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434
litp8
on?
an:5
famíip
'Zook.
SHORT
CATECHISM,.
for
tbofethat
have learned
the firft.
ueft.
Hat
do
yoac
believe
concerning
GOD?
.fAnfw.
There
is
one
only
GOD
;
an
Infinite Spirit of Life,Underitanding
and
Will,
molt
perfec4ly
Powerful,
Wife
and
Good
;
The
Father,
the
Word,
and
the
Spirit
:
The Creator,
Go-
vernor
and
End
of
all
things
:
Our
Abfolute
Owner,
our
moil
Juft Ruler,
and
our molt
Gracious
and
moll
Amiable
"Father.
r.
The
word
[G
O
D]
fignifieth
both
the
Nature
and
the
Relations.
I.
Gods
Nature
or
Ef
fence
is
not known
to
us
in
it
felf
im-
mediately, but
in
the
glafs
of
the Creatures,
as
the
caufe
in
the
effefts
;
And fpecially
by Gods
Image on
our
own
Souls.
Therefore
we
have
no
names
or
words
of
God, but
fuch
as
are
borrowed
from
Creatures,
as
the
firfi
things
iîgnified
in
our
tile
of
them
;
Though God
only he fignified by
them
in
this our
application.` There
fore we are
fain
to defcribe God in termes,
z. Of generical notion.
2.
Of
formal
or
fpecifical
notion.
3.
Of
accidental
notion..
Though God
is
not
properly
matter
or
farm,
genus
or
(*pales,
nor
accident.
i
.
The
generical
no-
tion
is,
dint he
is a
S
P I
R
I
T,
which
included.)
the
more ge-
neral notions, of
a
SUBS
T
A
N
C
E and
a
B
E I
N
G,
as
diffina
from
accidents
and
nothing. A
SPIRIT
chiefly
ìg:
nifieth
(not
onely Negatively,
that
which
is
no
Body,
but
alto
Pofitively,)
aim?
Suhf
ance
traufcending our
fenfztive
conception
or
apprehenfion
;
which
force call
MetaphyReal
matter
:
For
be-
fore
we
think
what
form
or
virtue
A
Spirit
is
palled
of,
we
think of it
as
fomething
f
hb;îantial,
though not corporeal.
But
of
the Iubftance
of
a
S P
I R
IT
as
different
from
a
Body,
before
we
come to the
formal
iIrrues,
we can have no
fatisfying
conception but
its Purity,
and
tranfcendingthe molt
perfeei fence.
{_Whatever force
fay
of
Penetrability.
and indivilibility,
which
aar;'
alto
confiderable.)
If
any
fay,
that
the true
nature of
Fire
T.
Affent.