A09977:644
Life eternalLife eternall
Life eternal or, A treatise of the knowledge of the divine essence and attributes Delivered in XVIII. sermons. By the late faithful and worthy minister of Jesus Christ, John Preston, D. in Divinity, chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty, master of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolns Inn.Life eternall or, A treatise of the knowledge of the divine essence and attributes Delivered in XVIII. sermons. By the late faithfull and worthy minister of Iesus Christ, Iohn Preston, D. in Divinity, chaplaine in ordinary to his Majestie, master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher of Lincolns Inne.
London: printed by Richard, 1631
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The reasons of this Infiniteness are these.
The reasons of this Infinitenesse are these.
First, from this very place,1 I AM hath sent me unto you; I AM, shows that he hath a being from himself, if so, then he had no cause. Now from hence, as in that he had no efficient nor final cause, he is eternal: so in that he hath neither matter nor form, he is infinite and incomprehensible. ⟨p. 128⟩And that is the reason that he hath an unlimited essence, because all limitation proceeds either from the matter or from the form: the form is contracted by the matter: again, the matter would be indefinite, but it is contracted and bounded by the form. Now GOD hath neither matter nor form, nor nothing like it: therefore he is infinite. All the creatures they have their several kinds: the Angels they have no matter, yet they have something in them answerable to matter and form, wherein they agree, and disagree with other creatures: and therefore they are one kind of creatures, and man another; which shows that they have forms to bound and limit them, and that the essence of the Angels goes so far, and no farther; and so the essence of man, &c. But in GOD there is no similitude of any such thing, there is no Esse receptum, there is no limits in him, nothing to bind his essence: whereas they are Entia in a certain kind, he is simpliciter Ens, and therefore without all limitation, and so must be immense.
First, from this very place,1 I AM hath sent me unto you; I AM, shewes that he hath a being from himselfe, if so, then he had no cause. Now from hence, as in that he had no efficient nor finall cause, he is eternall: so in that he hath neither matter nor forme, hee is infinite and incomprehensible.