114 OfCod's Gracious Operations on Man'c $out : riour Spirits. Though ( bePaufe we knowof no nature ábeve the Intel- 1eEtual ) it is utterly uncertain to us, Whether Humanefouls-depend on any proper fupnour Caufe of their Being but God alone immediately ForGod cauCeth the higheft Natures, without anymediate fecond 'Caere : Though as to ORDER and helps of affion and well being they May de. pend on others, as the feveral Wheels or parts of the fame Watch or Clock, or as theSheep upon the Shepherd. . 24. 4uguffine de Anima is put to it, whether hewill hold I. That fouls are Many andnot One? z. Or One and not Many? 3. Or both- one andMany? The twofiril he rejedteth : The laft he confefleth hard to de- fend, but feemeth molt inclined to : But what Union he meant, is hard to conjecture 5 Whether that they were all the fpiritual Parts of one Uni- verfal, or one Greater foul (if fouls may beParts? ) or Whetherdiftindt prodrots of one fuels foul ( either Univerfitatis or hujus fyftematis ) ; or Whetherone Relatively andPolitically, by making up one fociety or Whether one becaufe emaning from one fpring or Gaup prima? The two laft are certain : The two firit are far otherwife. *j 2 5. 7. Ifhe could prove, that there is one Fir -,Befl, Univerfal cre- ated Intelligence, or fuper-Angelical Spirit, whichGod" made the chief of all fécond caufes, by which he created and governeth all the reit, and that this is Chrift in his fecorid Nature, we would not deny, bur that Chrilt as the Mediator of Nature. (as Mr. sterry calleth him) is in all other Creatures as the Caufe is in the being of the effeEt ; But it would not fol- low, that the Effence of Chrift (or this Univerfal Intelligence) is any Constitutive Caufe (orpart ) of each creature: For as God caufeth them by CreativeEmanation, and not as a Constitutive part of them ; fo aye fhould rather hold, that ( under God, by a Power of producing Enti- ties received from him) this Univerfal Spirit did the fame ina fubordi- nate fécond place. ().2.6. But his.Opinions which I am now molt concerned to renounce, are thole about Gods Moral Government, his Laws, Juftice, our free -will, fin, guilt, and Gods Redemption, Judgement and Punifhment of man ; all which I think he much fubverteth. *.27. And I. I take the root of his error to be, his overlooking and undervaluing Gods Deign in Making and Governing free Intellectual agents, by his Sapiential Moral Dired ive way : He fuppofeth this way to be fo much below that of Phyfical Motion and Determination, as that it is not to be confidered but as an infiniment thereof As if it were unworthy of God to give any creature aMeer Power, Liberty, Law, and Moral Means alone, and not to Neceflitate him Pofitively or Nega- tively to Obey or Di /obey. And this looking only at PhyficalGdod, Be- ing andMotion, and thereby thinking lightly of Sapiential Regency, is the fumm, as ofhis, foof Hobbes, spinofa's, Alvarez, Bradwardines,?xviffek, Rutherfords, and the reit of the Predeterminants errors herein : And had not I other thoughts of this one thing, I Ihould come over CO their Opi- nion : For I confefs the cafe tobe of very 4,reat difficulty. ,(). 28. I think that as the Divine Life and Power glorifieth it felf emi- nently in the Caufation of the Being, Motion and Life of the creatures; fo the Divine wifdomeminently glorifieth it Pelf in the Order Of all things, and in the Moral Direétive Sapiential Regiment of Intellebtual free agents. And that Gods Laws and Dodtrine are the Image of his Wifdom, and an admirable harmonious and beautiful frame : And that all would think fo, and be wonderfully delighted in them, werethey compleatly printed on our Minds and Hearts, t).29.
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