Of Free will. 89, general notion no better underftood than the qu4tum, ( Quality ) 5 and to name the effeCt (promptitude) and not the form or thing it felf. IL The nature offire feemeth to be a kind of likenefs to Spirits; And in this finable thing we cannot tell what it is that is added by exci- tation and incenfion. And they that talk of generationof fire, know not whatgeneration fignifieth : whether the produ&ion ofanewPimple fubftance that beforewas nothing ? or theintroduction of a new form into a pre-exiftent fubftance,by mixture,or how? or only a new motion? or if they fay, It is a generationof new ,Qualities, they know not what the word [Quality] fignifieth. But this much is apparent, that whe- ther it be done by .Collifon or however, to kindlea fparkor latent fire into a flame or incendium, is to excite a pre-exßentaElive nature; And this excitation is by motion. And as we have fome ( very defeftive) conception what motion received is, in Bodies, and how by contait when it cometh from force, motusmotum caufet, visper motumvim quondam imprimit 5 fo by force Analogy,_ we may conceive how Spirits move Spirits : and fuch as is the ( unexprefiìble") a&ionof one Spirit on another, fuch is the thing thereby imprinted and received 5 A kind of fpiritual motor. And as inbodily motion the firft thing received is the very thing moved bycontact, qua talk, as it felf inmotion, or adt 5 fo SpiritsEno modo teem, qua agentes attingentes tranfcendently, to be the firft received by the moved spirits 5 And the fecond thing the vis im- preffa , and thence followeth the ipf motor. But if it to this day (molt certainly) furpafsthe witsof thegreateft Philofophers, formally to conceive what it is that adhereth to the res mota tocontiue its mo- tion, and what that is that iscalled Vis impreffä, andin what fubje& it " moveth theprojerlum, &c. ( For the Cart elan fancy that motes inceptor nunquam ceffabit niG impeditus, either tells us nothing of the continued caufe, or fuppofeth moveri to be noeffeá, and to need nomore caufe than negatio motto, which is unworthy a confutation) , what wonder then if it furpafs the conceptionof all mortal men to know what that fpiritual Vis impreffa on a Soul is? But what-ever it is, this much is the belt notion that we can have of that which the Divine A&ion firft corn municateth, that it is influxes Dei Keceptus5 vel excitatio facultatsans eucitata, as diftinit from excitatio Dei excitan 5 It is pafftve excitations or a fpiritual Vis impreffa, whence Aftioñ followeth. ICI. But it hath alfo a fimilitude to theAgent in more than Pimplemo., tion, . Evenas theSun or Fire dothkindle fire on combuftible niatter' (which hadalfoa latent firebefore, orelfe it's not combuftible) 5 which is not (as the Cartelans feign, by motion alone, but by the operation ofa three-fold virtue in the Sun, viz. the motive, lucid and calefailive, producing the fame in the Receiver: fo the Spirit of God doth in this excitation at once communicate to thethree facultiesof the Soul, an impreffed force for Vital-atáivity, Intel.'eElion and Volition; fo that the . threenatural faculties by this received imprefs and excitation are fufci- tated to holy 4 livity, Knowledge andLove 5 the habit of which is holy Life, and Light, and Love abiding. For it is certain that it isnot one only, but all the faculties of the Soul that arevitiated by Sin, and therefore allthat mutt be repaired byfaniti- Eying Grace. The vital-allive-power (as it is a faculty of the rational soul) is as it werefleepy, dead and impotent, and muff be quickened with fpiritual life and ftrength. The IntellelJl so dark, and muft be illumina- ted. TheWillis carnal andunholy, and mutt be turned from the Flefh N to
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