The Freedom of the Will, Part 1 · Subpart 2

The Freedom of the Will · Part 1 · Subpart 2

p. 472. Head of Arguments.

I pass now to the second Head of Arguments, taken from the Mediation of Christ, and opposed to that Liberty of the Will, which is placed in a freedome from the predetermination of its Acts, in its essential Principles and superior Causes.

My method of treating of the Mediation of Christ, and directing my Discourse upon it to the service of my present design, shall be this: I will endeavour with all humility and holy reverence, by the conduct of that sweet Light which falls from the Face of Christ (by the guidance of his Eyes, the only Fountain of Grace and Truth) to set before us the Lord Jesus in those three principal Parts of his Mediation, as he is, 1. The ground. 2. The way. 3. The end of the whole Work of God.

1. Jesus Christ is the ground of the whole Work of God. This is the first and principal part of Christ's Mediation, in which he is the Golden Head of the whole Image of things in Grace and Nature. This well understood (according to the weak capacity of our Understanding here below) seemeth to make all the other parts of the Mediatorship, with the whole tract of things, plain and pleasant.

p. 48That, which in Divinity and Philosophy is understood by the name of a Person, is an Intellectual Being, compleatly existing. Therefore God, Angels, (which are called Gods) and Men, made in the Image of God, which are also dignified with the Name of God in the holy Scripture, are only stiled and esteemed Persons. The reason of the Name, I humbly conceive to be this, Every Intellectual Spirit, according to the propriety of its Nature and Essence, comprehendeth entirely within it self, the principle of its own Essence, its essential form and operation, by comprehending in it self the whole nature of things.

The Understanding in its perfect Act, and Being in its largest compass, are said (by Philosophers) to meet in a mutual proportion and union; the one being the proper and adequate Object of the other. Therefore the Greeks call every Intellectual Spirit, foreign, the whole.

The prime operation of every Intellectual Spirit is contemplation. The first and immediate Object of its contemplation is its own Essence. In this Glass of living and immortal Light, all other things, according to their proper essences, in their several and essential forms, appear to it most clearly and delightfully, as its own Births and Beauties. God, the first, and most perfect, the Father and King of all Intellectual Spirits, is the truest Person. He alone in truth subsisteth in himself, existeth without, and above all things. He truly containeth the whole compass of things, in their unchangeable Truths and Substances within himself, although he Himself be the most absolute, and most abstracted Unity. Angels and Men, in the perfection of their Natures, are no more than shadowy persons. They have only shadowy Essences, a shadowy comprehension of shadows.

God then alone most perfectly and substantially enjoyeth Himself in the contemplation of Himself, which is the Beatifical Vision of the most beautiful, the most blessed Essence of Essences. This Act of Contemplation is an Intellectual and Divine Generation, in which the Divine Essence, with an eternity of most heightned Pleasures, eternally bringeth forth it self, within it self, into an Image of it self.

According to the Perfection in which God knoweth Himself, and enjoyeth Himself, so is the Perfection of this Image. As those are, so is this clear, distinct and full. The more distinct the beam is from the first Light in its emanation, the more strong and full is the reflectiou. This Divine Image then is at once most perfectly distinct from its Divine Original, most exactly equal to it, and most perfectly one with it. As then God is, so is this essential, eternal Image of God, a compleat and distinct Person in it self, in every point with the highest and most ravishing agreeableness, answering the Divine Esseunce in its spring out of which it ariseth.

If this Image were not a compleat Person, Gods knowledge and fruition of Himself would be incompleat, without the pleasing and proportionate returns of an equal Loveliness, Life and Love. If this Image were not most perfectly distinct from the bosome out of which it flourisheth, the knowledge and enjoyment of God would be confused, more like to the blindness, the barrenness, the cold of darkness and death, than the life and fruitfulness, the warmth of beauty, life p. 49and love, which all have their Perfection and their Joys in the propagation of themselves into most distinct forms, and the reflection upon themselves from these forms.

This is the first, and so the most universal Image, the first seat of all Images of things. In this all the fulness, the unchangeable riches of the Godhead display themselves in their first, their fairest, their fullest glories. All forms of things are here most proper, most perfect, most distinct, substantial, and true. Philosophers and Divines call the first Images of things, as they rise up from the Fountain of eternity in the bosome of this universal and eternal Image, Ideas. The Idea, in this sense, is the first and distinct Image of each form of things in the Divine Mind; The universal Image, of which we speak, is that Divine Mind or Understanding. This is the proper Idea of the Godhead, the universal Idea, the Idea of Ideas, and so that Mother of us all, which is above. Every Idea of each Creature is this Idea, bringing forth it self, according to the inestimable Treasures of the Godhead in it, into innumerable distinct figures of it self in the unconfined Varieties of its own Excellencies and Beauties, that so it may enjoy it self, sport with it self, in these, with endless and ever new Pleasures of all Divine Loves.

Thus in every Idea of each Creature doth this universal Idea dwell at large, and freely shine forth with all its fulnesses and sweetnesses in a distinct form, as it self in another form.

The Ideas or Images being the only and eternal Truths of all things, do from themselves, as the true Heavens in eternity, send forth, as shadowy figures, the Heaven of Angels, these visible Heavens, the Earth, all the Elements with their Inhabitants and Furniture.

Each Idea containeth its own created figure, as the proper place of it; giveth it its essence and existence in it self, sustaineth it, and supporteth it in its own bosome by new Births, or emanations from it self every moment; it filleth it throughout, as the Light doth the Air, or rather the beams in the Air. This alone is the unchangeable Truth, the true substance of each thing, the golden Head above, the inward spring below, the Christal Vessel which holdeth and encloseth every created Being, the living water of all Truth and true Being, which filleth every created Vessel.

Place is affirmed by the Jews, to be one of the Names of God. Christ saith in the Gospel, In my Fathers house are many Mansions. This universal and eternal Image, of which we speak, is a Divine Person: This is our Jesus, the God of all Glory, in the clearest, the fullest effulgency or brightness of all his Glories in his own most proper and most glorious form. This is the House or Palace of the Father upon the Mount of Eternity, the House of Ideas, or the first and eternal Images of things, which are at once, as so many Children of this Great King, the Father of all, and as so many Mansions in this House. Here in this House of God, as David speaketh, each Bird hath its Nest, hath its place to sit and sing near his holy Altar. Thus God, in each of these distinct and eternal Images, is the distinct and eternal Place of each thing.

p. 50As the golden Seals were the only place of the Impression, if there were nothing besides the golden Substance and the Impression; so is the Idea, or the Divine Image in our Lord Jesus, the only place of each thing. How sweet a Contemplation is this?

