An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches

§. 15. Those that say, That Christ and his death and merits did not cause before Existence, in esse existenti, but in esse cognito, as constituting the Divine Idea's, 1. Must remember that the esse cognitum, as they call it, is no esse rei cognita at all; Therefore if only the esse cognitum do cause, then ⟨p. 94⟩it was not Christ and his Merits that caused. 2. In Man for an esse cognitum, to cause his further acts, is but for one Thought to cause another Thought, or a Volition or Nolition. And these Thoughts and Volitions are really divers, and constituted by reception of intromitted Objects: But God is no Recipient, nor knoweth any Object as we do by intromission; Nor hath he any such Thoughts or Idea's of Creatures as are really divers ex parte Dei, but only by extrinsic denomination.

§. 15. Those that say, That Christ and his death and merits did not cause before Existence, in esse existenti, but in esse cognito, as constituting the Divine Idea's, 1. Must remember that the esse cognitum, as they call it, is no esse rei cognita at all; Therefore if only the esse cognitum do cause, then ⟨p. 94⟩it was not Christ and his Merits that caused. 2. In Man for an esse cognitum, to cause his further acts, is but for one Thought to cause another Thought, or a Volition or Nolition. And these Thoughts and Volitions are really divers, and constituted by reception of intromitted Objects: But God is no Recipient, nor knoweth any Object as we do by intromission; Nor hath he any such Thoughts or Idea's of Creatures as are really divers ex parte Dei, but only by extrinsick denomination.

§. 16. If it be said, That then God should know nothing till it is, because a denomination must be from something, and nothing can be no Object or terminus; and so of his Will. I Ans. 1. God doth not know any thing as existent now, which doth not exist now. But our Now is in his Eternity, and his Eternity without partition comprehendeth all our Times; prae and post, ab and ad are Prepositions of no signification in and of Eternity; but only [In]. And therefore as Augustine saith, his Prescience is but his Science so denominated from the Order of Objects, but noteth not any difference in him, who hath neither prae nor post. How this is to be understood without making the Creature eternally exist, I have elsewhere fully opened.