmist doth attribute Knowledg to it Psal 104. 19. The Sun knoweth its going down And as Tully argues concerning the Heavens Their motion is either by Nature Chance or Prudence Not by Nature for if they were light they would move upwards if heavy they would move downwards if neither they would stand still Nor by chance for they move in a constant and regular Order where there is nothing temerarium nec fortuitum nothing rash nor accidental as he speaks Lib. 2. De Nat. Deor. And therefore they move by Prudence And that not their own as they were Gods as some imagined but by his Wisdom that made them by that Eternal Mind that superintends and guides their motions which he that denies Ipse mentis expers judicandus est as he there speaks that is one void of Reason If we yield these things are done by Nature and natural Instincts yet still we must reply Whence had Nature these several instincts and if it acts and moves by a Law who put this Law first into it but He that made all things in Wisdom and hath left the prints and footsteps of it in the several works of his hand If we see an Arrow for the most part hit the mark no man will say This is by chance but it is guided by some skilful hand So Nature could never produce in so great a constancy such admirable effects if it was not guided by some invisible hand Argum. 7. We see this Order in Nature that all Creatures do serve some end above themselves As Creatures without life do serve those Creatures that have life and those Creatures that have only a vegetative life serve the Creatures that have a Sensitive Life and those that have a Sensitive Life do serve Man that hath a superiour Rational Life and therefore Man also was made to serve some end above himself and what can this be but to serve his Creator For there is no end that Man can serve above himself but serving God which may evidence to us that God is And as there is some Equity and Reason that those things in Nature which are inferior should serve the superior so it is the highest Reason in the world that Man should serve Him that is infinitely superiour to him and supreme over all and which is that End above Man which he was made to serve Argum. 8. Lastly We see all things in Nature under certain bounds and limits As the Earth the Waters the Sun the Moon the Stars the Heavens So are all living creatures bounded and limited in their several natures And within these bounds they still abide Now how came all things to be thus circumscribed and limited Why are their several natures extended thus far and no farther when it is natural to the Creatures to be extensive of themselves towards some further perfection in their Beings Natural Bodies are under Limits and so are created Spirits as Angels in their several Orders or denominations and the Souls of Men. Now who hath set these limits but that first Being who is unlimited and hath made all things in Number Weight and Measure It is He that hath given the Earth its dimensions and confined the Waters within their Banks that comprehendeth the dust of the Earth in a Measure that weigheth the Hills in Scales and the Mountains in a Balance It is He that hath meted out the Heavens with his Span and appointed the number of the Stars and calleth them all by name Which the Grecians meant by calling their chief God Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Limiter and the Romans call'd him Jovem Terminalem As God hath given the Creatures their being so He hath set them the several Bounds of their Being And to make this yet more plain in a few Instances Whence is it that a Stone hath not a vegetative Life as well as a Tree and a Tree a Sensitive Life as well as a Beast and a Beast Reason as well as a Man and why are not Men intellectual Spirits as well as Angels All Creatures are bounded in their several natures and what or who could thus bound them but the God and Author of Nature So that upon the whole I may conclude That if the World was a living Animal as Plato fancied and knew it self it would readily acknowledg its Beginning and Being from God alone CHAP. III. The general Doctrine improved Atheism unreasonable The Degeneracy of Reason about Divine Objects Few profest Atheists The reason why some attempt to make themselves Atheists The several Causes out of which Atheism springs Why amongst Christians that live under the Gospel there is found the greatest Atheism THus we have demonstrated the God-head or the Being of God from the Works of Creation I should now proceed to Demonstrate thence also several Attributes of his Being but I shall first endeavour to reduce this Knowledge of God's Being arising from the light and Law of Nature to the service of Christianity For my design is for Practice rather than Speculation Inf. 1. First We may hence take notice that Atheism is not only Impious but Irrational To deny a God is to deny and contradict true Reason The Psalmist calls him a Fool that saith in his heart there is no God Psal 14. 1. And a Fool is one that is defective or distempered in his Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
to come these are all made evident to us by Scripture-Light which were either not at all or but darkly known by any Light of Nature How dubiously and sometimes ridiculously did the sagest of the Heathen write of these things As to the Souls Immortality their great Orator Cicero doubted of it As for the Resurrection of the Dead Plin. lib. 7. cap. 55. their great Naturalist Pliny explodes it As to Rewards and Punishments in a future State their Poets had ridiculous Fictions about them Therefore Life and Immortality are said to be brought to Light by the Gospel speaking more distinctly of the future State and World to come than what is found either in the Dictates of Nature or the Writings of the Old-Testament Lastly Yea as to the very Nature of God his Holiness Unity Simplicity Actuality of Being Omniscience Immensity and other Attributes these are more clearly revealed in the Word of God than in any Evidence of Nature Which