est qui non clauditur loco nusquam non est qui non excluditur loco God is no where because concluded in no place and God is every where because excluded from none 6. God is ens simplex actus purus and this simplicity is sufficiently manifested in holy Writ I am that I am saith God to Moses and again I am hath sent me unto you that is as Doctor Preston hath it a pure Act all being whole entire a simple and Uniform being without parts accidents or any Composition not like to the Creatures for the best of them although they have not a Substantial and Physical simplicity i. e. no◠compounded of Matter and Form nor consisting of Integral parts yet a Metaphysical and Accidental Composition they have and no simplicity for as much as they are compounded of Essence and Existence of Act and Power or of Actions and Qualities which whatsoever it be called cannot he said of God who is a simple and Indivisible Essence whose Essence is his Existence and whose Act is Power Power in God is neither objectiva nor passiva such distinctions are not in God whose Power is purè activa and all that is in God is but one God so do those words impart viz. I am that I am as much as to say whatsoever is in me it is my self in God is nothing but himself nihil in se nisi se habet saith St. Bernard hear him further But God is a Trinity what then do we overthrow Gods Unity by confessing a Trinity no but we confirm the Unity we acknowledge the Father and so the Son and so the Holy Ghost yet not three Gods but one God what means this number and no number as I may so speak For if three how is it not a number And if but one where then is the number But I have saist thou both what I may number and what I may not the Substance is one the Persons are three and what Ridde or Mystery lies in this none at all if we may divide the Persons from the Substance but since these three Persons are that one Substance and that one Substance those three Persons who can deny a number for they are truly Three yet who can call a number that is but truly One Or if thou hast as thou thinkst sufficiently numbred them by professing three what dost thou number Their Natures That 's but one their Essence It 's but one their Substance It 's but one their God-heads It 's but one but thou wilt say I number not these but the Persons which are not that one Nature that one Substance one Essence and that one God-head Thou art a Catholick and maist not profess this The Catholick Faith believeth the properties of the Persons is no other than the Persons themselves and that the Persons are no other than one God one Divine Nature Substance and Supreme Majesty reckon therefore if thou canst either the Persons without the Substance which they are or the properties without the Persons which they are Qui duplici impietate numerum trinitati minuit tribuit unitati Bernard Epist 190. fol. 1581. G. Or if any go about to divide and sever the Persons from the Substance or the Properties from the Persons I know not how the Trinity will own him for a Worshiper wee may therefore acknowledge Three but not to prejudice the Unity and acknowledge One but not to confound the Trinity This is a great Mystery and a sacred if any would know how this Plurality is in Unity or Unity in Plurality I answer it is rashness to search Piety to believe life everlasting to know 7. To these we may add another Attribute appropriate to God by which he is made known unto us in his Word viz his Invisibility where it is expressed as in the place before mentioned To the King Eternal Immortal Invisible and onely wise God no man hath seen God at any time neither indeed can see him with Mortal eye and though this manner of Invisibility be not the proper Attribute of God so doth not sufficiently set forth the Divine perfection being common also to all Spiritual Substances as well the Rational Soul in this life as Souls abstracted and Spirits Intellectual for as much as no Spirit is Visible with Corporeal eyes yet God in a more eminent manner is Invisible There is a twofold sight one of the body another of the mind the light of the body is the Eye the light of the mind Understanding with the bodily eye no Spirits can be seen but with the eye of the mind they are Visible not properly and fully in this life we know not any thing but per species impressas by Intelligible Forms imprinted in our Understanding from some sensible Objects not our own Souls much less those purer Intellectual Natures But the Intellectual Spirits and separated Souls do see themselves and other Created Substances though Superior and so are they Visible with an Intuitive Vision from Innate and Connatural Forms which way notwithstanding God is not Visible to any Created Intellect And thus Invisibility comes to be Appropriate to God alone and not Communicative to any besides no Created Substance can see God as he is in himself by any Natural way of Created Intuitive Vision of the Understanding without the infusion of some other Supernatural Endowments which agrees with the rules of our Faith and of Sacred Writ professing God to be Invisible and to dwell in an unaccessable light Yet may we not otherwise but according to Catholick Faith believe that God is Visible too 1. He is Visible to himself as he is Comprehensible of himself because he is equally Intelligent and Intelligible non minus Intellectivus quam intelligibilis as hath been elsewhere said therefore Visible in respect of himself though Invisible in respect others 2. Visible in respect of others viz. all the blessed Saints and Angels these enjoy a full Fruition and Beatifical Vision of him not a glimse as I may say or some Created brightness and illumination in a glass per aenigma either in the glass of his Creatures as Naturalists with the eye of Reason or in a more Spiritual glass as Christians with an eye of Faith in this Vale of tears may behold him but face to face clearly and as he is in himself Intuitively not in any Natural Created light but by an eye and light of glory unexpressibly Supernatural by which God is pleased to convey Intelligible Forms of his own Essence unto us which Vision is meant and signified by Saint John in his 1. Epistle 3.2 Wee shall see him even as he is viz. in a glorified estate per lumen gloriae by a light of glory unexpressible Of the Knowledge and Will in God CHAP. V. Chap. 5. Book 2. WEE have treated of God and his Attributes which are of the Essence of God we come now to treat of the Knowledge and Will in God as much as
who are given to deep and Divine Contemplation of Immaterial and Spiritual Substances can witness so saith Fonseca lib. 2 Metap cap. 1. q. 2. sect 6. lib. 1. cap. 2. q. 3. sect 6. Alluding still to Plato's Imaginary lines of the Soul viz. the Direct and Sphaerical consider O my Soul the use of these with thy self The direct line points to the knowledge of all things here without and beneath thee Phe Sphaerical to all within and above thee That knowledge which is acquired in the direct line is fetcht from Objects External and so hath Sense for its base looking at things External Corporeal Mortal which are all below the Soul of Man And though by the knoâ—ledge of these Externalls wee may come to the notion of Internal things by the knowledge of others to know our selves by sensible Objects to Intelligible Forms whereby our Souls may be represented Yet that knowledge must needs be imperfect confused and very un ertain no Quidditative knowledge of things Spiritual and Immaterial as the Schoolmen call it which is fetcht from effects and not from the Cause from the direct line of External Corporeal and inferior bodies and not from the Sphaerical of Intellectual spirits A straight line is full of imperfection and deformity whereas the Sphaerical is the perfectest fairest and capaciousest of all the rest Sphaera which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek signifies beauty because of all other figures it is the fairest and as it is fairest so it is the perfectest and most Capacious of all the rest and therefore it is the Heavens are in a round and Sphaerical not in a long and straight figure for if the heavens were in the Form and figure of long or direct lines there would be beyond them some place and body or else a Vacuity which argues a deformity an emptiness and imperfection so saith Aristotle in his second Book de caelo and his fourth Chapter Even so in the Soul of Man the Sphaerical line is the fairest perfectest and the most capacious the Circular line reflecting upon it self that eye of the Soul which contemplates it self and hath its Objects Internal that Soul which can see it self in it self and commune with it own heart is undoubtedly the divinest and perfectest and Beautiful of all others For to fetch our knowledge from outward Objects and to bend our studies to know the Heavens Elements and all other Material and Corporeal creatures is that imperfect line beyond which is somthing else or a Vacuity and though thou cast discourse of the Nature of all things here below though thy line of knowledge be drawn from North to South though it extend to all things from the Artick to the Antartick Pole though thou givest thy heart to seek and search after Wisdom as the wise man saith of all things that are done under Heaven of all works under the Sun and yet art ignorant of thy self all is but labour and travel which God hath given to the Children of Men to be exercised therein and without this Circumflex line viz. the Souls self-Inspection and knowledge of it self the end is Vanity and Vexation of Spirit In brief this Circular Sphaerical knowledge and Inspection of the Soul is that Encyclopaedia which comprehends all other Sciences within it Learn then this Platonick Idea and Imaginary Circle O my Soul by which thou maist reflect upon thy self and find thy self in thy self by that Eye of right Reason who fetcheth its knowledge from Internal Objects and Intelligible Forms whose base is Reason lower it looks not nor yet is hurried and tossed about with the Counter-motions of inferior faculties may soar aloft sometimes in Contemplation of Caelum Empyreum where those Divine Immutable and Impaâ—ible Essences which Aristotle speaks of do inhabite the highest Heavens where is the Throne of the most high God and Quire of Innumerable Saints and Angels may in a holy rapture somtimes with St. Paul be caught up to the third Heaven and there learn the secrets of God which is not lawful for Man to reveale may know things happily above Reason above it self but never contrary or below it self This is a Science Metaphysical properly so called which Grace not Nature teacheth a Science Theological a truth not acquired by Humane Art and Industry but by Divine Revelation taught us by the Spirit of God in the Scriptures Stude cognoscere te quia multo melior laudabilior es si te cognoscis quam te neglecto si cognosceres cursum siderum vires herbarum complectiones hominum naturas animalium haberes omnium caelestium terrestrium scientiam St. Bernards Meditations cap. 5. fol. 1054. Frustra cordis oculum erigit ad videndum deum qui nondum idoneus ad videndum seipsum prius enim necesse est ut cognoscas invisibilia spiritus tui quam possis esse idoneus ad cognoscenda invisibilia dei si non potes cognoscere te non praesumas apprehendere ea quae sunt supra te praecipuum principale speculum ad videndum deum est animus rationalis intuens seipsum fol. 3131. And doubtless this Inspection and knowledge of our selves and our own Souls is a Metaphysical Supernatural and Theological Science 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nosce te ipsum is a Divine Lesson so accounted by the Heathens when Graven upon the door of Apollo's Temple 't was feigned to have descended from Jupiter by the knowledge of our Souls wee come to the knowledge of our selves what we were what we are what we shall be by the knowledge of ourselves we come to the Unity of the God-head by it to the Trinity of Persons by it to the Hypostatical Union of the two Natures in Christ by it we are confirmed in the most Mysterious Articles of our Christian Faith by it Gods Essence is represented and lively Portraid look wee into our Souls and God is our Object whose Form we are whose similitude we retain when no other created Form can be given which may represent the Divine Nature as it is in it self God is pleased to Imprint an Intelligible Form of his own Essence upon the Reasonable Soul by which God is United and made known unto us for this is certain Et Suarez Metaphys disp 30. sect 11. part 27. divina essentia unitur intellectui creato beatorum more speciei intelligibilis it is the general opinion of the Schoolmen and other Divines See Fonseca lib. 1 Metaph. Gods Image we are the sacred Histories are express but principally in respect of our Souls let us make man after our own Likeness saith the Text and again God made Man in his own Image in the Image of God created he him Lift up now thy thoughts O my Soul to this thy Divine Exemplar and think how that every perfection of the Image is placed in the Resemblance it hath with its Pattern for though the Pattern should be deformed such as is usually imagined of
