B. Gods operations are called Physical or Moral, 1. In regard of God the Agent. 2. In regard of the means or second causes. 3. Or in respect of the effect.
I. In respect of God the Agent they are not properly either Physical or Moral, but transcendently they are above both; for they are his Essence 1and Will, which is the transcendent Head of all operations and causes, Physical and Moral.
II. As to the Means or second Causes, those acts of God that have no such means or causes are not here concerned: And as for all those that have such means, no doubt but they are to be called both Physical and Moral: for Morality is but Modality or Relation, ex rerum ordine. And all Order, Mode and Relation, is Alicujus entis ordo, Modus & Relatio. And e. g. preaching the Gospel, is such an act of a Physical and Moral Agent, as is it self both Physical and Moral. Man is quaedam natura, and yet Intellectual and Free: And his act is quid physicum in genere entis; and yet quid morale in genere morris, & imputanda juxta l•egem morum.
III. And as to the Effect, it is no doubt, both quid physicum (for Faith is actus realis) and quid morale: For it is morale bonum, & ita reputanda. And will any Arminian deny any of this, that understandeth words? Where then is your difference in this?
B. Gods operations are called Physical or Moral, 1. In regard of God the Agent. 2. In regard of the means or second causes. 3. Or in respect of the effect.
I. In respect of God the Agent they are not properly either Physical or Moral, but transcendently they are above both; for they are his Essence 1and Will, which is the transcendent Head of all operations and causes, Physical and Moral.
II. As to the Means or second Causes, those acts of God that have no such means or causes are not here concerned: And as for all those that have such means, no doubt but they are to be called both Physical and Moral: for Morality is but Modality or Relation, ex rerum ordine. And all Order, Mode and Relation, is Alicujus entis ordo, Modus & Relatio. And e. g. preaching the Gospel, is such an act of a Physical and Moral Agent, as is it self both Physical and Moral. Man is quaedam natura, and yet Intellectual and Free: And his act is quid physicum in genere entis; and yet quid morale in genere moris, & imputanda juxta l•egem morum.
III. And as to the Effect, it is no doubt, both quid physicum (for Faith is actus realis) and quid morale: For it is morale bonum, & ita reputanda. And will any Arminian deny any of this, that understandeth words? Where then is your difference in this?
- 1The Papists who are most for mere moral operations in this Controversy, yet have such strange opinions about the physical operations of Sacraments (e. g. Baptism on Infants) as that they make them to be instruments of Miracles, the Miracle being first wrought upon them (e. g. the water, and then on the receiver. Yea they seem to make God to operate miraculously with every Sacrament.The Papists who are most for meer moral operations in this Controversie, yet have such strange opinions about the physical operations of Sacraments (e. g. Baptism on Infants) as that they make them to be instruments of Miracles, the Miracle being first wrought upon them (e. g. the water, and then on the receiver. Yea they seem to make God to operate miraculously with every Sacrament.