though in this it is not wholly dark as in some other Truths before mentioned yet even here it is not so distinct and clear as the Scripture is which as it is a System of Natural Truth beyond any other Writing in the World so it contains those Supernatural Truths that could not else be known to the Sons of Men. And this is all I shall speak to this Head which though it doth not so immediately result from my present Subject yet I thought needful to interpose only in my leaving it shall add this Inference Inference We may hence evince the absurdity of casting off Scripture-Light Scholars may read a more distinct account of the deficiency of this Natural Theology and its inferiority to Gospel-Revelation in Dr. Owen's Polite Discourse on this Subject at large in his Book called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. lib. 1. and betaking our selves to the Light of Nature Is not the Light of the Sun above that of the Moon the one Ruleth the Day and the other the Night Those that have no Scripture-Light live under the Dominion of Nature's Moon-light Acts 7. 27. and are but in the Night feeling after God as Men in the dark It is Scripture-Light through the Spirit that makes the Day It argues also our great Ingratitude that this great Mercy of God in the Scriptures should be no more valued by us Do we pitty the poor blind Heathen and shall we cast away that Light without which we shall be as blind as they Hath God dealt with us in such Mercy as with Israel of old to give us his Statutes and Judgments when he hath not so dealt with every Nation and shall not we be thankful above other People Hath God magnified his Word above all his Name Psal 138. 2. and shall we put it below the other parts of his Name or hath God magnified his Name upon his Word as a learned Rabbin reads the Text and shall we despise it and not magnifie that Name of God which is there so eminently written The great Masters of Wisdom among the Gentiles as Pythagoras Plato Socrates Trismegistus c. got more knowledg of Divine Things from some Fragments of those Truths that were made known by Divine Revelation to the People of Israel than from all their Studies of Nature And much of the Gentile Theology Mr. Theoph Gale both as to the Deities they worshipped and the manner of their Worship was though corruptly derived thence as hath been made evident by a Learned Author of late that hath travelled in those Studies Now we that have with us the whole Body of Scripture and Revelations of Supernatural Truths therein are highly concerned to give thanks to the Almighty for so great a benefit After the Psalmist had spoken of the common Benefits of Nature for which God is to be praised of all men Psal 147. Who covereth the Heavens with Clouds prepareth Rain for the Earth maketh Grass to grow upon the Mountains giveth the Beast his Food c. vers 8 9. He then speaks of his special Goodness to Jacob And wherein He sheweth his Word unto Jacob vers 19. c. And then concludes the Psalm Praise ye the Lord. Jacob that is the Church of Israel had the special favor of God's Word and therefore above all People and Nations were obliged to praise him CHAP. VII God's Being Demonstrated from the Creation of man Several peculiar things spoken of about his Creation How the Workmanship and Operations of of the body declares Gods Being The soul considered in its Capacity innate principles immortality operations whence we have a further evidence of God's Being I Shall now proceed to speak to a further evidence of God's Being from one special part of his Creation which is the Creation of man And therefore shall speak to it by it self And we may observe some peculiar things related about it above what is said of the other works of God 1. When God in the course of his works came to give Man his Being He said Come let us make Man Of his other Works he only said let them be as Let there be Light and Let there be a Firmament c. But as if himself was more Concerned and that in the Trinity of his Being about making Man then any other of his works he saith let us make Man 2. Other creatures he speaks to the Earth and Waters to bring them forth whether Vegetables as Herbs Grass Fruits Trees c. Or Animals in the several Regions of Ayr Earth or Water where they do Inhabit But God sets to his own hand in the making of Man He himself forms him of the dust of the ground and then himself breathed into him the breath of life Gen. 2. 7. 3. God saith also of Man Let us make Man after our own Image and our own likeness Gen. 1. 26. Which he said not of his other works either the Light or Firmament or Sun Moon or Stars which are all Glorious Creatures Yet he said of none of these Let us make them after our own likeness It may be observed also that the Word Created is three times repeated and that in one Verse with respect to Man's Creation So God Created Man in his own Image in the Image of God Created he him Male and Female Created he them Gen. 1. 27. Which some concieve refers to the plural term used about the making of Man Let us make Man God Created him that is God the Father God Created him that is God the Son God Created him that is God the Holy Ghost And which is remarkable when God is called in Scripture the Maker or Creator of Man it is still expressed Plurally as 35 Job 10. and 149 Psal 2. 12 Eccles. 1. 54 Isa 5. Where God is stiled the Creatours and Makers of Man in the Hebrew Text. Yet the Creation of him was but one and the God that Created him one also 4. Man had this Preeminence also that he was Created last God