Every created Being, as a Figure or an Impression, which hath no ground, no foundation to sustain it, besides the Seal which makes it, riseth, flourisheth, fadeth and falleth, hath the whole compass of its beginning, way and end, in the soft and beautiful bosome of its own Divine Image or Idea in the Person of our Lord Jesus. Thus all things live, move, and have their being in Him. It is the Rule of the Philosopher, That all motion is made upon something unmoveable. We read in the first of the Hebrews, a place cited out of the Psalms, where it is thus said to Jesus Christ, The Heavens and the Earth are the work of thine hands, they perish, but thou remainest; They all wax old as a Garment, as a Vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, thy years fail not. Behold Jesus Christ, as he is the eternal Image of the Godhead, containing the first Images of all things eternally in Himself, is the Divine and unmoveable ground, upon which the Heaven, the Earth, with all things in them (whose whole being is a perpetual motion and change) perpetually move.

Jesus Christ is the Wisdom of God, as he is the first and most perfect Image of the Divine Essence within it self, and in this Image contains those Images which are the first Patterns, the eternal Grounds, Truths, Measures of all things. The same Jesus is the Power of God in respect to that seminal or propagative Power in those first Patterns, by which, as sacred Springs, they multiply themselves by various streams, receiving all along from them the continuation of their Beings, in continual motions, till by circling about they return to, and rest in the bosome of their Fountain. This is that pure and clear Sea of Ideal Lights and Lives, from which all their Rivers of Being go forth, and into which they return again, while that still is equally full, and capable of no diminution or increase.

This ground of the Work of God in Christ, and of the Mediation of Christ, seemeth to be the fundamental sense, though perhaps not the only one, nor that principally intended by the Apostle in those words, where he saith, That our Lord Jesus is the Image of the invisible God, and the First-born of every Creature. This last expression is divinely contrived to be both in one, a collective and a distributive: with equal propriety of sense, you may read of all Creation, of every Creature.

The holy Scripture in the Epistle to the Hebrews distinguisheth between the shadow and the Image, the very Image, the self Image of good things to come. The whole Creation, with the Law in its Angelical Glories, as it is the Crown and Ground of this Creation, according to the Doctrine of the Jewish Masters, and of all the Scripture, is a shadow of good things, and no more. Jesus Christ alone is the Image of God, and so of all good things, the very Image, the self Image, that Image which by its exactness is one self, with its Original God, in all those Glories, in which (by reason of their p. 51excess of Light) He is in this Image equally glorious, and perfectly visible to Himself.

Jacob stileth his first-born, the Excellency of Dignity, and the Excellency of Strength. Jesus Christ being the first Image of God, is also in that the first Image of the Creation in the whole, the first Image of every Creature, in its distinct form, in its whole compass, as a part of the whole. Thus is He the First-born, the Excellency of Dignity, the Exceliency of Strength, both in respect to the Father of all, and of every Birth. He is the first effulgency, or shining out of the Divine Glory, in every form imitable or inimitable.

If this Nail were fastned by a Master of the Assembliés, how unmoveably would it be fixed, and be the frame of my design. Socrates in Plato professeth to love his beautiful Friend▪ because he alwayes generated in his mind within, and his sp…ch without, rational Discourses, harmonious Forms of things, beaut…ul Images, con…ting of agreeable porportions. Reason in … intellectual Spirit, is a treasure of Divine pr…portions, the patterns and principles of its Activity. Every Intellectual Spirit by its Reason is a sacred Field, replenished with Divine Powers, Divine Springs and Forms of proportions and harmony, which compose reason in the essence of it, are at once Divine Flowers of Intellectual Beauties and Divine Springs, a prolifick virtue of seminative and formative force, by which they propagate themselves. Our Jesus is this Field, and this Paradise of Flowers and Springs in the Godhead, the Understanding, the Reason of the Godhead.

Every Workman, according to the measure of his reason and wisdome, hath in himself, before he beginneth to work, the form and perfection of his work. This is the end which first moveth the Agent, and setteth him on work. This is the reason, the rule of his works, which giveth him both life to it, and light in it. This Harmony of skill or reason within, is the Angelical Musick in the mind, to which all things in the work without do move; like Amphion's Lute, by sound of which the Walls of Thebes were raised.

Thus the Workman works by wisdome; For his God teacheth him. Shall not the only wise God much more work in Wisdome? Shall not He have the form of that Work, which he intendeth, perfect and plain, with all its proportions in his Spirit, before He begineth it? Shall not He have his end, the pattern, the principle, the reason, and the rule of His Work in Himself? Or doth He work blindly, or by chance? Or is He enlivened or enlightned from without for his Work? Doth He not from the treasure and measure of all harmony in his own mind give to it its proportions and perfections? Solomon bringeth in Wisdome, as a Person in eternity, speaking after this manner; When God stretched out the Heavens, when he laid the foundations of the Earth, when he digged up a place for the Sea, then I was with him. St. John in the beginning of his Gospel takes the Vail off from his Person, and discovereth this Wisdome in an eternal Person, to be the Lord Jesus. For he saith, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and by p. 52him were all things made. This is the internal Word of the Mind, the Wisdome of God, the essential Image of the Godhead, the Original, the eternal Image of all things. In this Word, are eternally contained the Patterns, the prolisick Virtues, by which the whole Creation, with all things in it, are brought forth and formed. This is the Word in the Mind of God, in which the whole Creation is drawn forth, in which it lieth in the first and most proper draught of it, from the beginning to the end, before it cometh forth in it self. This is our Jesus bred with the Father in eternity, ever before Him, who thus day by day sporteth Himself, and playeth with Him, whiles in all his Work, …e multiplieth and spreadeth forth round about him to the uttermost bounds of things, Divine Figures of those Archetypal and exemplar Glories which he seeth in him.

Can this then be? Can Jesus Christ thus be the ground of the Creation, and of the whole Work of God in it? Can the whole piece in all its proportions and perfection, lie here in the Person of this Jesus, in its first draught, in its exactest patterns, and the will of man with the motions of it be left out of this model? Is not the Will of every Intellectual Spirit, are not the motions of this Will the principal parts of this Work, are they not those Hinges and Engines by which the whole is turned about in all the great revolutions of it? Doth not the Catastrophe, the final change, doth not the finishings and perfections, the Ultimate and most glorious closes of the whole, on which the expectations of Men and Angels are fixt, in which the full Harmony of the whole Work, the full glory of the Workman do consist, and are discovered, depend upon these, the Will, and its motion?

If therefore these also lie in this Jesus, the essential, the personal Wisdome of God, their first ground, their most perfect pattern in eternity, are they not here determined, as in their first cause? But thus much of the Mediatorship of Christ, in the ground of it, as the first ground of the whole work of God lies most fair, most full, and flourishing in his Person in eternity.

2. Jesus Christ in his Mediatorship is the way of the whole work of God from the beginning to the end of it, a most beautiful and a most pleasant way. I shall set this way before us in two parts.