As for the Sense of Touching there is no difference amongst Divines nor indeed can be any doubt but that it hath its Operations in this blissful state since the gloried bodies may be felt and touched as all other true and lively bodies may and as our blessed Saviours was after his Resurrection as well Palpable as Visible not miraculously but according to its own Nature handle me saith he and see for a Spirit hath no flesh and blood as you see me have Thus much of the Senses Corporeal External and those parts of the body which are Instrumental and serviceable in the state of glory to the Humane Nature as they were to her in her Natural condition onely with these exceptions and limitations 1. From hence is banisht all sensual lusts and carnal Concupisence the Eye hath no lascivious looks the Ear 's infected with no blasphemous breath or impious sound nor this Sense deflowred with any adulterous touch here is no lust or desire of generation no respect of blood they neither marry nor are given in marriage this grosser acquaintance and pleasure is for the Paradise of Turks not the Heaven of Christians here is as no mariage save betwixt the Lamb and his Spouse the Church so no Matrimonial affections 2. Banish we likewise from hence all Impatibility of Sense sensus non fallitur nec laeditur circa proprium objectum no vehemencie of Object can destroy the Sense in their Natural estate their objects many times confound and wound them too great a light may make a man blind too great a sound may make him deaf we may not long gaze upon the Sun without blemish to our eyes otherwaies here for the Senses are blessed and glorious and so made Impassible and Immortal he who strengthens the Eyes of the Soul with such a measure of light and glory that they may see God face to face and yet not be dasled and confounded with his glory doth also so confirm and strengthen the Eyes of the body that without any hurt or damage to themselves they may behold not one but infinite Suns and Illuminated bodies though in themselves never so glorious 3. All Acts of Necessity are hence excluded the Soul doth not exercise her Sensitive Faculties Necessarily but freely and rules with the body and bodily Organs when she pleaseth and when she pleaseth the Soul rules alone For she hath other waies of Operation out of the body more Excellent and Noble the Senses are Secundary means for acquiring Knowledge not the Primary only subservient and at command of the Soul In the Natural estate the Sensitive Knowledge precedes the Intellectual nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuit in sense and without Sense there is no intelligence Not so in the Resurrection the Soul knoweth all things as fully and infallibly by Intuitive Vision and Inate Forms at once unico intuitu by one single aspect as by those various multiplyed Forms imprinted from sensible Objects under so many several notions and conceptions the Understanding stands not need of an Eye or an Ear or other bodily Organ to evidence the truth of what it apprehendeth it is not subject to Sense but Sense to it not the Soul to the Body but the Body to the Soul for the Nature of a glorified body is to be Spiritual that is subject to the Spirit not that it hath no flesh and bones but that it is so subject to the Spirit that at the beck and command thereof without any pains and difficultie it moves most swiftly Ascending Descending Coming Going and through every place penetrating as if it were not a body but a Spirit Ad hoc autem quod sit omnino corpus subjectum spiritui requiritur quod omnis actio corporis subdatur spiritus volunâ—ati saith Aquinas and therefore it is in the Power of the Soul to see or hear or the like to use or not to use these bodily Organs when and as often as she pleaseth without which in her Natural condition she could not Operate or reduce all her Faculties into Act. This is the state of that Church that part of Christs Body triumphant whose Organs and Senses are Spiritualiz'd to whom that part of Christs Church militant here doth hold resemblance the like Analogy and proportion bearing every Member one to another they on Earth to those in Heaven as every one beareth to Christ the H ad as the Spiritual Body in Heaven is Organiz'd so is the Organical Body on Earth Spiritualiz'd and hath five Spiritual Senses Senses refreshed with Spiritual Objects This I can assure thee O my Soul being a Member of that Mystical Body whereof Christ is the Head thou art entitled to yea and refreshed with such Sensitive Objects as the Saints in Heaven are refreshed and delighted with Objects for thy Eye thy Ear thy Nose thy Palat thy Hand as Form Sound Odor Sapor Spissitude but these made Spiritual and are so to be received I speak of Christ in the Eucharist who is made the Object of every Sense that the excellencie of the Knowledge of Christ may more fully be evidenced to us from him of whose fulness we all receive Christ is Visible to the Eye Audible to the Ear Sweet and fragrant to the Smel Savory to the Tast to the Nose Palat Hand sensible he is meat to the hungry and drink to the thirstie Angels food and mans repast Christ in the Sacrament is the Object of our Eyes and as real y present here as in Heaven and is as really exhibited to us who spiritually discern him though under other Forms hic ibi veritas sed hic palliata ibi manifesta he is palliated here but unveiled in Heaven here we see him darkly through the instrument of Faith for we walk by Faith and not by sight his real presence is believed our Corporal Eyes do not behold him otherwaies than veiled under those outward signes of bread and wine the eys of our Body seeth the signes the Eye of our Faith the thing signified aliud latet aliud patet what we see is Bread and Wine what we believe is the Body and Blood of Christ what our Souls cannot reach with Corporal Eyes it may discern by an Eye of Faith Faith is a director of the Soul or prospective to the Eyes to bring to their sight such things as are not discernable without in this Vale of tears through the prospect of Faith is Christ Visible to us though the Saints in Heaven have a cleaâ—er Viâ—ion of him seeing him face to face 〈◊〉 as they are seen This is but a glimpse of that beatifical Vision the glorified bodies have of Christ here per aenigma there facie revelata here veiled there revealed unde preciosior dicitur faciei visio quam speculi frequens imaginatio non enim pari omnino jucunditate sumitur cortex sacramenti medulla frumenti fides species memoria praesentia aeternitas tempus speculum vultus
imago Dei forma servi My Soul is athirst after Christ my Saviour O when shall I come and appear before him Grant holy Jesu I may so behold thee though veiled here that when this earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved when it shall turn to the Lord and be clothed upon with our horse of immortality and glory which is from heaven the veil which to this day is upon my heart may be taken away and I may with open face behold the glory of my Lord being changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Amen Christ in the blessed Eucharist is the object of our Ears speaking unto our hearts both in secret whisperings and in shriller notes and holds a familiar conference with us he is an audible Voice and a speaking Word the sound whereof is gone to the ends of the world that Word which in the beginning was with God and was God but was made Flesh and dwelt among us God made Man the Son of God the Son of Man unicus patris filius hominis verbum quippe caro factum this Word incarnate is that Bread of God which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the World This Word is not onely audible to the Ear but penetrable to the Heart piercing like a two-edged sword to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the marrow and the joynts Those reverend thoughts and meditations we have of Christ especially in this Sacrament are nothing else but so many words of his spoken to our Soules though all our cogitations are not Christs locutions nor all his communications our meditations cum enim mala in corde versamus nostra cogitatio est si bona Dei sermo est illa cor nostrum dicit haec audit our good thoughts are Christs words our evill thoughts are our own words The fool hath sayd in his heart there is no God there 's our own words The Lord speaketh peace unto his people those are Christ's one is spoke from the heart the other is to the heart Our own words again are twofold or have two wayes of proceeding one from Natures corruption another from Satans suggestion but of all these bitter fruits and sinfull effects proceeding from within us it is a hard matter to assign a proper cause and author to demonstrate which are the works of the Devill and which be the fruites of the Flesh we are not able so exactly to distinguish inter morbum mentis morsum serpentis inter malum innatum malum seminatum inter partum cordis seminarium hostis only we may know they both are evill and proceed from evill both in the heart though not both from the heart this I know most assuredly though which to ascribe to my heart which to Satan I know not But for my good thoughts since all our sufficiency is from God I doe undoubtedly believe they are the very words of that very Word verba verbi Dei written in my heart by the finger of his blessed Spirit This is that Word which is not sonans onely but penetrans non loquax sed efficax non obstrepens auribus sed blandiens affectibus Happy art thou O my Soul if when thy God calleth thou answerest with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth or with holy David repliest I will hear what the Lord my God will say unto me Christ is the object of our Sense of Olfaction sâ—nding forth most sweet perfumes he is sweet in his Name Christ Jesus Christ i. e. Annâ—inted so much the name imports Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth he is sweet in his name Iesus a Saviour there is no other name given under heaven whereby we shall be saved neither is there any malady of Mind any disease of the Soul which this precious balm and ointment cannot cure Erit tibi sapor odor in medicinam salubrem morbos si qui fuerint repellentem venturosque caventem He is sweet and pleasant to God the Fath r he is his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased and the smell of his Son is like the smell of a field whom the Lord hath blessed he is that Lamb slain from the foundaâ—ions of the world whose bâ—dy and blood being offered as an Holocaust unto God the Father smelleth a sweet smelling sacrifise unto him and from whom issueth unto his Spouse the Church to every particular Member and to every worthy Communicant partaking of his Body and Blood such streams of precious ointment and oyl of the Holy Ghost runing down not onely to the beard of Aaron that is as St Bernard expounds it to the Apostles and Ministers of Christ but unto the very skirts of his clothing that is to the meanest of his Members in infima membra Ecclesiae quae est tanquam Christi vestimentum that even these vile bodies and soules being offered an oblation smell also a sweet-smelling sacrifise to God through Christ holy and acceptable we are anointed with oyl of gladness but Christ with holy oyl and oyl of gladness above all his fellows It falls first upon Christ the Head so runs down to his beard so descends to the skirts of his garments the meanest member in hi Church the smell of Christs garment is like the smel of Lebanon but the smel of his ointments super omnia aromata is better than all spices Christ is the object of our Spiritual Tast and that food of Saints and Angels in Heaven of which it hath pleased God to give a tast to his Saints on earth feeding them with the bread of Heaven the food of life which comes from Heaven that Heavenly Manna and food of Angels the Prophet speaks of more pleasant and sweet to the tast than honney or the honney-comb But that we might eat Angels food Christ was Incarnate the Word was made Flesh so all are partakers of Christ the Saints on Earth as well as Saints and Angels in Heaven onely with this difference Comedunt Angeli verbum de Deo natum comedunt homines verbum faenum factum pane suo vivunt Angeli in caelis beati sunt faeno suo vivunt homines in terris sancti sunt Yet doth not every man tast of the food that partakes of the outward Elements the Natural man hath no sense or tast no fruit and benefit of this Sacrament because it is spiritually discerned it is food eternal not temporal spiritual not corporal for supernatural nourishment unto Eternal life not for physical and natural which accomplisheth its ends in this life pereat hic physicale nutrimentum cibis iste non ventris sed mentis we feed on him in our heart by Faith and Thanksgiving My Body is nourished with the outward Elements of Bread and Wine my Soul is 2nourished with the inward Graces the Body and Blood of Christ not with the Bread of Affliction the corn arising from the earth but
