Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BT70 .B397 1675

a Premonition. An. To be happy neceffarily, and independently, and primarily, is proper to God : But you can never prove it any contradiction or impof- fible for God tomake a Creature naturally happy; nor that- there are not fuch. 9. Here the M. S. citeth force words ofhis Gibieuf, making our Being in God initially, and finally to be ourfiate of amplitudeand liberty, andoar going out from God, to be our particularity andfiate of.neceffity 5 as if we were pre-exiflent in God, andour individuation ceafed upon our return intohim as our End. ,An. ;But thefe are Platonick Phantafms 5 And Gibieuf who was a devout Oratorian, and talketh toooft of our Deification, as Benedielus de Benedilis, Barbanfn, Baker, andother Fryers that talkphanatically, muff be read with caution and exception 5 and as the Soul need not feat too near a Union with God, as the lofs of its individuation, fo neither muff it delire orhope for fuch. 4. Io. M. S. An unchangeable fiate of Happinefs in the love of God, is called Eternal Life. An. No doubt but that is called Eternal Life in the fulleft fenfe,which a&ually endureth to eternity as to that particular Sub1)'e&: And fo, s. The life of Glory. perfe&ively. 2. And a confirmeditáteof San&ity here initially, are ufually called Eternal Life. But 3. Whetherthe lof- fable ftate,which theAngels fell from,andAdam fell from,or that meafure of Grace, which the ancient Fathers thought the juftified may fall from, be never fo called alto, I cannot prove. 4. I I. . M. S. Adam's promifed Happinefs , was , I. Efintial, in this perfel holinef or love of God. 2. complemental, in the enjoying. God in allthe fan11ified Creaturesin that Pgradife, but not to be tranflated toHea- ven, whichChrili only procureth us. An. I inclined to that Opinion 26 years ago; when! wrote theApho- rìfles which you oppofe: But I now incline moreto the contrary, and rather think man fhould have been tranflated to Heaven as Henoch and Elias mere, upon many reafons, which I now pats by : Though I take it yet tobe fcarce certain tous. 4. 12. M. S. The Holinefs of God, is his loving himfelf as his End.; And the thirdPerfonproceeding by a reflex al of the infinite Will andfell love of God, is therefore called the Holy Spirit. An. I. This notionof Gods Holinefs (that it is his self-love) is not to becontemned ; It feemeth to be fo, with this limitation, that youcon- finenot his Holinefsto this, but take this only as the moil eminent among the inadequate conceptionsof it : For hiswholeT'ranfeendency, in Being, Lifeand Knowledg, as being adoreable by theCreature, and its End, and the Fountain of all created Goodnefs, and fpeciallyof Morality, is alto Gods Holinefs. 2. But the faying thatGod is his ownEnd, feemeth im- proper, though tolerableif fpokenbut analogically : For God neither bath nor is to himfelf a Caul nor an Effel , a Beginning nor an End. 3. That the third Perfon proceedeth by a reflex A&of the infinite Will, many School-menboldly fay : And fo force fay, that he is Gods atlual felf -love, which is the fame thatyou call his Holinefs: And Come (ay, that he is the Divine Will or Love confidered in it felt, as diftin& from Vital Power, and Intellel (or Wifdam.) But of this! have fpoken more largely elfe-where. ss. 13. M. S. Adam's promifid Reward was, to befixed in an unchange .ablefiate ofpleafng God, by this Holy spirit : not by infnfng any yewquality whichfhouldunchangeably fallen him to the Rule, (for no created thing can unchangeably keep a man f omfalling.) An.

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