1. Part. Jesus Christ is the first and universal Creature, the first created Head, the first, the fairest Copy of the whole Angelical Nature with all its Glories, of the whole Creation, the Life-Picture, taken immediately from the Life it self. I shall not insist much on this, as seeming perhaps not so clear, not having been generally received, neither doth it bring any new Argument to this Cause, but only add new force to the Argument immediately before, taken from the ground of the Mediatorship in Christ.

Yet am I not willing to pass it by, without a brief offer of those Reasons, which seem to give clearness and countenance to it, and that upon a two-fold Consideration:

1. I gladly thus far gratifie the Arians and Socinians, by complying with them, in giving to our Lord Jesus, as a Creature, this pre-existency to the whole Creation, and preheminence above it. I p. 53cannot but conceive fair hopes, that clear and candid Spirits among them, will by this link in the golden Chain of Christ's Mediatorship, in which God, and all his Works, are by an inseparable and harmonious order fastned each to other, be easily lead to that first and highest Link of the Godhead of Christ, the original, eternal, essential form of the Divine Essence, sweetly conceived, and compleatly finisht there, as the womb and bosome of the first Love. Neither can any more doubt, but that those intelligent and ingenious Persons, of which I speak, will as delightfully by this same Link, upon a wise contemplation of it, be carried to those other lower Links of Redemption and Justification, Sanctification and Salvation by Jesus Christ, as the purchase, the power, the pattern, the meritorious, the efficient, the formal cause of all this, in his Humiliation and Exaltation.

If Jesus Christ be a created form, living, immortal, glorious, containing in himself the whole Creation, with all its Vicissitudes of Lives and Deaths in one entire Beauty, more fresh, more fair, more full, then ever it can be in it self, if it be seen at one view, at the uttermost heighth of all sweetness, softness, amiableness, lustre, that it is capable of, (although that be true, which some say, that the World in the whole is the most beautiful of all things, or which others say, that it is an Angel.) This created form then hath a Prototype, its Original Image, its exemplar Cause in eternity, in God, on which it depends, and from which it flows; otherwise it is not a created form, but uncreated, absolute and eternal. This Original Image is one with the first, the supream Image of eternity, and of God. For all things are there, as in the fullest Variety, so in the most entire Unity. This then is the Godhead of Christ, that essential Image of the Divine Nature, in which Jesus Christ, with all his created Glories, pre-exists in eternity, from whence he descends into a created state, and hath there an existency antecedent to every other Creature.

If this Jesus be the first and universal Creature, the whole world, in one Spirit and Person, who takes flesh of the Virgin Mary, then doth the whole world live, die, and rise again in him. Now is his Death the Death of the whole world, his Resurrection is the universal Resurrection of the whole world in its Divine Head, and in its immortal Root. Now is Jesus Christ a Sacrifice for our Redemption, Sanctification, Salvation; not by an imaginary, notional, arbitrary Imputation, but a judgment founded upon the Divine Nature of things, and a real immediate Union between Christ and the World, as a Divine Seed, and a Divine Plant, which with a Divine eminency is comprehended in that Seed, and virtually produced out of it, receiving every moment its alterations from it, according to the seminal and Divine proportions treasured up in it. Thus Christ takes away the Sin of the World; thus he makes all things new. These are only glances by the way.

2. The second Consideration which moved me to touch this string, is the perfection and the heightning which it seems to give p. 54to the whole mystery of Divine Truth in the Scripture, and in the Gospel. A sweet and beautiful line would probably arise from this Point, to illustrate many and principal Scriptures, many and principal Mysteries of the Gospel, if it were found consonant to the letter of the Scripture, to the Analogy of Faith, and so generally received. I will now therefore offer in few words, a reason or two in this case, leaving the judgment of it and the full prosecution, to those who have either Humane or Divine Learning in these things above my self.

1. The first, or rather cluster of Reasons, lieth in that Scripture, Col. 1. 15, 16, 17.

1. Christ is here described in the proper Character of his Divine Person (as the general ground of his Mediatorship) by these words, Who is the Image of the invisible God. He is the Image of God by way of eminence, the first, the supream, the most perfect Image, representing the Essence, the Substance, the Unity of God to himself within himself, essentially, substantially in his own proper Unity. He is the Image of the invisible God, as he is invisible in that Glory of his own eternal form, in which he is visible by no Light, to no Light, to no Eye, in no Spirit besides his own. He is the only Image of God in every Image, the Image of God in its first state upon the Throne, in its descent through all states, in the Grave, unto the nethermost parts of the Earth, until it return and re-ascend above all Heavens thither where it was at first.

2. Jesus Christ is here described in the two parts of his Mediatorship, one relating to the state of Nature, the other to the state of Grace. At the 25. verse he is stiled the first-born of every Creature, at the 18. verse, the first-born from the dead. These two being contra-distinguished from each other, seem to point at, and paint forth Jesus Christ in two different forms, agreeing both in this, that they have their ground in his eternal form, and are subordinate to it. These two being contra-distinguished, and answering each other, seem to be interpreted one by the other.

Jesus is the first-born of the Resurrection in a two-fold sense. He is the first of those that rise from beneath the shades of this Creation into the true Heavens, the Holy of Holies, the unvailed Glory of God. He is the fulness of the Resurrection. He, as a Divine Head, comprehendeth clearly, compleatly, eminently in himself all these, who are to rise as Divine Members of himself, inseparably joyned in the Unity of the same Divine Spirit. They all rise together with him at his Resurrection. He is the Fountain of the Resurrection. Every one in his own proper person and season riseth up out of him by his Power, in the Virtue of his Resurrection.

After the same manner is Jesus the first-born of every Creature. He is the first, the fulness, the fountain of the Creation. He is the first Creature. So in the 17. verse, in the illustration of this state, as he is the first of every Creature, it is said, He is before all things. He pre-existed in a created form, when there was yet no other Creature formed. All things were made in him, whether visible or invisible, p. 55Principalities, Powers, or Thrones, things in Heaven, or on Earth, and all things stood together in him, saith St. Paul, verse 17. So the Greek words in both verses are most properly rendred. Great men in the mystery of Philosophy and Divinty affirm, That which is below to be the same with that which is above. Every Flower on Earth is a Star in the Firmament. Each Star an Angel in the Heavens above. If this be St. Paul's sense, which we have represented from these words, the Elements with all of them, the visible Heavens with all in them, the innumerable Company of Angels in their invisible Heavens, have all met and subsisted together in one created Form, in one Divine Spirit and Person, which is our Jesus. In this Person they are not Flowers of Beauty, not Stars of Light, not Angels of Glory, but Divine Forms, antecedent and transcendent to the brightest Cherubims, the highest, the most flaming Seraphims.

Thus they exist in Christ. Thus with the unsearchable Riches of all agreeable Varieties they make up the Body of Christ, as he is the created Head of all. Thus as he is the first of all Creatures, so is he the fulness of the whole Creation.