Science of this was Philosophical drawn from the light of Nature Reason teacheth thou art Immortal and capable of everlasting Felicity which consists in the Vision and Contemplation of God thy chiefest good and hast an Innate concreate desire thereto And although the principles of Rational Knowledge are for the most part per se nota so known by their own light as may force an assent yet in as much as God who is thy summum bonum is a light inaccessible such a light as blear-eyed Reason can not behold the full Knowledge of God is not by Rational principle Natural Science is not a scale large enough to contain nor a yard long enough to measure out the true Vertue and full force of this divine Essence but must resolve into principles of a higher nature here thou must run from the principles of Philosophy to the maxims of Divinity here thou must submit thy understanding to the rules and articles of Faith Thy Science of God then is Theological drawn not from the light of Nature but from the revelation of God in the Scriptures the principles of this Theological science are supernatural and resolve not into the grounds of natural reason but into the maxims of divine knowledge supernatural and of this we have just so much light and no more than God hath revealed to us in the Scriptures which is not so full a light as the prime principles of rational Sciences carry along with them to force reason upon the first sight to yeeld unto it such as are these viz. Every whole is greater than a part of the whole and again The same thing cannot be and not be at one and the same time and in one and the same respect These carry a natural light in them clear and evident the Scriptures not so yet such a light as is of force to breed Faith though not to make a perfect Knowledge for though it be life eternal to know God John 17. and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent yet this knowledge is no more than a belief since God requires not a demonstrative knowledge of him here but our Faith in him and such a knowledge as may fit that we walk by faith and not by sight or perfect knowledge for Man having sinned by pride God thought it fittest to humble him at the very root of the tree of knowledge and make him deny his understanding and submit to Faith or hazard his happinesse Faith then is a Christians rule and ground of Science now the evidence of Faith is not so clear as that of Reason tum ratione objecti tum ratione subjecti First Ratione objecti God Faith is the evidence of things not seen Secondly Ratione subjecti the Subject that sees it is but in aegnimate in a glass or dark speech Moreover Faith is an act of the Will primarily and chiefly and not of the Understanding It is not in this Theological Science as in other Sciences where voluntas sequitur dictamen intellectus but contrariwise intellectus sequitur arbitrium voluntatis For Faith is a mixt act of the Will and Understanding and the Will first inclines the Understanding to yeeld full approbation to that whereof it sees not full proof Credere enim est actus intellectus vero assentientis productus ex voluntatis imperio In sent d. 23. q. 2. a. 1. Tho. 2.2 q. 2. a. 2. ad 3 Biel. And again Intellectus credentis determinatur ad unum non per rationem sed per voluntatem And Stapleton contra Whittaker saith Fides actus est non solius intellectus sed etiam voluntatis quae cogi non potest Triplic contra Whittak cap. 6. p. 64 imo magis voluntatis quam intellectus quatenus illa operationis principium est assensum qui propriè actus fidei est sola elicit nec ab intellectu voluntas sed à voluntate intellectus in actu fidei determinatur And though the principles of Faith being concealed from our view and foulded up in the un-revealed counsell of God appear not so evident and manifest unto us as those of Reason yet they are in themselves much more sure and infallible than they for they proceed immediatly from God that heavenly Wisdom which being the fountain and original of ours must needs infinitely precede ours both in nature and excellency And therefore though we be far unable to reach the order of their deductions nor can in this life come to the vision of them yet we yeeld as full and firm consent not only to the articles but to all the things rightly deduced from them as we doe to the most evident principles of natural reason so that thou mayst justly say thy Faith is stronger than thy Reason or Knowledge is because it goes higher and so upon a safer principle than thy Reason or Knowledge can in this life attain unto Hoc intelligendum est ut scientia certior sit certitudine evidentiae fides vero certior firmitate adhaesionis majus lumen in scientia majus robur in fide saith Biel in 3 sent d. 23. q. 3 a. 1. Thus much and more maist thou find couched and excellently handled by the most reverend Father in God William Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury in his book against Fisher pag. 16. And for certainty and assurance in this kind Faith doth not only exceed all certainty that can proceed from any natural Science be it never so demonstrative but in a manner equals the very knowledge by Intuitive Vision in the world to come St Bernard makes it good too in sermonibus Domini Gilleberti super Cantica Canticorum cap. 3. Intelligentia quidem etsi fidem excedit non tamen aliud contuetur quam quod fide continetur in intelligentia quam in fide non major certitudo inest sed serenitas neutra vel errat vel haesitat ubi vel error vel haesitatio est intelligentia non est ubi haesitatio est fides non est et si fides admittere posse videtur errorem non est vera nec Catholica fides sed erronea credulitas Thus are Reason Faith and Vision instrumental and necessary one for another without Reason no Faith without Faith no Vision and this is all the difference amongst them 't is St Bernards still and exquisitely done Fides ut sic dicam veritatem rectam tenet possidet Intelligentia revelatam nudam contuetur Ratio conatur revelare ratio inter fidem intelligentiamque discurrens ad illam se erigit sed ista regit ratio plus aliquid quam credere vult quid aliud conspicere aliud est credere aliud est cernere non tamen aliud quam quod fide concipit conspicere conatur et si nondum sincerè videre potest quibusdam tamen accommodatis experimentis conjicere tentat quae jam solida fide concepit ratio supra fidem conatur fide tamen nititur fide cohibetur in primo devota est in secundo prudens in tertio sobria ut sic dicam fides tenet tuetur ratio intelligentia intuetur bonus iste circuitus in quo mens rationis ductu pervestigando procedit sed à fide non recedit instructa à fide restricta ad fidem Thus have I shewed thee O my Soul thy spiritual progress in the search of thy Felicity this is the circuit and round of the Soul in its Military march to the heavenly Jerusalem in the search of him who is the dearly beloved of my Soul these are the streets it compasseth about bonus quidem rationis circuitus a happy circuit and progress of the Soul doubtless when the Soul prosecutes its felicity by rational disquisition and this search too is bounded and limited by the rules of Faith walking from Faith to Faith or from Faith to Vision and Contemplation till it come to the full fruition of what it so much desireth and loveth And now having brought thee to thy journeys end to thy harbour and haven of joy and bliss I will here sing a Requiem to my soul a nunc dimittis to my Spirit Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation And since the way to this beatitude lies by the gates of Death that there must be a separation of Soul and Body before there be a full Vision and Fruition I doe here desire to set this little house in order and to make this my last Will and Testament where I bequeath my Soul into the hands of God that gave it and my Body to the grave in Christian buriall Earth to Earth Dust to Dust Ashes to Ashes in hope of a joyfull and glorious resurrection unto eternal life through the merits of Christ my Saviour Amen FINIS
with his about this very point of the soules creation I demand of thee O my soul who gave thee thy being since thou hadst it not from eternity thou wast created in time and lately it was that thou hadst not a being certainly it could not be thy parents in the flesh for what is sprung from flesh is flesh but thou art spirit neither did Heaven or Earth or Sun or Stars produce thee for these are corporeal thou incorporeal neither could Angels or Archangels or any other spiritual creature be the authors of thy being for thou of no matter but meerly of nothing wast created and none but a power omnipotent can create a thing out of nothing therefore God onely without any companion or helper with his own hands which are his Wisdom and his Will when it seemed him best did create thee Again a little after Besides the conjunction of soul and body which is a principal part in the making of the humane nature can be made by none but a workman of an infinite power for by what art except divine can the spirit be joyned with the flesh in so close a bond as to become one substance for there is no likeness and proportion 'twixt the flesh and spirit therefore he onely must doe it who onely doth great wonders Consider then O my soul from whence from whom in what manner and into what thou art come First From whence From heaven thou art descended a pilgrim and a stranger here for a time thou art not here to continue and dwell thy country is above thither then aspire from whence thou camest mind not earthly things but seek those things which are above that when this my earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved thou be not pressed down lower with the weight of carnal l sts into the lowermost hell but maist have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Secondly From whom From God thou camest thou art the spirit and breath of God in men O then breath again out of man to God whilst thou art in this prison of flesh send out thy hot breathings to God and draw in those cooler breathings of the Spirit from God thy hot sighs and zealous prayers to God his cool and gentle refreshments of love and pity from God that when I shall have payd all my rights of nature unto death and am gone into my silence though my body lie in the dust for a time my spirit may return to God that gave it Thirdly In what manner Not per media naturalia by any ordinary means but immediately and modo extraordinario without any companion without any helper 1 Learn then this O my soul that as God hath used no naturall meanes or secundary causes in the work of thy Creation so thou relie upon none in the work of thy salvation thou maist safely and boldly approach the Throne of grace without the mediation of Saints or Angels there is but one Mediator unto us who is both God and man Christ Jesus 2 Since God hath put nothing betwixt thee and him beware that thou thy self interpose nothing sever not what God hath not disjoyned let not thy sin be a Wall of separation twixt thee and him nor the mists and foggs of Carnall concupisence eclipss the Sun of righteousness from thee from whom thou borrowest all thy light and without whom thou art but Cimmerian