Soul hath in it the virtue or power both of understanding and wiking, and fo of executing: which are denominated from Nulla gens tam fera the different acts which they relate to. There is fome Rea- imbuerit Deorum Cujus mentem non fon in the powers, virtues, or faculties of the real difference pinio, Idem 1.Tufc. in the acts. Dicunt Stoici DEUM fectum & beatum; à ftrans omnia: Non So in the Sun, and all the fuperior Luminaries, there is in effe animal immorta the unity of their Effence, a Trinity of Faculties or Powers, le, rationale, per1. Motiva, 2 Illuminativa, 3. Calefactiva, cauting motion, light malo omni remo:ifiand beat. The doctrine of Motion is much improved by our mum,providentiâ fuâ late Philofophers: when the doctrine of Light and Heat are mundum & quæ funt fo alfo, and vindicated from the rank of common accidents in mundo adminiand qualitics, the nature of the Luminaries and of Fire will tamen inelle illi hube alfo better cleared. The Sun is not to thefe Powers or manæ formæ lincaActs, either a Gents, a Totum, or a Subjecium. It is not one menta : Caterùm part of the Sun that moveth, and another which iluminateth, elle opificem immenand another which beateth: But the whole Sun (if it be fi hujus operis, ficat wholly Fire or æthereal matter) doth move, the whole illumi- Laert. in Zenone, pag. & patrem omnium. nateth, and the whole doth heat: And Motion, Light and (mibi) 364. Heat, are not Qualities inherent in it; But Motion, Illu- I had rather believe all mination, and Calefaction, are Acts flowing immediately the fables in the Lefrom its Effence as containing the faculties or powers of fuch gend, Talmud, Alco acts. ran, than that this univerfal Frame is withHe that could write a perfect method of Phyficks and out a minde. Lord Morality, would fhew us Trinity in Unity through all its Verulam, Ely 16. parts from first to laft. But as the Veins, Arteries, and Nerves, Multi de Diis prava the Veffels of the Natural, Vital, and Animal, humours and fentiunt: id enim fpirits, are cafily difcernable in their trunks and greater vitiofo more effici fobranches, but not fo, when they are minute and multiplied effe vim & naturam into thoufands, fo is it in this Method. let: Omnes tamen divinam arbitrantur. Nec verò id collocutio hominum aut confenfus efficit; non inftitutis opinio eft confirmata; non le But I muft defire the Reader to obferve, that though I here explain this Trinity of Active Principles in the Divine Effence, which is fo evident to Natural Reafon it felf, as to be paft all controverfie; Yet whether indeed the Trinity of Hypoftafes or Perfons, which is part of the Chriftian Faith, gibus: Omni autem be not fomewhat diftinct from this, is a queftion which here in re confenfio omI am not to meddle with, till I come to the fecond part of nium gentium Lex the Treatife: Nor is it my purpofe to deny it, but only to Cicer. Tufculan. Qu. naturæ putanda eft. 1. 1. p. 220. Cefarius, and fome other of the Ancients, make the Image of God on Man to be his Naturall per fections, and his fimilitude, to be bu moral perfect ons. pre Read the proofs of the Deity, and of Providence at large in Cicer.de nat. Deor. lib. 2. by Balbus. prepare for the better understanding of it. Of which more 0.32. And thus all Creatures, and especially our felves, de- CHAP. VI. of GOD as RELATED to his Creatures: especially P Affing by all that is doubtfull, and controverted among men truly Rational, and taking before me only that which is certain, undenyable, and clear, and wherein my own Soul is paft all doubt, I fhall proceed in the fame method fecundum ordinem cognofcendi, non effendi. The word [GOD] doth not only fignifie all that I have been proving, viz. The perfect nature of the firft Caufe, but also his Relations to us his Creatures: And therefore till I have opened and proved thofe Relations, I have done but part of my work, to prove that THERE IS A GOD. 1. 1. GOD having produced Man (and all the World) by his Power, Understanding and Will, is by immediate refultancy Related to him as his CREATOR. Though he made his Body of pre-exiftent Matter, yet was that Matter made of nothing; and therefore God is properly properly Mans CREATOR, and not his Fabricator only. And a CREATURE is a Relation, which inferreth the Correlate, a CREATOR, as a Son doth a Father. This therefore is Gods firft grand Relation unto Man, which hath no caufe to produce it, but his actual Creation, which is its fundamentum. 1.2. This Grand prime Relation, inferreth a Trinity of Grand Relations, viz. That God is our OWNER, our RULER, and our BENEFACTOR, of which we are now to speak in order. That thefe Three are justly diftinguifhed from each other, is paft doubt to all that understand what is meant by the terms. An Owner as fuch is not a Ruler or Benefactor, a Ruler as fuch is not an Owner or a Benefactor. A Benefactor 'as fuch is neither an Owner nor a Kuler. And the enumeration is fufficient: All humane affairs, or actions of converse and fociety, belong to Man in one of these three Relations, or fuch as are fubordinate to them, and meer dependents on them, or compounded of them. They are in fome refpect the Genera, and in fome as it were the Elements of all other Relations. And from the manner of men, they are applyed to God, with as much propriety of fpeech, as any terms that man can ufe concerning him. And he that could draw a true fcheme or method of the Body of Morality (or Theology, for all is one with me) would reduce all the dealings of God with Man, which