He is also the Fountain. St. Paul addeth also this, All things were made by him, verse 16. All Creatures flow from him, as second Lights are cast from the first brightness by various reflections and refractions.

3. The design of all this discovereth it self to us in these words, That he in all things might have the preheminence, verse 18. The first sense of the Greek word is this, that he in all things may be first. So you have a plain allusion to that word of First-born twice applied to Jesus, once in respect to the Creation, another time to the Resurrection. Jesus Christ as God (if so we may speak of him after the manner of Man) is alike the first of all things, not as by design, or any act of the Will, but by Nature and his Essence, as in our Conceptions it antecedes every act of Council or Will. This primacy then, which is attributed to Christ, as founded in a Divine contrivance, properly respecteth him as in a created Form, in which he, who, as God, is by Nature the first of all things, so by design of the Godhead, as a Creature, becometh the First-born Son of God in Nature and Creation, the First-born Son of God in Grace, in Glory, in the Resurrection: Until he in his created Nature, by his Resurrection, became a new Creature, anointed with the eternal Spirit, and entred into the Holy of Holies, by the rending of the Vail of Flesh: The Seed of the New-Creature, of the spiritual Man, and the heavenly Image, was not yet come up into its proper form, nor risen up out of the Earth of the first Creation, where it lay buried.

4. The ground of this design appeareth, verse 19. For it pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell. The Greek word signifies a perfect and most agreeable rest of all our faculties, a sweet and full complacency in the presence and appearance of an Object most entirely, most universally amiable and pleasing. Thus the joy of the Father is full, to see in the same Person of his beloved Son (the dear and entire reflection of himself) to dwell together at once in p. 56One, the fulness of his Godhead, the fulness of all his designs and works, in Nature, in Grace, in the Creation, in the Resurrection. Thus is this Son of his Love ever before him, his Delight day by day, all along, through time and eternity. All his works are love-sports with this his Son and Bride, various parts of Divine Love which he acteth, various forms of Divine Beauty and Joy into which he casteth himself in the Bosome and Person of this lovely, only beloved One. Now his Soul resteth in all his Counsels and Works, while he seeth the Face of his Son with all pleasantness there. Now his Soul resteth in his Son, while he seeth all his Counsels and Works, as the finished Beauties, and unsearchable Riches of his Person. Now is the Person of his Son a compleat Paradise, while out of this ground he makes to spring every Plant that is desirable for Beauty, for Pleasantness, for Wisdome, for Food, for a Feast to Men, to Angels, to God himself.

2. I pass now to my second Reason, the Lord Jesus thus set in a created form, rendreth the order of the Creatures proceeding from God, more harmonious and entire, its connexion more immediate and inviolable, its dependance more firm and sure: for thus the Creature cometh forth from God, first in a distinct Nature from him, but in the Unity of the same eternal Person with him; then in a distinction both of Nature and Person. While the universal nature of the Creature subsisting in the Person of Christ, reposeth it self immediately upon the Godhead, and becometh it self the ground of all the Creatures in their several subsistencies and essences, reposing themselves in the bosom of this first Creature; How perfect is the order of things without any gap or leaps? How full is the Harmony in this entireness of the Order? With what clearness and delightfulness are the Links of the Chain in the whole frame, by mutual embraces fastned to each other? How doth the beautiful blissful Unity and Union of the Divine Love, in the connexion, in the mutualness of influencies and dependencies, shine through all, sustain, animate, beautifie, and sweeten all? How clear now is the passage between God and the Creature, time and eternity, by this milky way in the bosom of Christ?

That Scripture seemeth under that covert of rich expression to contain the riches of this sense, where Christ is said to be the brightness of the Glory of God, the engraven Image of his Substance, and so to bear all things by the Word of his Power, Heb. 1. That word Bear signifieth both to bring forth, and to sustain, as a Root the Plant.

The Sun hath a three-fold effulgency or light; 1. The essential and internal Image of the Sun within it self. 2. The Sun-shine immediately fastned to the body of the Sun, and flowing from it. 3. The Light cast upon the elementary World, as the figure of this Sun-shine. Thus is Jesus Christ a three-fold Light, or effulgency of the Divine Glory; by one, he shines as the essential Image of God in the bosom of God; by the other, he shineth forth, as the first Creature, fairest, freshest, and fullest, like a knot of beams springing p. 57immediately from the face of the Sun, and subsisting inseparably in it; by the third, he shineth out in the distinct forms and existences of all the Creatures.

The figure of a living substance first engraven upon a golden Seal, from thence impresseth it self on manifold & various pieces of white, or yellow, or red, or black wax; so the essential Image of God engraveth it self first in a created form upon the Person of Christ, as a golden Seal, from thence multiplieth it self into innumerable figures, in the various forms of all the several Creatures.

Power and Glory are frequently Names of God in the Scripture: The Power of Christ is his Godhead. The Word of his Power is threefold; 1. The internal Word, which is Christ in his Divine Nature. 2. The Word upon the Lips, is the Person of Christ in the first created form. 3. The Word from thence multiplied and figured upon the Air all round about, are the Creatures, in all their various forms, thus encompassing their King, as figures all round about him, flowing out from him. Thus Jesus by the out-shining of the Divine Glory, by the engraven Image of the Divine Substance, by the Word of the Divine Power, in an order altogether Divine for beauty and strength, bringeth forth, beareth up all things.

3. I shall propound only one Reason more, to give light or strength to this Opinion, submitting it entirely to the judgment of the Reader. Jesus Christ saith of himself, I am the Light of the World, 1 Joh. 8. 10. St. John in the beginning of his Gospel, manifestly alludes to the beginning of Genesis, while he attributes the Creation of all things to that Word with God, which is God. In the same place he teaches us this mystery, That the Life of all was in Christ, and that life was the light of man, both Intellectual and Sensitive, this latter being the shadow of the former. Then he adds, The Light shined in Darkness, but the Darkness comprehended it not. This seemeth to be a clear allusion to the work of the first day, when God called Light out of Darkness, dividing at the same time between the Light and the Darkness. The Light now shined in the midst of the Darkness, enlightning the Darkness, so that it still remaineth incomprehensible to the Darkness, as that abode in its own natural form divided from the Light.

All generally agree, that Moses comprehended the History of the whole Creation in this Chapter. And under the Covert and Vail of the visible part as a figure, divinely describeth the Intellectual, Angelical, and more Divine part, as the immediate Original and Life of this Figure. We have an Image of this in the Body of Heaven, with the Sun-shining in it by day, or the Moon and Stars by night, when they present themselves to our eyes, by plain figures of themselves, formed in a flowing stream here below.

The Jews therefore say, That a man of Flesh and Blood, cannot understand the first Chapter of Genesis. St. Paul affirmeth, That the invisible things are perceived, being understood by the things that are made. By these words he seemeth plainly to signifie, that while Moses painteth out to us the visible world, and framing of it, his p. 58design is to set before us a lively Picture of the invisible part of things, which is, as the heavenly Person, whose Picture is drawn on this Table.