darkness Fourthly consider whither thou art come into a Humane body a Humane nature fitted and prepared to receive thee but how not as a Subject but as a Prince thou to rule as a Queen it to obey as a Subject Therfore know this O my soul by the concurrent opinion of all Philosophers man is of a midle nature twixt mortal and immortal twixt terrestrial and caelestial things and some way resembles both participates of both in that man is indued with Vegetative and Sensitive faculties he is like unto brutes and ignobler creatures but in regard of his Intellectual faculty especially that which consists in speculation he is most like unto God twixt these two the Humane nature is sâ—ated and in a kind participates of both in this nature the soul sits as Emp ess if Sense rules here man lives as a beast degenerates into a brute if Reason and understanding rule especially the speculative Intellectual faculty man lives as God suffer not then O suffer not my soul thy vassals and slaves Sense and Appetite those ignobler faculties of thine to rule and reign over thee and so to transform the whole man into the nature of beasts but rule and govern thou by those more noble and Diviner faculties of thine Reason and understanding by which man resembles his Maker is made like unto him Lâ—stly consider O my soâ—l this mysterious conjunction of soul and body to become one man flesh and spirit one substance which cannot be but by a power Divine and thou wilt cease though not humbly to admire yet curiously to search into that sacred Mystery that Article of Christian faith touching the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ he Hypostaticall Union of the two natures in Christ St. Athanasius proves it and explaines it from this Union of the soul and body in one man saying The right faith is this that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God is God and Man God of the substance of the Father begotten before the World and Man of the substance of his Mother born in the World Perfect God and perfect Man of a Reasonable soul and Humane flesh subsisting Equall to the Father as touching his God-head and inferior to the Father touching his Man-hood Who although he be God man yet he is not two but one Christ One not by conversion of the God-head into Nan but by taking the Man-hood into God One altogether not by confusion of substance but by Unity of person For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man so God and man is one Christ The conjunction of soul and body is a secret and hidden thing but the Incarnation of Christ the Union of the God-head and Manhood far more secret for without doubt great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh and if it be so difficult a matter for man to find out the hidden things of this visible World that none as Solomon saith can comprehend the works thereof from the beginning to the end no not the workings of God within a mans self how shall man attempt to search out those invisible things of Heaven the hidden mysteries the unsearchable things of God therefore if thou beest wise O my soul seek saving knowledge and embrace the wisdom of the Saints which is to fear God and keep his Commandements delight more in supplication and prayer than in vain janglings and disputations in charity that edifies than knowledge that puffs up for this is the way that leads to life the Kingdom of Heaven where shall be
fly from it as from a serpent and if with any sin thou chance to be overtaken that thou maist mourn and weep for them here that so thou maist avoid this place of sorrow where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for ever For he that saith Wo unto you that laugh and rejoice now for ye shall mourn saith also Blessed are they that mourn now for they shall be comforted and the Psalmist They that sow in tears shall reap in joy He that now goeth on his way weeping and beareth forth good seed shall doubtless come again with joy and bring his sheaves with him The Indivisibility or impartibility of the soul The soul of man is a simple essence and is not to be found except pâ—r accidens in the Predicament of Quantity Continuum non constat ex indivisibilibus sed in semper divisibilâ—a est divisibile cum enim ex eis constat in ea resolvetur Sennert lib. 1 cap. 4. Corpori suo modo coextenditur quamvis ex parte anima extensionem non habet Suarez disp 15. sect 3.11 fol. 251. therefore it admits not of fractions and parts is not capable of division If it were corporeal it would be quanta and so divisible as quantity is in semper divisibilia but being a spirit it is simple incorporeal immortal and so an indivisible substance That souls Rational are multiplied according to the multiplication of the Individuals I shall not deny to stand with Christian Religion as well as Philosophical verity but that the soul is divisible or extensible ad extensionem corporis I deny to stand with either the soul of Beasts and Plants is material and corporeal extensible as the body is extended so as part of the soul is in part of the body and the whole in the whole body but the Humane soul which is a spirit indivisible in a most wonderfull manner is tota in toto tota in qualibet parte so saith Philosophy And though it fill the whole body Bellarm. de ascensione mentis in deum c. grad 8. fol. 179. and 180. it takes up no room in the body it increaseth not as the body increaseth only begins to be where before it was not and if the body decrease if any member be cut off or wither the soul is not diminished or dried up onely ceaseth to be in that member it was in before and that without any hurt or blemish to it self Replet non occupat totum corporis locum nec etsi corpus hunc locum jam ante occupaverit impeditur quo minus ipsa in omnibus corporis partibus ad sit videmus eandem formam quae primo infantis corpus replet illud ipsum corpus nihil auctam ubi in vastam aetate virili molem excreverit repleris Sennertus lib. 1. cap. 4. And herein O my soul art thou a lively Character and Image of God a resemblance of thy Creator in his infinite being and omnipresence for God is a Spirit indivisible filling all the World and all the parts thereof yet taking up no room there nor may it be so imagined that God so fills the World as part of God is in part of the World and whole God in the whole World for God hath no parts cannot be divided but as thou art in the litle World Man so he in this great universe whole in the whole and whole in every part of the World and so is every where present with his omnipotencie and wisdom and when any new creature is produced God begins to be in that creature though the same from eternity and when any creature is destroyed or dieth God dieth not nor is destroyed onely ceaseth to be there yet without variation or shadow of change thus far the resemblance holds though thou must ackowledge O my soul Gods Indivisibility infinitely to surpass thine 2 Chron. 6. his omnipresence and illimiâ—ed greatness is such as Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain and truly for if another World were created God would fill it if more Worlds yea infinite Worlds God would fill them all and where he should not be there should be nothing The Immortality and eternity of the soul Touching the Immortality of the soul the Grand Philosopher not onely sets it down as of opinion but with many reasons proves the same I do not say all the operations and faculties of the soul or the soul according to all its faculties and operations Arist de gen anim c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. restat ut mens sola extrinsecus accedat eaque sola divina fit nihil enim cum ejus actione commmunicat actio corporalis which cannot be spoken of the soul were it mortal and therefore I must needs be of Paulus Benius his opinion who saies plainly and proves it too turpiter affixam à quibusdam Arist mortalitatis animae opinionem Benius in Timaeum Platonis Decad. 2. lib. 3. See further Bishop Lawd against Fisher pag. 16. Num. 34. pun 7. fol. 113. in margin did Aristotle hold to be immortal a Christian may doubt of that and not be counted Heterodox since whether the operations of the Sensitive soul as seeing hearing smelling tasting touching remain in the body glorified and in what manner hath been is to this day a controversie in the Schools and as for the Vegetative facultie since there is no accretion or diminution in that state of glory it is perished or altogether useless But that all the operations faculties of the soul which are Essential as to understand c. are immortal that he boldly affirms saying hoc solum est immortale not understanding as Pacius observes the word immortal in that large sense as Plato did to prove every soul to be immortal the soul of Beasts as well as the Humane soul because every soul is life and no life can be the Subject of death therefore every soul is Immortal which argument proves not the Immortality of the soul and to remain after the body onely proves that the soul is not the Subject of death which is true for when any brute beast dieth it is not the soul but the animal or compositum that dieth but Aristoile to shew the Rational soul to be altogether Immortal and to remain after the death of the body he adds the word aeternum adds Eternity to Immortality saying hoc solum est Immortale aeternum not but that the soul had a beginning not Eternal à parte ante but because it never shall have end so Eternal à parte post But wherefore do I spend my time in proving that which hath been so generally received of all of what Religion or Profession soever not Christian Religion onely but all the several Religions in the World have ever taught the Immortality of the Soul were it the Graecian Chaldean or Arabian of old or the Jewes the Turkes or other of the Gentiles in these later times
accidens but the first act of the body not Artificial nor Mathematical but of a Natural body nor of every Natural but that Natural body which is Organical and consists of many parts and members and this body Natural and Organical having life not actu sed potentia this is the Definition given by Aristotle in his book De anima where he also defines the soul to be that beginning by which we have life sense Lib. 2. ca. 1. Another Definition of the soul Lib. 2. c. 2. and understanding chiefly the which as it is a full and perfect definition of the Rational soul so take it disjunctively in it several parts and it will agree with the soul of Plants and of Beasts for the Soul of Plants is principium quo primò vivunt the soul of Beasts quo primò vivunt ac sentiunt the soul of Men quo vivunt sentiunt ac intelligunt primò the Soul is the beginning of life and Vegetation chiefly for when the soul is gone out of the body it ceaseth to live or grow any longer the soul is the beginning of Sense chiefly for the soul being absent the body is altogether insensible and the soul is the beginning of Understanding chiefly for the carcass or cadaver is voyd of understanding when the soul is departed out of the body And it is sayd chiefly because though the body Natural and Organical may be said to be the beginning of life sense and reason yet that is but Organically and Secondarily the Soul is the begining chiefly and primarily TotuÌ„ composituÌ„ dicatur principium ut quod cum sit illud quod agat forma vero principium ut quo cum agat beneficio formae instrumenta denique per quod cum per ipsa operetur Sennert These are the Definitions given by Aristotle the former being drawn from those things which are notiora secundum naturam though nobis ignotiora the latter from those things which are secundum nos notiora though secundum naturam ignotiora and those are the Effects and Faculties of the soul which are called the second act of the soul not the first act and are the companions associates of the soul neither of which do we reject but make use of both since in the subsequent Chapters we shall consider the soul not onely as it is principium corporis animalis tanquam forma or the act and perfection of a Natural Organical body which is according to the former Definition but as it is principium operationum tanquam eftrix as it is considered in the latter so making of two one Definition thus The Soul is the act the perfection and beginning of a Natural Organical body endued with life sense and understanding And now having traced thee O my soul from thy original the place and person à quo to the place and