16 The Crucifying of the world, dart', contingent, dependant beings, ( whether Univocally or Equivocalld,or Analogically fo called, withGod, let the Schools debate.) To look on the creature as a feparated or fimpie Being or Good, is to look upon it as God.. And here came in the firit Idolatry of the world. When Adam had all his felicity in God, and had the creature only as a ftream and means , and when all his affe&ions fhould havebeencentred in God and he fhould not have viewed one line in the volume of nature , without the joint obfervance of the Center where it was terminated ; Con- trarily he withdraws his eye fromGod, and fixeth ir on the crea- tureas a feparated Good ; and defiringto knowGood in this fe- parated fence , he made it an Evil to him, and knew it to his for- row : And fo forfaking the true and Al-fufh.cient Good , he turned to a Goodwhich indeed as conceived of 'by him was no Good, and knew it by a knowledge, which as to the Trúth of it was not Knowing,butErring. And in this courfe whichour firft progenitors have led us into , the carnall world proceedeth to this day. The creature is near them, but God is far off : A little they know of the creature, but they areutter !hangers to God : And therefore think on the creature as an independant feparated Good. And youmull carefully note, that the dependance of the creature onGod, is not to be fully manifeft by the dependanceof anycreature upon another. The line is locally diftant from the Center ; and the (}reams are locally diftant from the fpring , though they are contiguous, and have the dependency of an effe& But God is not locali and fo not locally diftant from us. Theneareft fimilitude is that of the bodies dependance up- on the foul ( whichyet Both fall exceeding Chart.) In God both we and every creature do live, and move,and have our being. As no man of reafcnwill talk to a corpfe, nor dwell and converle with any man meerly as corporeall, without refpeét to the foul thatloth animate him, nor will he fall in love with a corpfe ; fo noman that is fpiritually wife (fo far as he is fo ) will once look upon any creature, much lefs cenverfewith it, or fall in love with it, barely as a creature, conceivingof it as a thing that is feparated fromGod, or not pofitively conceivingof Godas animating ir, and as being its Alpha and Omega, its Beginning and End, its principali efficient, andultimate Finali caufe, at leali : For this were to imagine thecarkaife of a creature, and to conceive of it
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=