The Light then, which is the work of the first day, being not only Sensitive, but Intellectual, is the first Creature, the first and most immediate effulgency, irradiation, or out-shining of the Godhead, the beginning of the Creation of God. St. Paul saith, That which makes manisest is Light. Then the first Light is the first, the most eminent, the amplest, the clearest, the compleatest manifestation of God, and so of the whole Creation, as its golden Head.

The first day, according to the Hebrew, Idiom is the one day, which Idiom hath this mystery wrapt up in it, That the Unity, the Fountain of numbers, is the first in order, from which we begin to number. This Light, which is the first Creature, the work of the first day, is the first procession of the Divine Unity without it self. It retains therefore the highest Image of this Unity, and partakes of it in the highest degree, that any created Nature is capable of. This is the Unity of the Divine Person, or subsistency, in a distinct created Essence or Form. Thus you have in this lovely Form of the purest, the sweetest of all created Lights, the Person of Jesus Christ, as he is the first Creature, divinely subsisting in the Godhead. This is that Light, which while it shineth with a derived brightness, in the midst of that darkness which is the first matter of every Creature, it remaineth, in the Unity and Divinity of its Person and subsistence, vailed to the highest and most glorious of all Creatures. For even in this blessed Person the darkness is a dividing Vail between the Nature and the Godhead, in which that Nature subsists.

The Jewish Masters by a two-fold tradition, seem to seal up this mystery for Posterity. First, they number the Soul of the Messias among those sacred and sublime Glories which were before the world. Secondly, They mysteriously affirm the Light of the first day to be a Light, in which the whole work of Creation in all the parts of it, with all its Revolutions from its first beginning to its last end, are clearly and distinctly seen. But say they, at the fall of man by Sin, this Light was hid beneath the Throne of God, until the days of the Messias. Can any thing more plainly express our Jesus, as He is the first and universal Creature? the first, the fairest, the clearest draught of the whole Creation, in the whole course and conduct of it, pre-existent to every Creature, comprehending all the works of God, from the first line to the last finishing of it, in one most delightful View, in one most agreeable Prospect, in one Spirit and Form of purest, sweetest life, more than Angelical, only less then Divine, yet subsisting in a Divine Person? If the will of man, with its motions, be seen and pre-exist here, are they not here predetermined?

But I have said before, that I would neither insist long upon this Point, nor lay any thing of the weight of this Cause upon it, being it self by few received or understood.

p. 59I divided my discourse of the Mediatorship into three Heads: 1. Christ, as he is the ground of all the Works of God, in which also lies the ground of his Mediatorship. 2. Christ, as he is the Way. 3. Christ, as he is the End of the whole Work of God. There are two parts in the way; 1. Christ, as he is the beginning of the Works of God, the first Creature. 2. Christ, as the coming forth and the conduct of every Creature (from the beginning to the end) is in him, and by him. This I am now to take in hand.

Christ is Mediator, as he is the way of the coming forth, and the conduct of the Work of God, in the whole and every part of it. As in a Plant, the seminal Spirit hath treasured up in it the seminal Reasons, the whole Harmony, all the proportions of the Plant, in the whole Plant, and in every part of it, as this seminal Spirit hath in it self the formative power of the Plant, according to the proportion, as this Spirit putteth forth it self into every part of the Plant, springeth up together with it, gives it its proper measures and proportions suited to the Harmony of the whole Plant, appears in each part as a living Image of that particular proportion or harmony which with an invisible Beauty flourisheth within it self, resides on every part of the Plant with the full harmony of the whole, being one and the same, altogether undivided, in the whole Plant and in all its parts; Thus is Christ after a more eminent and divine manner the seminal Spirit of the whole Creation.

I have before represented him, from clear Scriptures, as the Wisdome and Power of God, by virtue of which he is clearly a Spirit, containing in himself the seminal Reasons, and the formative Power, by which every Creature is formed universally in its production, and in its conduct.

Jesus Christ is frequently known in the Scriptures by that Name of the Seed, which though it relates eminently to the state of Grace and Glory, where it cometh up into its ripe fruit and entire form, yet doth it relate to the state of Nature. For by virtue of this Seed Adam was the Son of God. By this Seed, and in it, were all things made, as Plants springing forth from it, although the Seed were yet come up in them only into the green Leaf, or smiling Blossoms at the best. That Name given in Greek to Jesus, which is translated the Word, signifieth as properly Reason. Jesus Christ is the Reason of God, the Reason of the Divine Nature, the universal Reason of the whole Creation, in which lieth the particular Reason of each Creature, in its Essence, in its Operations. Thus is Jesus Christ the universal Harmony of the Godhead, and of the whole Work of God. He is that Harmony, according to the measure of which the whole work of God is formed.

The Reader is desired to take notice, That the Authors Papers upon this Head were imperfect, and that he will find what can be recovered of them before the finishing of this Work, together with a large Discourse upon this whole Argument of the Mediation of Christ at the end of the Book, where it was thought most convenient to place it, because of its length.

p. 60The third Head of Arguments in this Cause of Free-will, is the Universal Nature of the Creature, Every Creature is a shadow. That that is first in every kind is such by it self, and every other thing by that. God is the first Being, the only Original. All created Being, in every kind, degree, or manner of being, is a shadow of this Original, and so is all that which it is, in every distinct form, motion, or circumstance, in its Essence, Subsistence, and Operations, distinctly by this. It hath its Being by the first Being. It subsists, it acts by the subsistency, and by the acting of this first Being, this first subsistency, this first activity in it. The whole Creation in its best state, is no more than a shadowy Image of the Great Creator. Man, who is stiled the Glory of God, as being the band, the sealed sum, the circling Crown of the whole Creation, is said to be made in the Image of God. The various Powers and Beauties dispersed thorow the several Creatures, to make the whole a compleat Image of the Divine Nature, meet in one in Him, as a comprehension of the whole, in whom the Divine Image is as entire, but more heightned and refined, as being more finisht here, being drawn out further, being more elaborate, and having the last hand put to it. Thus was He made worthy to be the Son of God, the Figure of Jesus Christ, in order to lie eternally in his bosome, as his Bride, and to be a Fellow-Heir of God together with Him.

Yet was this Image, in which man was thus made, a shadowy Image only. The word by which it is express'd in the first of Genesis, is Tselem. This word hath in it entirely the name of a shadow. It hath also the first and chief letter of Death with which it ends. It signifies properly such an Image, as is an empty, vanishing, dying shadow; the shadow of a substance, without any substance; a shadow of life, without any true life.