person ad quem from Heaven to Earth from God to Man and find thee clothed in humane nature I shall not raise a consideration from that close conjunction and mysterious union which is betwixt the soul and body flesh and spirit that being formerly couched in the first Chapter of this Book but finding thee seated in humane nature intombed and imprisoned in a body of flesh consider O my soul into what a body thou art come the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plato is quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul's prison and sepulcher a dungeon foul and noysom in materiâ primâ even in its first and best matter of which it is made slime and mud red earth and clay For God made man saith the Text of the dust of the ground And again Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return And again Behold I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes And this first matter if we look into its original it was of meer nothing not of any other praeexistent matter for then it would not be materia prima It's true in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth but as true not out of another Heaven and Earth but of meer nothing and thus much of the first matter of this body of flesh But if we look into the second matter this body of sinful flesh contracted by the fall of our first Parents what is it but sanguis menstruus worse than a menstruous cloth or polluted rag which is a thing so vile and filthy as cannot be expressed the eyes refusing to b hold and the hands to touch it and the mind abhorring to think of it into to such a dungeon art thou cast O my soul fettered and fast bound in the chains of carnal lusts and concupiscence having thy Understanding darkned and thy Will and reason captivated and scarce the essence and definition of a soul remaining in thee thy act being turned into power nay rather impotency and weakness thy perfection into much imperfection thy beginning of life into a beginning of death and misery There was a time when the soul of man enjoyed more immunities and though a prisoner as it were in the body yet as Joseph who was made ruler and overseer of the whole house and had the command of all in the prison and whatsoever was done there that did he The soul was not a captive to the flesh so long as man continued in his innocency but contrariwise had the care and command of all the body was subject to the soul the flesh unto the spirit the inhaerent justice in which man was created subjected the inferior and Sensual parts to the superior Intellectual faculty without the least predominancy at any time so long as the superior continued in obedience and subjection to God the body was obedient to the command of the soul but after that the soul had rebelled against God the body took occasion to rebel against the soul so that to this day there hath bin a continual civil war within us the law of our members warring against the law of our mind and bringing us captive to the law of sin which is in our members this is the miserable estate of mankind by nature that in the deep sense thereof we may all cry with Saint Paul O wretched creature that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death But stand thou still O my soul and see the salvation of our God seest thou thy self in the state of nature dead in trespasses and sinnes an heathen an alien from the Commonwealth of Israel without hope without God in the world There is a law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made thee free from the law of sin and death this Christianity teacheth to this Christian Religion not Heaâ—henish superstition leadeth There is a state of Grace which is Christian as well as a state of Nature corrupt and hea henish Rom. 6.14 they that are under this law sin hath power on but they that are under Grace sin shall have no power over Vnto this state
from the mouths of others straight the Devil shoots his arrows of Anger Malice Strife Envy Murther and the like I would please my palate and behold I am presented with all the delicates the World affordeth the Devil shoots his darts of excess of Gluttony Drunkenness and the like to my feeling is presented the Worlds various Objects of Warm and Moist and soft and Smooth the Devills darts are Adultery Fornication c. Thus whether I See Hear or Speak Tast or Touch I am assaulted on every hand by these my Enemies who bear a Tyrannous hate against me and which way soever I turn me I find no safety Perills and Dangers Temptations and Trialls Snares and Ginnes Bonds and Imprisonment whither soever I goe do attend me darts are continually cast close Siege is laid to my Soul sometimes they assault me vi armis in open field sometimes by underminings sleights and Stratagems somtimes overtly sometimes covertly alwaies maliciously To thee do I fly for help against these evills O my God for vain is the help of Man unto thy Word have I recourse where I find present cures and remedies for all such as will faithfully apply them and first of the remedie against the evils of the eye this I find set down by holy Job and practised by himself I have made saith he a Covenant with my eyes that I will not think upon a maid The words are not I will not lock but I will not think for look I may but not so long look till that aspect doth pierce to my heart and I begin to think of her beauty and to lust after her imbraces St. Augustines rule for chastity accordingly is occuli vestri si jaciantur in aliquem sigantur in neminem we may cast our eyes on some but fasten on none for simple aspect cannot be avoyded nor can that hardly hurt the Soul unless it be continued therefore saith Augustine not the beholding but the continuance in beholding is perilous The remedy against the evill of hearing the Prophet David laies down Psalm the 39. I said I will take heed unto my waies that I offend not in my tongue I will keep my mouth as it were with a bridle whilst the ungodly is in my sight Speak I may that 's not prohibited but a caution given to take heed what I speak I may speak with discretion if I speak with deliberation warily and wisely rashly and foolishly therefore saith David I will take heed to my waye that I offend not in my tongue that is I will ponder and consider beforehand what to say my words shall not be many and ex tempore but few and with premeditation I will keep silâ—nce awhile and muse though it be pain and grief to me and whilst I am musing the fire kindle and at last I speak with my tongue And this rule Saint James prescribes Jam. 1.19 that every man be slow to speak so Saint Bernard Verba antequam proferantur pensanda we must stay to weigh our words before we utter them and b cause we many times receive hurt from others tongues as well as our own Saint Bernard 's rule is for slow hearing as well as slow speaking for the prophane and scandalous speeches of others doe suddenly infect our souls if we lend a willing ear thereto for words saith Democritus are the shadow of deeds for what we doe hear with delight we will as readily act and therefore saith he many lose the benefit that comes by refraining their tongue because they refrain not their ears from others tongues Now against Gluttony and Drunkenness the sins of the Palate and against Adulteand Fornication which come by the Sense of Feeling the Remedies are such as Physicians use to prescribe their Patients in their sick and weak condition viz abstinency from much meat and drink a spare and moderate diet 1 Tim. 5.2 such as Paul prescribes Timothy a little wine for his stomacks sake and his often infirmity a little wine to strengthen him against his often infirmities and but a little wine to avoyd Luxury In lib. de arte bene moriend for in wine is Luxury saith Bellarmine Again Physicians use Phlebotomie lanching and cutting of Veins and prescribe bitter Pils and Potions all which are enemies to Nature and the body of man such are all fastings and watchings and humbling of the body which though they turn to the Mortification of the Flesh yet tend to the Vivification of the Soul and this is the chastising of the body which St. Paul speaks of Cor. 1.9 saying Castigo corpus I chastise I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-away But for further remedy against such evils as come to the Soul by these Senses I will shew how the Soul hath five Senses by which it is cured as the Body hath five by which it is wounded As the Body hath five Senses so hath the Soul there are five Organical Corporeal Senses there are also five Inorganical and Spiritual Senses the Body hath five by which it is joyned to the Soul in life the Soul hath five by which it is united to God in love De natura dignitate amoris divini cap. 6. f. 1155. serm 16. parvis sol 481. c. Et de vita quinque sensibus animae fol. 374 a. Et in caena domini serm 5. fol. 1360. 'T is Saint Bernard 's observation his words are these There are five Corporeal Senses by which the Soul gives sense to the body which are beginning with the lowermost and so upwards to the noblest of them Feeling Tasting Smelling Hearing Seeing There are also five Spiritual Senses by which Charity quickens and enlivens the Soul viz. Paternal Love Social or Conjugal Love Natural Love Spiritual Love and Divine Love or the Love of God and as the body by the means of life is joyned to the soul by five Organical Senses so is the soul by the means of Charity joyned to God by these five Spiritual Senses the Love of Parents is the meanest Spiritual Sense and answereth the bodily sense of Feeling the Love of God the highest and noblest Sense and answereth the bodily sense of Seeing So Love runs through the whole Soul and without this Love the Soul is dead to God Love I say not Lust the Soul's Love Chap. 7. Book 1. not the Senses Lust Love the action of Virtue not the passion of Vice Love the fruit of the Spirit not Lust the weed of the Flesh Of which Love we shall speak more in the Chapter of the Affection of the Soul CHAP. VII Of the three Internal Senses viz. Common Sense Phantasie Memory THus much of the External Senses which are seated in the body whose Organs are extra to judg of things out of themselves Now come we to the Internal which are intra cranium seated in the Brain not outward
it is not Will longer than its free for that is it whereby it is distinguished from Appetite and whereby Man is disstinguisht from Sensitive and all other agents and made like unto God resembling him in his manner of working God workes not necessarily but freely so we what ever we work as men the same do we wittingly work and freely saith Mr. Hooker else our actions would neither he righteous nor sinful in themselves nor reward or punishment due unto us for the same for these do alwaies presuppose some thing done well or ill and that willingly and freely and because of this freedom of Will in Man onely Mans observation of the Law of his nature is righteousness onely Mans transgression sin righteousness and sin is imputed to none hut voluntary free Agents that might have done better or worse than they do Hence ariseth that conscience which is in every Man and not to be found in other Agents a conscience either accusing or excusing every Man for the good or evill he hath done though never so secretly for as much as he might have chosen whether he would have done it or no Every Mans heart and conscience saith Mr. Hooker doth in good or evill even secretly committed and known to none but it self either like or disalow it self and accordingly either rejoyce very nature exulting as it were in certain hope of reward or else grieve as it were in a Sense of future punishment And this ariseth from an innate freedom that is in all Rational creatures a freedom of willing and nilling those things which Reason judgeth good or evil This light of Reason and Understanding is in all men in all Intellectual creatures the wickedest Man that is wholly governed by the inferior Orbs by unruly passions which flow from Sense not by the dictates of a right Understanding hath so much of this Intellectual power which serves to struggle to combate and to fight with those powers of Sense and Appetite and though it seldom prevail yet it leaves a sting of conscience sticking like a thorn in the flesh because in doing evill he prefers and that wilfully a lesser good before a greater the greatness whereof is by reason investigable and may be known Known by an unregenerate man by the light of Natural