A14095:340
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 the fallacy of this comparison, and the error of this assertion hath now long ago been discovered by Joannes Scotus: It is true indeed, God must needs coexist with all 1places. and all things in place; but not until the place it self▪ and the things therein do exist: As if the world were twice at big as it is, God should coexist in every part of it; But yet God doth not coexist with any such, because, as yet there is not any such to coexist with him: In like sort God shall coexist with all times, and all things existing in all Times; but when? Not till these times and the things therein shall be found to exist: and as they shall be found to exist, so shall God coexist with them: Now all Times, and all things contained in all times do not exist but by way of succession, (magnitudes exist otherwise, even all together) and in like sort God shall coexist with them, to wit, by way of succession: Nor that Gods existence is or shall be by way of succession; (for nothing in God is found that succeeds any thing in God) But because both times, and creatures in times do exist by way of succession, in respect of whose succession and not of any succession in God, God is denominated, and that properly enough, to coexist with them by way of succession, in as much as they exist, and consequently coexist with him by way of succession: ⟨p. 171⟩Like as a pole fixed in a river doth coexist with divers parts of the stream by way of succession; not that any motion or succession is found in the pole, but only in the parts of the stream, that succeed in their course one after another: velut unda supervenit undo: And albeit Alvarez hath taken great pains and showed great wit in justifying the opinion of Aquinas in this (yet no otherwise then upon the supposition of the predetermination of Gods will) and in dissolving the arguments which Scotus brought against it; and that in such so•t, that in so spinous of matter I have sometimes thought it a matter very difficult to find out a clear solution of his reasons; yet (I thank God) as it was the first work I undertook after I left the university, before ever I thought of dealing with Arminius, so I seem to have fully satisfied my self therein; and am reasonably persuaded of ability to give satisfaction, on that point, to others also.