The same word is used Psal. 39. 6. Man walketh in a vain shew, and disquieteth himself in vain. The word here rendred, a vain shew, is Tselem, the same with that by which the Image of God in Man is express'd, Gen. 1. The words immediately preceding in this Psalm are these, Man in his best state is all of him all vanity. The Reason is added, Man walks in a vain shew. Man himself in the purity of his Nature, in the unfaded, the unstained flower of all his senses, in the primitive heighth of all his Intellectual Glories, was a vain shew. The Paradise of his Understanding, the invisible World of Angels, with all the Virgin beauties and sweetnesses of both in the midst of which he walketh, were a vain shew. For they, round about him, with all their pomp and pleasantness, were no more than a shadowy Image of the Divine World, lying in the bosome of it. He himself was a shadowy Image of the Divine Essence and Person, in the midst of a world of shadows.

We have this word us'd again, Psal. 73. 20, As a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their Image. Image here is Tselem, which before was translated vain shew. God the supream and eternal Spirit is here presented, bringing forth this World, as a man doth a dream in his sleep. The darkness at p. 61the beginning of the Creation, described Gen. 1. seems here to be alluded to, as a mysterious sleep into which the first Spirit, the Fountain of all, the Father of all, after a Divine manner cast its self. Then the Light, with the work of the six days, and so the whole Creation, springeth forth from this Spirit in this sleep as a dream.

The Devil, with his Ministers or Creatures, Angels and Man, by the Fall become Princes and Lords of this Creation. They possess the Powers, Treasures, and Glory of this World. But all this while, themselves with all these created Riches, Honours and Joys, in which they swim and swell, are only shadows in a dream, beneath the shining and anointed feet of those true, substantial, immortal Beauties and Sweetnesses, to which their hope, their sight, their imaginations can never raise themselves. When this eternal Spirit in whose sleep, like painted forms in a dream, they vainly flutter about, awakeneth himself, he at once dissolveth them into their own nothingness, and despiseth them, as having never been any thing, yea, less than nothing in the Light of Divine Truth, and in the glorious face of the eternal substances.

Thus we see the universal Nature of the Creature and of Man, in their first form, to consist in a shadowy Image. If the Creature were its own Original, and had the truth, the life of its own Being, its Original form in it self, it were no more a Creature, but a God. As then the Face in the Waters, or in the Glass, in all its powers, parts, colours, and motions, dependeth upon the living face, being determinated by it every moment; so are all Creatures, all Spirits, Angels, or Men, in their Essences, Powers, or Operations, continually figured by those forms in which the eternal Spirit from above presenteth it self, as the reflections of that Spirit, like the shapes of the Clouds, or the Face of Heaven in a clear stream.

This truth seemeth to be with a Divine elegancy set forth, Cant. 5. 12. It is said there of Jesus Christ, That his Eyes are as Doves, above th… Rivers of Waters, washing in milk, full set. Thus the words in Hebrew most properly render themselves. A learned Jew in his Paraphrase, hath this gloss upon those words, Full set; The whole world is the fulness of his Eyes. There seemeth to be in this verse, a plain allusion to that expression, Gen. 1. of the Spirit moving upon the waters, or above the waters. The Chaldee Paraphrase makes this to be in the form of a Dove.

The Lamb in the Revelation is said to have seven Eyes, a perfect number expressing a full Variety. The Ideal forms, or the first Images of things, those eternal Truths and Lights of Life in the Person of Christ, as the essential Image, the sweetest, the only living Light of the Godhead, are these Eyes of the Bridge-groom here celebrated. These Eyes are Doves, pure, eternal Spirits of Divine Love and Beauty, in the bosome, in the Unity of the eternal Spirit, the heavenly King and Bridegroom of all Spirits. These Doves are the lovely Eyes with which this Spirit is all over thick set, like the wings of the Seraphims full of eyes within and without.

p. 62These Doves are washing themselves in Milk. So the Hebrew hath it, as a present perpetual Act. They lie washing and bathing eternally in the springs of Divine Light and Beauty, in the softnesses, sweetnesses, and walks of the Divine Love. These are the Milk of the Godhead, and of blessed Spirits; These Eyes are full set. For each of these Ideal Original forms in Christ comprehendeth in it self under the character or property of its own distinct Variety, the whole Divine World, and all Worlds in their first forms.

These first eternal Images of things in Christ are his Eyes, the sweetly shining Springs of all Light, Life, Love, and Joy. For he ever beholds all things with these, in these. By these, as he looks forth with them, he guides all things. In these is he, as the supream Spirit of truth and beauty, seen in his liveliest and loveliest appearances. These Eyes are Doves, being each of them one Spirit comprehending all things in its Unity, a Spirit of purest Light and Sweetness, the chast and beloved Mate of the eternal Spirit, eternally springing up, lying eternally in the Bosome and Unity of it.

These Doves in the Firmament of Divine Glory spreading their Wings, flying every where to and fro over the water of this Creation, figure themselves and their motions in shadowy Images upon them. Thus are all things here formed and mov'd, as the face in the Glass by the living Face.

This similitude hath in it a signal difference from the Truth represented by it. The living Eye or Face sendeth forth its Image. But this Image hath its reception and subsistence in another substance, the glass or the water. But the Creation hath no ground to bear it up, but that alone which bringeth it forth. These Divine Eyes of which we speak, at once send forth and support these Images of themselves. They are the clear Springs from which they stream, and the Christal Looking-Glasses in which they appear. In this eternal Spirit, in this living Light all things as varied shadows of this Light, as shadowy forms of this Life, live, move, have their being and appearance: Not as accidents in their subject, but after a manner far more eminent, a…d altogether transcendent to any resemblance in the Creature.

This is the Universal Nature of the Creature.

How pleasant? how Divine a Spectacle is this? All things in their primitive purity are spotles Doves, Coelestial Loves, Virgin-Spirits like Angels clothed in white, Eyes that are Springs of purest light and sweetness, looking up from a Divine Light, vailed with a Divine shade, to their Life, their immortal Mates, their Divine Originals, those Doves, those Eyes above, which looking down meet themselves here beneath, in shadowy figures, in sweetest reflections of themselves from the midst of loveliest shades upon a ground of eternal Light.

It is time now to close this Argument. All the Creatures are shadowy Images, both Men and Angels. As are they, so is their Liberty, so are all their motions shadowy, as figures they are all formed and determined by the Life in eternity.

I pass now to the second Argument under this Head.

p. 632. Every Creature is an emanation or stream from the Divine Essence, the emanation of a moment. This is a truth generally establisht upon all the clearest, the firmest Principles of truth, in Philosophy or Divinity, by the most universal consent and harmony in the spirits of learned men, in the nature of things. …sse Creaturae est emanare, The Being of the Creature is the beaming sorth from God, like light from the Sun. The preservation and continuance of things is a continued Creation.