are fubfequent to the fundamental Act of Creation, to these three Relations; and accordingly diftinguifh of them all: Yet in the Mixt acis, (as moft are fuch) diftinguishing only of the compounding Elements (I mean, the intereft of thefe three Relations, as making up the feveral acts.) 4.3. A full Owner or Proprietor, is called Dominus in the ftricteft fenfe, and is one that bath a Jus poflidendi, difporendi, & utendi; a right of having or poffeffing, difpofing and ufing, without any copartner, or fuperior Proprietor, to restrain bim. The meaning is better known by the bare terms of denomination, through common ufe, than by definition. We know what it meaneth, when a man faith of any thing, It is mine own: There are defective half-proprietics, of Co F partners, and Government un der the word Domi partners, and fubordinate Proprietors, which belong not to our prefent cafe. The word Dominus, & Dominuim, is fometime taken laxely, as comprehending both Propriety and Rule; and fometime improperly, for Government or Command it felf: But among Lawyers it is most commonly taken properly and ftrictly for an OWNER as fuch: But left any be contentious about the use of the word, I here put inftead of it, the word Owner and Proprietor, as being more free from ambiguity.. Those writers who . 4. GOD is jure Creationis & Confervationis, the most confound Propriety abfolute Owner or Proprietor of Man, and the whole Creation. It is not poflible that there should be a more full and cernion, and then bestow tain title to propriety, than Creation, and total confervation is. long and harp difputes He that giveth the World all its Being, and that of nothing, on the question, what and continueth that being, and was beholden to no pre-exof Gods dominion, do iftent matter, nor to any co-ordinate concaufe, nor depenbut delude the igno- dent on any fuperiour caufe in his caufation, but is himself rant, and exercise the the first independent, efficient, total cause of being and wellpatience or contempt of being, and all the means thereto, muft needs be the abfolute the intelligent. is the fundamentum Owner of all, without the leaft limitation or exception.. It is not the fupereminency of Gods nature, excelling all created beings, that is the foundation of this his Propriety in the creature. For Excellency is no title to Propriety. And yet he that is unicus in capacitate poffidendi, that is so tranfcendently excellent as to have no Copartner in a claim,. might by Occupation be fole Proprietor, in that kinde of Propriety fecundum quid, which Man is capable of: Because there is no other whom he can be faid to wrong. But GOD hath a more plenary title by Creation, to Abfolute Propriety. 9.5. Therefore it belongeth to GOD to be the Abfolute Difpofer of all things: To do with them what he please: and to use them to the pleasure of his will. Every one may do with his own what he lift, except the propriety be but limited, and dependent on another, or but fecundum quid. Who fhould interpofe and any way hinder God, from the free difpofall of his own? Not any Copartner, for there is none. Nor the Creature it felf, because it is abfolutely His. .6. Therefore alfo (in hoc inftanti, antecedently to any further further Relation or Covenant) it is not poffile for God to do wrong to his Creature, howsoever he shall use it: B:caufe it is abfolutely his own, and he oweth it nothing: And where there is no Debitum, there is no Jus, and can be no Injuria. It is to be remembred that I fpeak not here of God as now related to the Rational creature as a Rector and a Benefactor, and as having declared his own will in his Laws or Promifes, to the contrary. But I fpeak of God only in the Relation of a Proprietor fimply in it felf confidered, and fo of his Abfolute right, and not his Ordinate will (as it is commonly called). No man need to fear left God fhould deal unequally with him, or contrary to that which true Reason calleth Juftice. For God having made himself Rector of the World, hath, as it were, obliged himself, that is, declared his will, to deal equally with all men, and judge them according to their works: And fo hath created a Debitum, & Jus to man, which inferreth a certain Juftice on Gods part. But confidering him only in this first Relation, meerly ut Dominus abfolutus, or Proprietor, it is not poflible for any thing that he can do, to be an injury: A meer corporal pain (including no contradiction or error, as confciences accufation of the innocent, doth) could be no wrong: There being lefs appearance of reafon to call it wrong, than for my burning my Wood, or plucking a Rofe to be a wrong: For it is not the Pain of one that can make it an injury, any more than the deftruction of the other: where there is no Jus, there can be no Injuria: And where there is no Delitum there is no Jus. My Rose hath poffeffion of its life, but no Right to it: Therefore it is no wrong to destroy it. And yet in this, and in the killing of Birds, and Beafts and Fishes, and labouring my Horse and Oxe in continual wearinefs and pain, my borrowed half-propriety fecundum quid, excufeth_me from doing them any wrong: Which Gods Abfolute Propriety will do much more unquestionably by him. 0.7. Though all Gods Three Effential Principles or Faculties, Power, Wisdom and Goodness, appear in each of his Three grand Relations, Owner, Ruler, and Benefactor; yet each one of thefe bath most eminently fome one of Gods Effential principles or faculties appearing in it: viz. His Power most appeareth |