Reason much more by a regenerate man enlightned by the Spirit of God which is an argument of the freedom of Will in all men the will is alwaies and in all men free free in it nature and essence though in it operations an accidental servitude is acquired by the Fall Man was created with a posse standi and posse cadendi without any servitude upon his Will and though his choice was evil and so he fell yet to will and to doe that which was good was more natural to him the Moral Law was writ in his heart and made connatural more easie it was for him to have kept than broke it though since the Fall the course of nature is changed from a posse standi or posse non cadendi to a non posse non cadendi from a liberty of standing to a necessity of sinning and all this by nature not in massa pura but in massa corrupta by the vitiosity of Nature an evill servitude and sad accident acquired by the Fall of man is more prone to evill than to doe good we may not say so properly naturaliter as accidentaliter the Will being wounded in its operations having an accidental servitude upon it so that now though to will be present with us yet how to perform we know not there is in the best so much predominancy of Sense and Appetite over Reason through evill habits and customes accrewed or the seeds of Original sin derived to them they many times doe contrary to what their Wills desire and their Reason presents as good according to that of the Apostle The good I would that do I not but the evill I would not that do I. CHAP. IX Of the Affections and Passions of the Soul Chap. 9. Book 1. IT remaineth to treat of the Affections and Passions which are incident to the Soul and are but as it were the sundry fashions and forms of the Appetitive soul which Aristotle sometimes calls Accidents sometimes Affections sometimes Passions of the Soul Affections as they are moderate natural and engendred with the soul and body are actions transient not permanent and so are neither vitious or evill in themselves nor ought nor can be removed from our nature which was the error of some Philosophers of the sect of the Stoicks Passions as they are inordinate and predominant and so are vitious and dangerous to the soul and both may and ought to be expelled such as fall not on a Philosopher that is to say a wise and virtuous man for virtus consistit in moderatione passionum therefore although to be angry is natural to every man and cannot be expelled the soul of any yet to be inordinate and immoderate in anger is the part of a fool and not of a wise man because where any inordinate Passions do bear rule they cloud the understanding and obscure the light of truth as thick clouds the light of the sun and therefore concludes Aristotle in the fourth of his Ethicks Mansuetus vult imperturbatus esse non duci à passione from a wise man all unruly and disordered passions are to be driven away This is the exhortation given by Philosophy it self to Boetius tu quoque si vis Lumine claro cernere verum Tramite recto carpere coelum Gaudia pelle pelle timorem Spemque fugato nec dolor assit Nubila mens est vinctaque fraenis Haec ubi regnant And though there be several other Affections and Passions of the Soul which are not here nominated but are notwithstanding in themselves as vitious as these yet these of Joy Fear Hope and Grief are the four Cardinal and chief Affections unto which all the rest may be reduced for there is no Affection but is in respect of some Good or Evill and that a Good or Evill present or Good and Evill absent Joy is an Affection of the Soul for a Good present Hope an Affection of the Soul for a Good absent and future Grief is for an Evill present Fear for an Evill absent and future which Affections as long as they be but rightly ordinate and subject nor may nor can be expelled being natural and good but when they grow heady sensual fleshy terrene set upon the lusts and pleasures of this stage-play world are vitious and hurtful which a wise man a virtuous will keep under and not suffer to range and rule for these are they which are properly called Passions when they grow exorbitant according to the definition of Aquinas Affectus est vehemens animi passio animum torquens verum judicium rationis impediens otherwise it is of these natural and ordinate Affections for they do neither animum
the Fouls of the Air and the Beasts of the Field for that is in regard of that Rational Soul and endowments of mind in which Man as Man excells all other terrestrial creatures But also in respect of that dominion which one Man hath over another dominion belongs not to all the Sons of Adam God hath appointed Kings to Govern them and thereby hath imprinted a more lively Character of his own Image upon Kings than any other But above all is Gods Image seen in the endowments of his mind in the facu ty of the Soul even that whose Act and Opera ion is the perpetual contempla ion of truth and therefore is called intellectus divinus contemplativus a divine Understanding and Contemplative mind Tâ—is is the power and faculty of our Soul the purest the noblest and supremest faculty called lumen animae rationalis or anima animae the Soul of the Soul or the Eie of the Soul and receptacle of sapience and of knowledge divine This is that Eye of our Soul which by the bountiful grace of the Lord of all goodness pierceth through the impurity of our flesh and beholding the highest Heavens thence bringeth knowledge and Object to the Soul and mind to conâ—emplate the ever durng glory and termless joy prepared for such as preserve undefiled Sir Walter Raleigh and unrent the garment of the new Man which after the Image of God is created in righteousness and holiness as saith St. Paul CHAP. II. Of the Speculative part of the Soul Chap. 2. Book 2. THe Soul of Man as it is the Form of Man is notwithstanding an Immaterial independent abstracted substance though not so compleat perfect as the rest of the Spiritual Immaterial substances be it is of the Order though of the lowest Rank of simple essences whos 's Operations in regard of its imperfect and lowmost rank of Spiritual substances are not so noble so compleat and perfect as the Operations of other Intellectuall spirits be but many times mixed with inferior Operations and in some sense inseparable from them or thence sprung since all the knowledge which the Reasonable Soul attains to in this life by its natural strength is from Sense Mediately or Immediately derived this for the Science Practical properly and the practick Intellect whose Operations are determinately Practical and not Speculative as chiefly conversant about Manners and Moral Virtues whether Ethical Oeconomical or Political and whose end is Action viz. well doing though there is another Operation of the Soul whose end is not Action to do but to understand or contemplate this diviner faculty of the Soul this Contemlpative Intellect whose Operations are determinately Contemplative not Practical as chiefly about Theorie and whose end is knowledge or truth its principal end so sui ipsius gratia for its own sake for the love of truth for the cause of knowledge This I say hath its Operations more immixt and separable from bodily Organs or External Objects and herein is a diversity twixt the Reasonable and Sensitive Soul for to bring Sense into Act as the Eye to see c. is required an External Object and bodily Organs but to bring the Reasonable Soul into Act viz. to Understand or contemplate which is the Operation of the Speculative Intellect needs no External Objects at all for that which brings knowledge into Act and makes the mind actually to contemplate is meerly Interna to wit in the Soul an Operation then there is a Science Metaphysical abstracted from matter a Science of things which fall not under Sense come not from External Objects and of which no Phantasm or sensible Form can be presented to the Understanding of which we mean to treat of in this Book the knowledge of the Soul which it hath of Immaterial substances in this life viz. of it self of Angells and of God with the different manner of Operation of the Soul in this Natural condition or body corrupt and in the state of Separation or body glorified Yet is our knowledge of all Immaterial substances in this life very confused and imperfect and agreeth not with the state of the Soul conjoined to the body whose principal Operation is to illustrate the Phantasie and to make those things Actually which were but before Potentially Intelligible and to reduce the Intellect Patient into Act This is the principal Operation of the Intellect Agent in this life though not its sole and proper nor Essential Operation for then it would remain with the Soul after this life which it doth not for there is then another Operation and manner of knowledge not per corpus sed per influxum superioris causae as Suarez hath it proper and essential to the Soul as hereafter shall be shewed Of the knowledge which the Soul hath of it self The Operation of the Intellectual Soul is to know yea to know it self there is that faculty and power in Mans Soul whereby he may know himself know himself and be known by himself for the Soul of Man is Immaterial and so Intelligible as other Intellectual creatures which are meerly Immaterial now in those creatures who are Immaterial idem est intelligens quod inâ—elligitur Lib. 3. cap. 5. scientia seu intellectus contemplativus scibile So saith Aristotle in his Book de anima the Intellectual Soul is it which understands the Intellectual Soul is it which is understood it is not so with the Sensitive Soul whose Organs are External and whose knowledge is fetched from Objects ab extra and therefore neither knoweth nor perceiveth it self as hath been elsewhere said But the Operation of the Intellectual Soul is Intrinsecal it hath Objects Internal it self is its own Object alwaies present never absent from it self the Soul of Man is not onely a straight line drawn forth to point at other things but a reflex and circular line pointing at it self It knows it self by inspection or if I may say with Plato in this Timaeus by reflexion for he compared the Soul that governs this World and consequently the Soul which governs this Microcosm Man which is but a particle of that Soul which rules this Universe both of them being Intellectual and so may hold proportion and resemblance to a line wherein was Rectitude and Reflexion and to number which consisteth of Unity and Diversity The Right straight line of that Soul which rules the World he made to be the Axle-tree and Diameter of the World viz. that imagined line reaching from one Pole to another on which the World turneth about as a Wheel the straight line of the Humane Soul he made that right Operation and knowledge of the Soul procured by a certain progress from the essence as it were by aline drawn out to the powers and faculties and from them to the act and Operation of the Soul whereby the Soul looketh and pointeth forward and by a straight aspect contemplates things out of it self External Again this Rectitude or