Immortalize their Name which shews the Soul doth look beyond its present state which the Soul of a Brute doth not As appears by Absolon's Pillar set up by him to preserve his Name And that Fellow that is said to burn Diana's Temple that he might perpetuate his Name And how did the Poets please themselves that by their Poems they should have their Names preserved after their death Multaque pars mei vitabit Libitinam said Horace A great part of me shall escape death he means his Name shall not die As he saith in the conclusion of his Odes as I remember Exegi monumentum aere perennius c. He had raised he saith a Monument to his Name more lasting than Brass whereby he should live in the World after death And so Ovid with respect to one of his chief Poems adds this Conclusion Jamque opus exegi quod nec Jovis ira nec ignes Nec ferrum nec possit edax abolere vetustas Not time Joves wrath not Sword or fire Can ever make this work expire We see by this the Natural desire of the Soul to Immortality And because these Heathen were without the Light of the Word to direct them to the true Immortality of Heaven therefore they sought it by providing an Immortality to their Names here on Earth And Tertullian much Insists upon this Argument lib. de Test animae and Argues thus Vnde anima hodie affectaret aliquid quod velit post mortem tantopere praepararet quo sit usura post obitum si nihil de postero sciret c. Why should the Soul be so solicitous to prepare for the enjoyment of something after death if it did not survive the grave And he instanceth in the Curtii and Reguli who contemned their lives that they might have a Name after death 5. The Soul of Man is capable of framing a Conception of God and that is an Argument that God is To what purpose should such a Capacity be in the Soul if there was no such Object To what purpose was the faculty of seeing if there was no visible Objects in Nature Had the Soul no higher end then to animate an Earthly Body and to guide Men about the affairs of this lower World it needed not to have a Capacity beyond them And though we know little of the Divine Being and our highest Conceptions are but some low Adumbrations of it yet the Soul is not altogether destitute of them though in a faln state And that may shew that these Conceptions were far higher in it before its fall I shall illustrate this Argument by Instances in several of the Divine Attributes that are Essential to the Being of God Of all which the Mind is Capable of framing a Conception though not to comprehend them 1. Is God's eternity it is essential to his Being to be eternal And the Mind is capable of running back in its thoughts beyond the Beginning of time which is eternity a parte ante and forward beyond the end of time yea to an endless duration which is eternity a parte post It is able to lanch it self out into that wide Ocean For whence is it that we have in Divinity a definition given us of eternity Interminabilis Boetius perfecta tota simul vitae possessio An endless entire and perfect possession of life all at once but that the Mind can frame some conception about it 2. Is Immensity or Omnipresence The Mind can inlarge it self to the utmost Sphaere of the World's Circumference yea it can imagine a Sphaere beyond that Sphaere and a space comprehended in no Sphaere as some of the Philosophers had Notions of an Infinite space before the World's Creation It can also conceive of a Being whose presence may be extensive to this vast space and may extend beyond the utmost Sphaere of the Universe whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain yea it can conceive of God according to the Philosophers description of him He is a Being whose Centre is every where and his Circumferance no where Though I must say this conception is according to the Mind's finiteness not God's Infiniteness 3. Is Universality of perfection and Being Though particulars and Individuals are the only object of Sence for Vniversalia non incurrunt in Sensum Vniversals do not run into the Sence yet the Mind is able to frame an abstract Notion of Universality As of Light Life Beauty Strength Wisdom c. as they are in themselves without respect to any Individual Subject wherein they may exist It can surveigh this whole Creation and all the perfections of it and then can conceive of a Being that may have all these perfections eminently in it self The Philosophers of old in their search of Nature did raise up their Minds from Individuals to apprehend a Species containing all the Individuals and then by a more abstract thought to apprehend a Genus that contained all the Species And from thence they raised their Minds to a Conception of Ens or Being it self which is Genus Generalissimum Now God is an Universal Perfection and Universal Being and the Mind though in a low degree can frame a conception of his Universality As Seneca a Moral Heathen said of God Totum est quod vides totum est quod non vides He is all that thou seest and all which thou dost not see such an Universal Notion did his Mind frame of God 4. Is Simplicity Though our eyes never saw such a thing in any Creature neither can we find it absolutely in any Creature either in Heaven or Earth yet the Mind can frame a Conception of it which is one of the glorious Attributes of God that he is without any Composition or any diversity in his Being in the most abstract and refined Notion of it As the School-Men have given us a description of this attribute which shews the Mind can conceive something of it 1. That God is without Parts either Similar or Integral as the Body of Man hath 2. That he is without matter and form as we see in the Constitution of Man and other Creatures 3. He is without general and special Nature as Man hath a general Nature as he is a living Creature and special as he is a Man 4. Without quality as distinct from Essence or Accidents as distinct from Substance as may be found in all Creatures the very Angels not excepted 5. Without Act and Power as distinct things That is God cannot be possibly any thing that he is not or cease to be what he is 6. Without any distinction of Essence and Existence which some call Being and Individuation As we can distinguish betwixt the common Nature of Man which is Humanity and the existence of this Nature in Peter or John or any Individual Person So that there is no shadow of any composition distinction or as some call it Alterity in his Being But he is all perfection of Being not only comprehensively but in the