A14095:863
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 besides this succession in man of coexistence with other creatures, there is also a succession in man which is not in God. For he groweth or diminisheth in the quantity of his body, he is changed and altered to and fro in the qualities both of body and soul. In body sometimes hot, sometimes cold, sometime fair, sometimes foul. In soul he hath for a while a growth in knowledge, afterward he […] and decayeth in knowledge. As for the duration of his essence, that is without succession, as the Angels are. And to continue the same as God doth, is not to gain ought, but to keep that which he hath. God is always; so are Angels since the time they have been. The manner of Gods duration is indivisible; such also is reputed the duration of Angels; whom Schoolmen acknowledge, not to be measured by time, but by Aevum as touching their substance; only as touching their thoughts, whereof there may be a succession, they have invented a discreet time to be the measure thereof. God loseth no existence by antiquity: man neither loseth nor gets existence by continuance. For how should the continuation of existence be the losing of it? and how can he get that which he hath already? Accidents are gotten and lost, I confess, nothing so in God. Thus your fancies cast about to gain some confirmation of your former erroneous conceit, of Gods coexistence with all parts of time; but nothing serves your turn. If by continuance alone we did gain any thing, which before we had not, God himself should gain something which before he had not. For without doubt he hath ⟨p. 351⟩continuance. Times passing (you say) exonerate themselves into the Ocean of his infinite duration without enlarging it; Times coming incessantly flow from it without diminution of it. No doubt you please your self in these expressions: To me they are worse then Empedocles his Androprora were to Aristotle. There is no canting like unto this. The waters that run into the Sea, are a part of the Sea; thence they came, and thither they return, as Solomon telleth us. And therefore no marvel 1if the Sea neither is diminished by their egress, nor by their regress enlarged. No creatures duration is a part of Gods duration, as the rivers are part of the sea. And how doth our duration flow from Gods, but as an efficient cause, and that equivocal, that is wholly different?
But besides this succession in man of coexistence with other creatures, there is also a succession in man which is not in God. For he groweth or diminisheth in the quantity of his body, he is changed and altered to and fro in the qualities both of body and soule. In body sometimes hot, sometimes cold, sometime faire, sometimes foule. In soule he hath for a while a growth in knowledge, afterward hee and decayeth in knowledge. As for the duration of his essence, that is without succession, as the Angels are. And to continue the same as God doth, is not to gaine ought, but to keep that which he hath. God is alwayes; so are Angels since the time they have beene. The manner of Gods duration is indivisible; such also is reputed the duration of Angels; whom Schoolemen acknowledge, not to be measured by time, but by Aevum as touching their substance; onely as touching their thoughts, whereof there may be a succession, they have invented a discreet time to be the measure thereof. God loseth no existence by antiquity: man neither loseth nor gets existence by continuance. For how should the continuation of existence be the losing of it? and how can hee get that which he hath already? Accidents are gotten and lost, I confesse, nothing so in God. Thus your fancies cast about to gaine some confirmation of your former erroneous conceit, of Gods coexistence with all parts of time; but nothing serves your turne. If by continuance alone we did gaine any thing, which before we had not, God himselfe should gaine something which before he had not. For without doubt hee hath