The whole Creation, with every Creature comprehended in it, thorow all the moments of time, to the end of time, riseth up immediately, entirely out of God, as in the first moment of its Being at the beginning of time. The white sheet full of all living Creatures, was let down out of Heaven thrice in the sight of St. Peter. The World is a Divine Light, with all forms of things Angelical or Humane, visible, invisible, appearing in it, let down out of the Heaven of the Godhead, as often as there are moments in its duration. Thus are all things a new World, a new Creation, each twinkling of an Eye brought forth a new, by a fresh glance of the Divine Eye.

If any Creature could subsist one moment apart from God, the first and supream Being, without the particular dependance, a particular derivation, of that moment, it would have the principle of Being in it self, and so eternity in that moment, and so a Godhead.

The connexion, the dependance between God and the Creature, the first, the universal Cause and every Effect, is much more universal, intimate, immediate, inseparable, than that between any effect and any second Gause. We have a demonstration to our sense from the interposal of a Cloud between our eyes and a clear Sky, that the beams are continued streams of light from the body of the Sun. In that moment in which they cease to flow from the Sun, to subsist in the Sun, they cease to be.

It is affirmed of all things material and visible, Fiunt, non sunt; They are sent forth, but subsist not. They are only in the making; in the same moment in which they are brought forth, they are no more.

This is universally true of all Creatures, Men and Angels. They have only a transient, no permanent Being. No eye ever takes in twice the same beam of Light. No man standing upon the bank of a River sees twice the same water present with him. Before he can cast his eye upon it the second time, it is past by, and gone: So is no Creature no appearance the same two moments. We can never say of created Beings or Beauties, of our sweetest Solaces, or bitterest Sufferings, they are. For while we are saying it, they fly away, and are no more; like Lightning, or the shadow upon any point of the Dial. As our Afflictions in the Language of St. Paul, are Afflictions of a moment; so are all our Joys, Glories, and Beings in the Creature. No one of them lasteth two moments.

The Scripture testifies to Jesus Christ of the Heavens and the Earth, As a Garment thou roulest them up, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years fail not. Again, in another p. 64place, Jesus the same yesterday, to day, and for ever. Nothing below Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day, the last moment and this. This is one part of the Vanity mark'd by Solomon in all things beneath this Sun of the Godhead, fixt in the mid-day point of eternity; that thorow their whole Being, they are ever in motion, like the Rivers, and the Wind, In each point of time, one breath, one beam, one stream from the eternal Spirit, succeeds new in the place of the other sprung forth from it in the point of time immediately preceding. The whole Creation, each particular Creature is no more the same, hath no continuance, hath no Unity with it self, save only as it is in Jesus Christ, in its first and eternal Form, its truest Form, its truest Self, in Him, who alone is the true, the substantial, the universal Image of God, the express Image of his Substance, Unity, and Eternity. All created forms are so far only the same, and one in a figure or similitude, as they are sealed with the impression of their Ideal and Original form in Christ, as they subsist in this Root, as they are Garments with which this their eternal Truth and Substance cloathes it self.

In the my stical Fables of the Heathens, the Goddess of Wisdome contending with the God of the Seas, for the tutelage of Athens, made suddainly at once to spring up out of the Earth an Olive-tree in its perfection, with its branches and leaves all green, laden with ripe Olives. When an Olive-tree or an Apple-tree riseth up by degrees from its Kernel to a perfect Plant, when it successively putteth forth it self thorow the Spring and Summer, in buds, in leaves, in blosomes, in fruit, unto a fulness in Autumn; then in that state of maturity, with its leaves, and fruit in full growth and beauty upon it, it standeth up immediately and entirely out of its Ideal, or first Cause, out of the Divine Omnipotency or Almightiness, as if it had never before existed, as if no Summer, no Spring had ever gone before. Yea, the whole Creation round about that Olive-tree, in its present posture with all Plants on Earth, with the present face of Heaven, with the present configuration of all Bodies, of all Humane or Angelical Spirits comes forth from God, as immediately, entirely, absolutely, as when on the third day, all Herbs, Flowers, and Trees first appeared, and rose up in a moment, at once perfect out of the Earth; or as if this present Autumn had been the first, and the beginning of the World, as some suppose that season to have been.

All things in the Creature upon this ground have their order and connexion, not by virtue of any dependance upon each other, but by the force of the eternal Order, the inviolable Harmony in the first Cause, the Ideal, or exemplary World in the Divine Mind. If the Being of the Creature be an emanation, or beaming forth from the first Being; then as the emanation, or flowing forth is distinct, new, and fresh every moment, so is there every moment a new, fresh, distinct World, or Creation.

If man thus with his Soul, his Powers, his Operations, with all the modifications of his whole Person, Body, and Spirit, in each moment p. 65spring forth fresh and full that moment from his first and universal Cause, as Philosophers say, the Sun and his beams were concreated at the beginning of the World; What then is the liberty of the Will in determining it self? Is it any other than this, the truest, the happiest, the only desirable freedome of coming forth as it is sent forth from God, the first, and the best of all things, in a conformity to its eternal Truth, its Original Form, in the highest Beauty, the highest Bliss, the Divine Wisdome and Will?

Reader, if any difficulties arise in thy mind, about the reconciling of the appearances of things in the World so mixt with Good and Evil, the evil of Deformity, the evil of Sin, the deformity of Intellectual Spirits, the most hateful Fountain of all Deformity, the evil of Sufferings, consequent to this Deformity, with this proceding of the Creature distinct and new every moment from God, the pure Fountain of Good, I entreat thee to carry this along in thy thoughts, that the second part of this Discourse is designed for a clear stating, and full examination of all Objections. I am unwilling therefore to disturb my method, to prevent my self, or make Repetitions by bringing in these things here, which are there to be treated of. I entreat thee here only to mark with a skilful and curious eye, whether the foundation of Truth be firmly laid, and whether the building arise regularly out of it. In the second Book, it will be thy part to see whether this building stand fast against the assaults of all contrary appearances, which like the Rivers, the Wind, the Rain, from above, from below, on every side beat upon it. This is enough upon this Head, the universal Nature of the Creature.

4. My fourth Head, from which I draw my Reasonings upon this Subject of Free-will, is, The Nature of the Soul. From the Nature of the Soul we thus reason; the Essence of the Soul, and its Faculties the Understanding, and the Will differ not really, but formally alone. All three are one and the same. Every one is all three in one. They are distinguished according to the distinct forms in which they appear, ever appearing with all their forms in each form.

1. The Essence of the Soul is immaterial, a substantial Act, an undivided Unity, and essential Form, which comprehends the forms of all Essences essentially in it self. We speak all this while of the Intellectual Soul. This Soul then essentially comprehends it self, reflects upon it self, and all forms of things in it self. Thus it springs up into an essential Image of it self, and of all Essences to it self, within it self. Thus is the Essence of the Soul its own Understanding, by virtue of its immaterial Substance, and its substantial Unity.

