A55305:187
The divine will considered in its eternal decrees, and holy execution of them. By…
The divine will considered in its eternal decrees, and holy execution of them. By Edward Polhill of Burwash in Sussex Esquire
London : printed, and are to be sold by Thomas Shelmerdine, at the sign of the Rose-Tree in Little-Britain, 1695
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.
2. By the very nature of Preservation, what is it but continuata Creatio? God is still a making the Angels, and building the Heavens, my Father worketh hitherto, saith Christ, Joh. 5. 17. He doth per intimam operationem continuò facere. Creatura (saith a famous School-man) quamdiu est, creatura Deo, quia pro quolibet instanti habet esse à Deo. Preservation is but the eking out of Creation, and therefore can be from no other but God alone. Omnia in illo subsistunt à quo creata sunt. But to pass on;
2. By the very nature of Preservation, what is it but continuata Creatio? God is still a making the Angels, and building the Heavens, my Father worketh hitherto, saith Christ, Joh. 5. 17. He doth per intimam operationem continuò facere. Creatura (saith a famous School-man) quamdiu est, creatura Deo, quia pro quolibet instanti habet esse à Deo. Preservation is but the eeking out of Creation, and therefore can be from no other but God alone. Omnia in illo subsistunt à quo creata sunt. But to pass on;
4. The preservation of all is from God, according to his Decree; and this is evinced by these Reasons.
1. Either God preserves Creatures naturally or freely: not naturally, for then he should preserve them perpetually, and so every Fly must run parallel in Eternity with an Angel; nor naturally, for then he should preserve them uniformly, and so every mortal body would subsist without food as well as the immaterial Spirits; therefore he preserves them freely. There be various ways of Preservation, viz. Preservation of Creatures as to their Being, and as to their adjuncts of order, beauty, goodness and truth; Preservation of them as to their individuals and as to their kinds; Preservation of individuals by means and without means; preservation of them in perpetuum and for certain periods of time. Now all this variety of Preservations doth evidently display the glorious liberty of the divine Will in the dispensing thereof. Angels are preserved in their individual Beings, and that in perpetuum, and that without means; but the Nodus perpetuitatis is the divine