A14095:149
A discovery of D. Jacksons vanity. Or A perspective glass, whereby the admirers of…A discovery of D. Iacksons vanitie. Or A perspective glasse, wherby the admirers of…
A discovery of D. Jacksons vanity. Or A perspective glass, whereby the admirers of D. Jacksons profound discourses, may see the vanity and weakness of them, in sundry passages, and especially so far as they tend to the undermining of the doctrine hitherto received. Written by William Twice, Doctor of Divinity, as they say, from whom the copy came to the pressA discovery of D. Iacksons vanitie. Or A perspective glasse, wherby the admirers of D. Iacksons profound discourses, may see the vanitie and weaknesse of them, in sundry passages, and especially so farre as they tende to the undermining of the doctrine hitherto received. Written by William Twisse, Doctor of Divinitie, as they say, from whom the copie came to the presse
Amsterdam: printed by the successors of Giles Thorp, 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.
But as for the name nothing, that hath no magnitude at all, neither of corporal extension, nor of spiritual perfection, unless you will return to the imaginary distance of space without the Heavens, which but erst you disputed against. For no immensity otherwise can be found in this your nothing, which you advance so high as in eternity and immensity, to be so like to God, as no creature, no positive essence, no numerable part of this Universe more, or so much. If in consideration of the most monstrous incongruity of your assertion, and that as God hath his being necessarily, so it is a thing utterly impossible, that nothing should have any being; to shift your self out of this absurdity, you shall say, that by nothing you understand not the negation or privation of any thing whatsoever (which yet was delivered by you without all limitation) but only the negation and privation of things created: yet herein you shall fall into a new non-sense. For then your proposition shall run thus in effect, No creature is so like unto God ⟨p. 100⟩as no creature, which yet is as untrue as absurd. For surely every creature is more like unto God, then no creature, in as much as it hath a true being, which the negation or privation of a creature hath not. And yet you consider not that in this sense, nothing, hath an end of days. For as soon as the World began to be, forthwith ceased the being of nothing which went before it. But you proceed to take the word nothing in a more large signification, as when you forthwith say, The negation of all things is more like unto God then any one thing; You were as good say, that it is more like unto God, then God himself, yea then the Son is like unto the Father. What blasphemous conceits are these, & how fit for Atheists to make merry withal. And that you may not seem to run mad without all reason, you add a reason unto it, and the reason is this, Because no distinct or proper place of residence can be assigned to nothing, or to the negation of all things. A most absurd reason, and only plausible unto them, that have lost their wits, in the wilderness of their confused imaginations as you have done.
But as for the name nothing, that hathe no magnitude at all, neyther of corporall extension, nor of spirituall perfection, unles you will returne to the imaginary distance of space without the Heavens, which but erst you disputed against. For no immensitie otherwise can be found in this your nothing, which you advance so high as in eternitie and immensitie, to be so like to God, as no creature, no positive essence, no numerable part of this Vniverse more, or so much. If in consideration of the most monstruous incongruitie of your assertion, and that as God hath his beinge necessarily, so it is a thing utterly impossible, that nothing should have any being; to shift your selfe out of this absurditie, you shall say, that by nothing you understand not the negation or privation of any thinge whatsoever (which yet was delivered by you without all limitation) but only the negation and privation of things created: yet herein you shall fall into a newe non-sense. For then your proposition shall runne thus in effect, No creature is so like unto God