attributes we know which are not Proper to them but Common with other things as that they are essences entia realia perse existentia substances not accidences that they are Incorporeal Immaterial Intellectual Incorruptible spirits of a finite power and perfection all this hath been found out by the strength of natural Reason heathen Philosophers have taught it and Aristotle writes a whole Book de deo intelligâ—ntiis abstractis wherein he acknowledgeth them to be entia realia for asmuch as he grants them a being in nature Substances for as much as they are per se existentes not inhaering like accidences in any Material or Immaterial entity if then Substance not Material nor Inhaering they must be Incorporeal and Immaterial and if Immaterial then Intellectual as hath been said whence cometh their name Intelligenâ—ae which is attributed to these spiritual essences by the heathen Philosophers and that they are finite in power and perfection their creation is an argument for no created substance is infinite but created they are and all of them though not all alike in a necessary and an Essential order among themselves depending one upon another and all upon one as head which is God whom Aristotle calls intelligentia prima And thus much of the Nature and Essences of Angells and Separated Souls by the light of Nature what they are now of their Operations what they do The power of Angells and Souls abstracted Of the power of Angels Forms abstracted in their unstanding is seen in three things viz. in their Understanding in their Will and in their External Actions and Operations as for the power of their Understanding for as much as wee have proved them to be Intelligences Immaterial and of an Intellectual Nature it must needs follow they have in them the Act and Operation of knowledge and this in a far more eminent manner than any Rational Soul in this life by it Natural strength can attain unto wee shall first speak of the Act and manner of knowing themselves then of their Act and manner of knowing others The faculty of knowing themselves Every created Intellectual spirit hath this power to know it self which is not difficult to demonstrate by Natural Reason since every Intellectual Spirit is of it own nature Intelligible yea of it self actually Intelligible and a proportionate Object to any Understanding much more to it own therefore doth e-Intellectual Spirit actually know it self yea with an Intuitive Quidditative and Comprehensible knowledge know it self and is known by it self And how The manner of knowledge which it hath of it self is not as ours in this life per species impressas by Intelligible Forms imprinted of some outward Object nor as it knows other things per species congenitas innatas but it knows it self per propriam subst antiam by its own substance It needs no Accidental Form to represent it self by but every spiritual substance knows it self by its own substance as an Adaequate and proportionate Intelligible Object closely conjoyned to it own Understanding this is the way of knowing themselves God is known by all Intellectual Spirits after the same manner they know themselves by their own Substance Their power of knowing God and how and God by it as their Cause Principle and Author no other Spiritual or Corporeal substance is known this way save onely God yet is not this knowledge God of a proper Quiditative adn Comprehensive but an Improper Imperfect and confused Science for God cannot properly be known as he is in himself of any creature either by his Substance or proper Form who is Incomprehensible by any finite Power much less perfectly known by the proper substance of any Intellectual creature which is but a very imperfect Analogical representation of the Divine Nature Therefore when it is said God is known by the proper substance of any creature it is not to be understood of such a Quidditative knowledge whereby he is known as he is in himself but a knowledge of God per substantiam tanqnam per effectum as the Cause is known by the Effect and thus the Angelical Natures know God by their substance yet as the Effect of such a Cause which standeth with very good Reason for if here we may attain to the knowledge of God in this life by Effects if the invisible things of him from the creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead much more and in a more eminent manner may Angelical Spirits and Separated substances know God by their own Substances as by Effects for as they know their own substances so must they know them to be Effects necessarily and Essentially depending upon God and so by their own Substance as by the noblest Effect made after the Image and likeness of God may they Naturally attain to the knowledge of their Maker Of their knowing others and how But the knowledge which Angels and separated substances have one of another and of other inferior creatures is after another manner not per substantiam but per speciem by Intelligible Forms nor are these Forms imprinted by any outward Object presented to the Senses and so to the Phantasie but are Innate Connatural and ingendred together with their Nature and altogether Intelligible The difference twixt Sensitive Rational and meer intellectual knowledge True it is the Sensitive knowledge is per speciem as well as the Intellectual but perfecter the Intellectual than the Sensitive and the Angelical perfecter than the Humane the Sensitive creatures know nothing but per species and those of Objects singular it knoweth nothing of Universals the Intellectual know per species too but by those he understandeth Universals as well as Singulars all à genere generalissimo ad infimam speciem as for example when we conceive in our mind Substance which is the highest Genus in the Scale of the Predicaments and understand it aright we understand also all its Species under it the whole with all its parts so the Intellectual creatures know per speciem but such as represents some Universal Nature with all its Singulars the Genus with its Species the whole with its parts thus the Intellectual creatures excel the Sensitive in the manner of knowing per speciem And as the Intellectual excel the Sensitive so do they differ in excellencie among themselves the Humane from the Angelical and abstracted Intelligences and these one from another the Separated substances know that at once unico intuitu by one and the same Form which we cannot but by many several Forms running over the Cause with its Effects the Universal Nature with its Singulars with one simple aspect and apprehension which we cannot but under many and divers Conceptions and notions And thus much touching the Operation of the Angelical Intellect Now of their Will and Freedom Where there is Knowledge there is Desire and Appetite where there is no
the dayes of their Pilgrimage upon Earth the flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh she who was earst Rebellious is now Obse quious to the Dictates of the Soul now is she wholly subject to the will of her Lord yielding obeysance and obedience with admirable Agility and Celerity of motion now not the least Ponderosity of a Massie substance or Natural body to foreslow her motion appears any more but the Perpensility of a Caelestial and Spiritual body mounted as it were on the wings and Plumes of a Cherub to expedite the Souls Injunctions such Homage and obedience the Body paies unto its Soul that as St Augustine saith ubi volet spiritus ibi protinus erit corpus nec volet aliquid spiritus quod nec spiritum nec corpus possit decere 1. Hereupon is the body enfranchised of sundry Praerogatives and Immunities which are altogether inconsistent with it in its Natural condition whilst it was Elementary its Natural motion tended downward according to the Nature of the Predominant Element the ascendent motion of a Physical body is Excentrique and Irregular which motion is Concentrique and Consonant to a body glorified solo voluntatis impetu c. at the beck and command of the glorious Soul is the body mounted from Earth to Heaven whose Nature it is to be wholly subject to that glorified Spirit from whose Redundancie the body likewise receives its Glorification 2. The Humane body in the state of Nature in a slow Progress marcheth forward step by step and that not without some Earth or other solid body to tread or go on whereupon the Earth is made a cause of our walking Causa fine qua non but in the state of Glory most swiftly and as it were in an instant it moves from place to place from one part of Heaven to another absque adminiculo without the benefit of Earth or other Element to impress the least Vestigias or footsteps of his treadings 3. In the terrene estate the body is Opaque and Luskie Dark and Purblind Beautified onely by the Additaments of External colour but the Spiritual body is Diaphanous transparent transplendent not like those lesser lights which onely appear in the night but like the Sun at noon day in the Firmament of Heaven Matthew 13.43 Then shall the Righteous shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father The CoÌ„fulgurations of bodies glorifi'd are like the bright shining of the Sun or compare we them to our Saviours glorious Body after his Exaltation which no doubt exceeds all the glory can be expressed or conceived when this transfiguration upon the Mount was so glorious That his face did shine as the Sun Matthew 17.2 and his Raiment was white as the light yet such is the condition and state of these bodies which are fashioned like unto his glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Phillip 3.21 Yet doth not this transcendent Glory superadded to the Humane body alter the Nature and Essence of the same the same Humanity is retained as well after as before the Resurrection the same body that is laid in the dust the self same body ariseth and ascends into glory that body is resumed in the Resurrection which was assumed in the Conception onely one to a Mortal the other to an Immortal life alterius gloriae sed ejusdem naturae the glory is different but the bodie 's the same The glorified bodies of Saints and the glorious body of our ever blessed Saviour in Heaven all of them of one Nature and Substance made up of Flesh and Blood and Bone Nerves Sinewes Arteries and what else conduceth to the perfection of a Humane body To deny this is to run into the Heresie of Eutiches condemned in the several Councils of Constantinople and Chalcedon who affirmed that the body of Christ was not of the same Nature with ours and that ours also after the Resurrection were not Palpable or Visible but more subtle and slender than VVind or Air. But as we have said the same body that is laid in the dust the same ariseth and puts on Immortality and glory a body of flesh is sown in dishonor but the same body of flesh is raised in glory Consonant hereto are the words of Job Job 19.25 26 27. I know that thy Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day day upon the Earth And though after my skinne wormes destroy this body yet in my Flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and my eyes shall behold and not another though my Reines be consumed within me thus we read and thus is our Creed so is preached and so is believed for the Resurrection of the flesh is an Article of our Faith a Fundamental point of that Religion the Church Catholick professeth and that our Saviours body is of the same Substance is another Fundamental Athanasius is plain perfect God and perfect Man Of a Reasonable Soul and Humane Flesh subsisting yea Palpable flesh and Visible even after his Resurrection our Saviours words are full for it behold saith he my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have And therefore those words of the Apostle flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God are to be understood of sinful lusts and corruptions of the flesh 1 Cor. 15.10 and not of the flesh and blood it self dismantled of these And as the substance of a Humane body continues intire so hath she her faculties and qualities perfect though not all for in as much as the body is purged of sin and corruption those qualities which argue corruption and infirmity must needs be perished also absit labes silicet corruptionis assit effigies assit motio absit fatigatio assit vescendi potestas absit esuriendi necessitas c. Soft soft O my Soul dash not thy self on the Rock of Contention be not prolix in Polemick discourses and points Controversal since thou art devoted to thy calmer Theoremes and Diviner Speculations The case standing thus that none have admittance to those glorious Mansions in the new Jerusalem the City of God but bodies purged from their filthy lusts and sinful corrâ—ption bodies morigerous submisse and pliant to Soul and Spirit see then and lament the wretched estate of us Mortals upon Earth An evil it is under the sun an error proceeding from the ruler folly set in great dignity and the rich set in low place servants on horseback and Princes walking as servants upon the Earth Eccles 10.5 6 7. whose lives and conversations Diametrically oppose the glorified Saints in Heaven Apame was but Concubine to the great and mighty King Darius yet was she seen sitting on his right hand and taking the Crown from off his head did set it upon her own she also stroke the King with her
