A25294:293
The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easy draught of the Christian…The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easie draught of the Christian…
The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easy draught of the Christian catechism in LII lectures on chosen texts of Scripture, for each Lords-day of the year, learnedly and perspicuously illustrated with doctrines, reasons, and uses / by that reverend and worthy labourer in the Lord's vineyard, William Ames ...The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easie draught of the Christian catechisme in LII lectures on chosen texts of Scripture, for each Lords-day of the year, learnedly and perspicuously illustrated with doctrines, reasons, and uses / by that reverend and worthy laborer in the Lord's vineyard, William Ames ...
London: printed by T. Mabb for Thomas Davies, 1659
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Reas. 2. Because to be, or to exist, agreeth so imperfectly to the creature, that if it were removed or separated from the first being, whence the beginning of its being was, it would presently cease to be. For as in the enlightening of the air, the light is so received by the air, that so soon as ever the Sun is removed from it, whence this illumination dependeth, the air presently ceaseth to be illuminated; so is it in this business.
Reas. 2. Because to be, or to exist, agreeth so imperfectly to the creature, that if it were removed or separated from the first being, whence the beginning of its being was, it would presently cease to be. For as in the enlightening of the aire, the light is so received by the aire, that so soon as ever the Sun is removed from it, whence this illumination dependeth, the air presently ceaseth to be illuminated; so is it in this busiess.
Reas. 3. Because God is so universally and inwardly the cause of the creature, that he is not ⟨p. 70⟩only in place of an external efficient cause, but also of an internal, and doth no whit less communicate to things their being, than matter and form, which are other internal causes, and essential too, which being taken away, the essence and being of such things is taken away it self. Although therefore many effects consist or keep their being, when their efficient causes are removed or ceased, as a building remains after the death of its builder; yet without the presence and power of God the creature can no more consist and keep its being, than without its matter and form.
Reas. 3. Because God is so universally and inwardly the cause of the creature, that he is not ⟨p. 70⟩onely in place of an external efficient cause, but also of an internal, and doth no whit less communica•e to things their being, than matter and form, which are other internal causes, and essential too, which being taken away, the essence and being of such things is taken away it self. Although therefore many effects consist or keep their being, when their efficient causes are remov'd or ceas'd, as a building remains after the death of its builder; yet without the presence and power of God the creature can no more consist and keep its being, than without its matter and form.