-tDe Pooh any fomflpZook. 43 $ Fire is a Spirit, and fo that a Spirit is fenfble, as far as mo- tion,light andheat are : I only fay, Ifthat were true, yet motion, Light and heat are not fenfed by us in pure fire ; but only as from f ireincorporate,in air at leaft.But the word [S P I R I T) an in- cludeth theformal fpecial notion of it, by whichwe molt clearly di!cernit from a Body, called Matter ; which is, that it is for- mally a Life, or an active Nature , in which is included the three notions of Power,Force (Vis) and Inclination ; and all together may be called Avirtue : So that to be a Pure fiibftance tranfcen- ding fenfe, not accidentallyhaving, but naturally being, an Acilive vital virtue, is to beA SPIRIT. 2. But though this formal notion be included in the word SP I R I T, yet it is of dillinit Conception from Ef fence and Subftance. And this One formal Virtue in GO D is wonderfully, yet certainly, Three mOne, that is, i. Vital arrive Virtue.' 2'. In- telleétiveVirtue. 3. Volitiveor willing Virtue. This f iritual Virtue is not an Accident in God, but his Effence; not his Effence as Effence, but his E/fence in its formal or fpecifick notion,as di- ftintt from other Effences. It is One fubflantially and formally : It is Three as Altive on a Three-fold Objeet, or by connotati- on of the Objelt, at the leaft. All this we certainly gather from our Souls, which are Gods Image (of which anon) : And yet the word [Spirit i underffanding, will and LifeofMan fignifie that which is not at all of the fame kind or port, with that which the fame words fignifie ofGod : But yet there is in us an image of hat is in God. And when I fpeak ofArrive Virtue, it muff be remembred that it is another property ofSpirit that[it is not Paljive from a Aody or any inferior nature : For all Anion proceedeth order- ly from the firft Active Caure, and fodown : God worketh upon all things : An intelleltual Spirit canoperate ona fenfitive, and that on a Vegetative, and that (as the refl.) on Pallive matter or Bodies; but not contrarily. z. Though we are fain to ufe names of God, which lignifie but Modes or Qualities in men, and fo mention Powerful, zaifi and good; yet thefe in God are his very Efience, under the no- tion ofModal perfeltion. 4. As we think of creatures in refpeß of Quantity and Ve- frees as well as Rind, fo weare fain to mention Gods Attributes : Anil I comprehend a multitude in one, which is Inflnitenefsor Perfaion, which have the fame fignification, faving that one foundetli better as applied to Efrence, and the other as to u lity. When I fay that God is [Infinite,] it refpelteth, z. Dura- F f 2 ä01a
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=