left hand Semblable to which is the rule and Dominion which Impetuous and Implacable flesh usurpeth and excerciseth over the Souls of Mortal men in their Pilgrimage here below leading them Captive to the Law of sin and death This is that miserable Bondage under which the Sons of men in this Vale of â—ars do groan from which Bondage of Corruption and body of sin they wait with earnest expectation to be delivered into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And not onely they but our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies not that we should be found naked and our bobodies unclothed but clothed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of life It is not a change of our bodies but of our Raiment and Vestments which we do look for a Crown of glory for a Crown of thornes the Robes of Righteousness for the Raggs of Sin This change must be inâ—hoate here though compleated hereafter the Foundation must be layed on Earth in Grace but finished in Heaven in Glory the Garments of the Old man laid aside and the Garments of the New man put on the lusts of the flesh mortified the fruits of the Spirit quickned Ephe. 4.22 23 24. We must put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceiptful lusts and be renewed in the Spirit of our mind and we must put on that new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness that we may henceforth serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter For if we live after the flesh wee shall die but if we through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body we shall live Woe is me that I am constrained to live in Mesech to have my habitation in the tents of Kedar my Soul hath long dwelt with them that are Enemies to peace they are daily fighting and troubling it the Body with all its sinful lusts rebel against my Soul and when I labour for Peace they make them ready for Battel they will not have her rule over them whom thou O Lord hast made the Monarch and sole Empress of this little World but attempt by continual Insurrections and Intestine Wars to introduce an Arbitrary Power over an Athenian and Popular Government For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would grant me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned in the inward Man in the spirit of my mind by the might and Power of his Spirit who raised up Jesus from the dead that as he died for my sin and rose again for my justification so I may die to sin and live unto righteousness and being buried with Christ into death by Baptism may walk in newness of life that being planted together in the likeness of his death I may be also in the likness of his Resurrection kowing this that my old man is Crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth I should not sin And though I live and walk in the flesh yet that I may not war after but against the flesh the weapons of my warfare being Spiritual and mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds to the casting down of Imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self against the Knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience of the flesh against the Law of my mind which is onely subject to the Law of God Help me O God so to keep under my body and bring it into subjection that I my self be no a castaway Thy will O Heavenly Father be done on Earth as it is in Heaven and as thou hast praepared an Heaven and fitted the body with all Obsequiousness to serve and the Soul to rule and command with all just Authority and moderation all this in the Resurrection of the body at the last day when Soul and Body meet again in a glorified estate to Possess the Heavenly Mansions so fit and and prepare them here that whilst they are in this Earthly Tabernacle all Schism being abandoned all Rebellion Anathemaâ—ized the heel may not kick against the body or the foot tread upon the head but however it fareth in the body Politick there may be such an orderly subjection in the body Natural that my flesh may be subject not Predominant to my Spirit my Body unto my Soul and both Soul and Body subject unto thee O my God do thou thus set my foot over the threshold of thy Heaven Chap. 2. Book 3. put thou my Soul into this happy condition of an inchoate blessedness so shall I cheerfully spend the remaindâ—r of my daies in a joyful expectation of the full Consummation of my glory Amen Bish Hall his Susurium cum Deo CHAP. II. Of the Organs of the body and the Exercise of the Sensitive faculties of the Soul by them in the state of glory AS the appearance of the Bride newly come from her Chamber in the daies of her Espousals on the Solemnity of her brideale and other Nuptial Rites bedecked and adorned with all the Ornaments both of body and mind that may render her gratious and Amiable in the eyes of her Betrothed or like the Kings Daughter all glorious within and without in clothing of wrought Gold brought into the Kings Palace attended on among the Honorable VVomen by a Train of Virgins that be her fellows Even such is the inward grace and outward Magnificence Pomp and State of the body in the morning of her Resurrection and Ascension from the Chamber of death to be Espoused again to the Soul in an everlast-VVedlock the Bill of Divorcement being cancelled and Nullified by an Act of perpetual Oblivion Her Soporiferous bed of rottenness she thenceforth lotheth and outrunneth leaving behind her load of inward Corruption all waywardness of mind and frowardness of disposition and her Troops of Natural Imperfection Deafness Dumbness Blindless Lameness c. such Sons of sorrow and servants of sin and perdition presume not to approach the marriage Chamber all other her Companions in the flesh that were faithful and serviceable to her and instrumental to the Soul in the Acts of grace are still her attendants and are admitted into the Royal Palace and invested with the Robes of Glory and Immortality as a badge and livery of the glorified Soul whose Servants and Ministers they are Those Organical parts of the body in which the Soul was exercised and without which it could not Operate in which respect the Soul as to such faculties and Operations might be termed Mortal are revived with the body and useful to the Soul in their several Stations I do not I dare not here affirm that all the parts of
with Consolatory bread and Angels food that true Bread descending from Heaven nor with the Wine of the Grapes of Gomorrha but of the true Vine Christ Iesus the Lamb the Head and Husband of the Church which at the heavenly Mariage shall be drunk new in the kingdome of Heaven There we drink not of this Wine made of water as at the Mariage in Cana but ex botro illo magno terrae promissionis qui interim in vecte portatur dum secundùm carnem novimus ChristuÌ„ hunc crucifixum which we drink at the Lords table in types signs here which are mortal and perishing but in Heaven at that great Supper of the Lord really and truly immortal and incorruptible enduring to eternal life For in Heaven is no labouring for the meat which perisheth the Saints glorified use not corruptible food their food is spiritual and immortal fitting and suitable to that state of glory and their tast is accordingly no carnal rellish no earthly savour nil quippe in his carnale sapit nil seculare nil vanum sed spiritus veritatis caelestis sapientia est cujus in utraque suavitas praelibatur He that cometh to the Lords Supper in his old garments hath not this spiritual relish nor shall he be thought worthy to be partaker of that great Banquet the Supper of the Lamb in Heaven or tast of that food as wel those that come here unworthily as those that refuse to come though invited shall all be excluded hereafter so saith the Lord of the Feast I say unto you none of those men who were called shall tast of my supper And to the unworthy person it is sayd also Friend how camest thou hither not having thy Wedding-garment take him c. And lastly Christ is the object of our sense of Touching we receive him into our hands we take him into our mouthes we feed on him in our hearts we dwell in him and he in us so to every sense is Christ spiritually sensible tangible by the hand as visible to the eye prae manibus as he is prae oculis CHAP. III. Of the Knowledge of the Soul by Intuitive Intellection or Beatifical Vision Chap. 3. Book 3. HItherto of the knowledge fetcht from External objects by the means of outward senses the Internall are not without their use viz. Phantasie and Memory but of these sufficient hath been said already Nor yet shall we further treat of that Internall intellectuall knowledge which the humane soul in its Glorified estate hath of all Material Immaterial created substances viz. of Angels and abstracted Forms other inferior creatures which are represented to its knowledge per speciem by an innate form and similitude chiefly and primarily in their universal natures secundarily in their individuals in one single aspect and intuition which manner of knowledge is natural and essential to Spirits and Essences intellectual for this hath also been elswhere handled But here we shall principally insist upon that Science of the Soul or rather Sapience which consists in the sole intuitive Intellection or Beatifical Vision of the divine Essence and Nature of God himself which is not per aenigma as in this life but facie revelata not in his back parts onely but the infinite Essence and Majesty the very quiddity and being of the great Iehovah as he is in himself so St. Iohn expresseth it fully and clearly manifested And the divine Sapience which comes by this Intuition or Intuitive Intellection surpasseth all other manner of knowledge whatsoever this is not natural to any created Angelical Intellect comes not by any strength of nature created by God into any finite being nor can it stand with natural reason how a finite capacity for so are all created intelligences should perfectly and distinctly clarè perspicuè cognitione perfecta non confusa apprehend see and know an infinite Essence as intensively Infinite this is supra captum humanum and exceeds all natural power Yet above reason is beleeved for so is the Faith of holy Church that the blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven do clearly and fully see and know God do behold him as he is in himself The Mind and Intellect glorified sees the Will enjoyes God its chiefest and most desirable good more fully and more certainly than any man here enjoyes any temporal estate In this Intuitive Vision and Fruition of God is Mans eternal felicity his beatitude his summum bonum seated here comes in the fulness of the Promises here 's the consummation of our Hopes this is the final intrinsical end of Mans Creation to see God clearly and to enjoy him fully our Beatitude consists in this and is the same beatitude wherewith God himself is blessed God is most blessed and therefore most blessed because he alwayes beholds himself as he is and eternally enjoys himself he hath made us partakers in hope of the same chiefest good to be like him in the same felicity together with all the glorious Saints and Angels so saith the Apostle We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is There were certain Hereticks Armenians and others but condemned of old by several Decrees and Councils who held it imposible for any created Intellect by any power whatsoever clearly to see God and therefore they held further the Beatitude which is promised by God and waited for by us to consist non in familiari illo quem speramus divine naturae intuitu sed cujusdam creati fulgoris ab ea manantis And indeed in the eye of Reason it is impossible unto Nature altogether repugnant that any created Intellect by any strength of it own should perfectly know the infinite Godhead but what is impossible with men is notwithstanding possible with God Multa fieâ—i possunt virtute divina quae naturae creatae viribus fieri non possunt saith Suarez nam etsi Deus à nullo intellectu creato clarè cognosci potest viribus naturae videri tamen clarè perspicuè poâ—est ab iis quorum mentes divina bonitas supra naturae modum illustraverit ad quandam divinae naturâ—e participationem evexerit saith Fonseca This is done by a supernatural power fide tenemus quod ratione improbamus Though all power is not excluded from the nature of created Intellection for an Obediential power is founded in the nature of the Reasonable Soul even unto acts of divine and supernatural quality to those supernatural habits of Faith Hope Charity c. not Acquisite by any intrinsical power of it own but infused by God drawn out of the power of the Soul eductione supernaturali ad quam non requiritur ex parte subjecti potentia naturalis receptiva sed obedientialis sufficit which obediential power is founded in the nature of the Soul Suarez tom 1 disp 15. sect 2.9 and in that respect is natural and essential to it In which sense Aquinas is to be understood saying * 1.2 q. 113.