A17385:1248
A commentary upon the three first chapters of the first Epistle general of St.…A commentary upon the three first chapters of the first Epistle generall of St.…
A commentary upon the three first chapters of the first Epistle general of St. Peter Wherein are most judiciously and profitably handled such points of doctrine as naturally flow from the text. Together with a very useful application thereof: and many good rules for a godly life. By Nicholas Byfield preacher of Gods Word at Isleworth in Middlesex. To which is now newly added an alphabetical table, not formerly published.A commentary upon the three first chapters of the first Epistle generall of St. Peter VVherin are most judiciously and profitably handled such points of doctrine as naturally flow from the text. Together with a very usefull application thereof: and many good rules for a godly life. By Nicholas Byfield preacher of Gods Word at Isleworth in Middlesex. To which is now newly added an alphabeticall table, not formerly published.
London: printed by Miles Flesher and Robert Young, 1637
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.
Thus of the manner of the knowledge, as it was shadowed out in the old law.
Now thirdly I consider of the kind of knowledge more distinctly that is §3in the Angels, and that both negatively and affirmatively.
1. Negatively. We must lay this as a ground,1 that the knowledge of Angels is not sensitive, but contemplative, that is, it is not by sense. They do not know things as we do, by seeing, or hearing, or smelling, or rasting, or feeling. They have no eyes to look upon things withal, nor do they know things by images, or by reason, as the souls of men do. When we conceive of any thing, we conceive of it either by images in the fantasy, or we find it out by reasoning or discourse, and so make judgement of it, and this judgement is as it were the eyes of the soul: but thus do not the Angels know things, nor do they know things by their essence as God doth. For Gods essence is as it were an infinite looking glass, in which all things shine in their natures and motions, and so he knows them. That God that hath given virtue to precious stones or glasses to show things remote from them, hath such a power in his own being infinitely much more: but thus do not the Angels know things. Thus negatively.
1. Negatively. We must lay this as a ground,1 that the knowledge of Angels is not sensitive, but contemplative, that is, it is not by sense. They doe not know things as we doe, by seeing, or hearing, or smelling, or rasting, or feeling. They have no eyes to looke upon things withall, nor doe they know things by images, or by reason, as the soules of men doe. When we conceive of any thing, we conceive of it either by images in the phantasie, or we find it out by reasoning or discourse, and so make judgement of it, and this judgement is as it were the eyes of the soule: but thus doe not the Angels know things, nor doe they know things by their essence as God doth. For Gods essence is as it were an infinite looking glasse, in which all things shine in their natures and motions, and so he knowes them. That God that hath given vertue to precious stones or glasses to shew things remote from them, hath such a power in his owne being infinitely much more: but thus doe not the Angels know things. Thus negatively.