2. The Understanding of the Soul differs from the senses in two things: 1. The Senses touch and take in their Objects only by material accidents, as shadowy figures. The Understanding toucheth, taketh hold of, and embraceth the Substances themselves incorruptible, immutable in their eternal Truths. 2. The senses take in the Images of their Objects from without, but the Understanding p. 66brings forth its Object in an essential Image from within, which is therefore called Verbum mentis. The Senses being material, are thus passive; but the Understanding, as an immaterial power, altogether active. If the Understanding bring forth from it self, and comprehend within it self the essential and substantial forms of things, it can be no less than a substance it self, and one substance with the Soul in the essence of it. For nothing unsubstantial can receive into it self that which is substantial. We have also said before, that the Soul in its essence or substance essentially comprehends all things in their essential and substantial forms. Let me add this upon the same ground, that if the Soul understand it self, the understanding is every way adequate and equal to the Soul, in as much as it adequately comprehends it.

The Will is described by Thomas Aquinas to be the Inclination of the Soul. It is also a Rule, That every Power or Faculty is distinguished and defined by its Object. The Object of the Will is Good. Good is the perfection of every thing. The suitableness and convenience makes the Goodness. Every thing hath essentially in its nature an inclination to its Good, to its Perfection, to every thing suitable and agreeable to it. Suitableness is from Similitude. Similitude is from Unity. For it is an agreement in the same form. Every thing then hath in its essence an inclination to a suitable Object, to its Perfection, to its Good, as to it self presented distinctly to it self, and to the compleating of it self in the embraces of it self. Thus it appears, that the Soul essentially is its own Will, in as much as its essence taken most abstractedly, being a substantial Act, is in that Act an essential inclination to its own Good and Perfection. Thus also it appears, that the Understanding of the Soul is the Will of the Soul, in as much as in its distinct formality it is an inclination to Truth, as to its proper Perfection and Good.

Again, the most proper and most perfective Act of the Will in its most perfect state is Love. Love is an Union. The Object of the Will is Good in its full Latitude, the essential, substantial, universal Good. The Act of the Will in Love is then a mutual, intimate Union with the Object, by which it adequately comprehends it, and is adequately comprehended by it. The Will then, which is necessarily equal to that which it comprehends, can be no other than the essence or substance of the Soul it self, of which we have before said, that it hath all Essences of things essentially within it self, and so the whole compass of Being compleat within it self. As it represents it self in this whole compass of Being to it self, in a distinct Image, and so reflects upon it self, it is its own Understanding. As it doth by this distinct Image with mutual embraces, mutually comprehend and enjoy it self in Love, and Joy, it is its own Will, its own Love and Joy. So we seem to have proved, that the Will, as it is a distinct faculty, is really, and formally the same with the essence and substance of the Soul.

We will endeavour also to prove, that the Will comprehends the Understanding in its own proper and distinct formality.

p. 671. When the Soul Loves it self, and understands it self, both these Acts fall under the same definition of comprehending it self in a distinct and compleat Image of it self. This Act cannot but be mutual, if the Image of the Soul be adequate to the Soul, and so are Love and Understanding both in one.

2. The Acts and Motions of the Will do imply sense in their essential Formalities. Sense in the Intellectual Soul is Understanding.

3. The Object attracts and acts the Faculty by impressions of it self. The impression of Good upon an Intellectual Subject, is an Intellectual tast or relish of the Good. The impression of an Intellectual Good, which is the proper Object of the VVill, is an Intellectual impression.

4. The VVill, as it is essentially distinguished from the natural Appetite, which inanimate things are naturally moved by; and from the sensitive Appetite proper to bruit Creatures, is defined to be a rational Appetite. Thus it comprehends Reason or Understanding in its essential Form.

So we have attempted to make it plain, that Those three, the Essence, the Understanding, the VVill of the Intellectual Soul, mutually comprehend one another in their essential Formality, and are perfectly adequate one to another, so far as the Soul is in a state of Perfection, perfectly understanding and loving it self.

By the way, In this Glass you may have a pleasant glimps of the Trinity: 1. The Soul in its essence is an Unity comprehending it self, and all created forms of things intirely in one substantial and indivisible Act, as the Fountain of all. This is a shadow of the Father in the Trinity. 2. The Understanding of the Soul is the essential and adequate Image of this Unity, in which it bringeth forth, and contemplates it self within it self. This is the Son, the Word. 3. The VVill is the essential, the intellectual, and adequate Union of these two, with the most full communion and highest complacency, by which they propagate and multiply themselves within themselves into an endless Race of innumerable Forms, in each of which they are still themselves intire and compleat. This is the figure of the Holy Spirit.

Thus he that knows God knows the Soul, as the Picture by the Life; and he that knows the Soul knows God, as the Life by the Picture. Each of these is all to it self within it self: God as the Original Life-World, the Soul as the shadowy VVorld, the World of shadows.

But to conclude this Argument, If the Essence of the Soul, the Understanding and the VVill, be really one, and formally distinct, so that every one comprehends all Three, in its proper Formality, where is that freedome of the VVill, by which it may act independent on the Understanding?

VVe will seal up this Argument with that confirmation of it, which seems to have great strength and clearness. Powers and faculties are distinguished according to their Objects. The Essence of the Soul, the Understanding, and the VVill differ as Being, Truth, and Goodness; not really, but formally only, formally comprehending the formality of each other.

p. 68The Reader is desired to take notice, That how ever the Author, in one of his Copies, intended only this short accompt of this Argument taken from the Nature of the Soul; yet a larger Discourse upon this Head being found amongst his Papers, it is judg'd most fitting in this place to publish it.

The chief Praise of this Age is, that it runs along in a stream directly contrary to the Romish Church, having little veneration for an implicite Faith, Tradition, Antiquity, Universality in the persuit of Truth. Its labour and glory is with its hands, eyes, and spirit, to penetrate and view the first grounds of Truth. I desire it may be as happy, in distinguishing between the upper part of the beam of Light, where it unites it self to its Sun and Fountain, where it is firmest, fullest, brightest, warming, enlivening as well as shining; and the lower part of the beam, which touches the Earth, and the Senses, where it is weak, wavering, obscure, mixt with and vanishing into the darkest shade.

I shall therefore endeavour (taking my rise somewhat high from the Fountain of things) to open the Nature of the Soul with as much clearness and plainness as I am able, and the nature of the Subject will bear, in these three Propositions.

1. Prop. The Intellectual Soul in Man is an Unity altogether indivisible, comprehending Variety, Diversity, Contrariety of Forms, Powers, and Parts, without and above all Division.

2. Prop. This indivisible Unity, containeth in it self the full Variety of all forms created, uncreated, after its own manner, according to its own proper Character.

3. Prop. The most perfect and full Image of God in the midst of the Creation, resulting from the Harmonious Union of the Unity and Variety, is the Soul's Essence, and essential Form.

I design, and hope, so to open and establish these Propositions, that the true Liberty of the Soul in its Operations, may all along shine clearly forth from the Divine ground and form of its proper nature.