Imatges de pàgina
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thee, then would they refolve upon any Terms to enjoy thee, as they that will be Rich do to enjoy the World, they would even lay hold upon eternal Life, offer violence to the Kingdom of Heaven, and take Happinefs by force. They would never revolt from thee, but would ever continue thine.

influence of the determine them

Effentia Dei eft ipfa Effentia Bonitatis. Unde hoc modo fe ha

bet Angelus videns De
um ad ipfum, ficut fe
babet quicunq; nort
videns Deum ad com-
munem rationem Boni.
Part I.
Aquinas.
Q. 62. Art. 8.

For that alfo is another Effect of this beatifick View. The Bleffed that behold thy Face are thereby confirmed in good beyond all poffibility of declining from it. For the Vifion of thy glorious Effence has the moft efficacious Grace, both to to good, and alfo to confirm them in it * For thy Essence is the very Effence of Goodness, and those that clearly fee it will be as much influenc'd by it, as those that do not fee it are by the general Appearance of Good. And as there is now no poffibility of Averfion from good in common, fo there will be then no declining from thee. Happy Vision that putteft an end to † Sin, when Thall we partake of thy Security, Bleffed Light that chafest away the works of Darknefs, when wilt thou arise upon us? Thou fhalt fhew us thy Glory, O Lord, and then we fhall ever adhere to thee. In the mean

X 2

+Tunc non peccabimus, cum illam faciem viderimus que vincit omnes Concupifcentias. St. Auft. Serm. 49. De Temp. Cap.

9.

time

Part II. time give us thy Grace fo to use our Liberty, that we may have the Reward to lose it in this happy Neceffity.

3dly. To make us Happy. For how can we be otherwife when we have a clear and intimate Vision of thee; and the highest Operation of our Nature is imploy'd upon the most perfect Object of it? Thou, O Lord, art the beft and greateft intelligible Good, and we are Intellectual Beings, whofe nobleft Faculty is our Understanding, and therefore thy Vifion muft needs be truly Beatifick, and to know thee can be no less than eternalLife. Thou art all Good, and therefore they that enjoy thee, muft needs acquiefce in thee. The most Covetous cannot but here be fatisfied; for thy Perfection is an immenfe Sea, and in thee every Faculty will find its proper Object, and every Defire its full Contentment. We fhall be abundantly fatisfied with the Fatnefs of thy House,and thou fhalt make us Drink of the River of thy Pleafures: A River that will thoroughly quench that Thirst which the Waters that we draw out of our own Cifterns do but inflame, and which can never be drawn dry, as being fed by the everlasting Springs of thy infinite Sufficiency. We fhall then love and delight in what we see, and have what we love, and fhall be ever ravished with the Contemplation of thy Beauty, and dwell in the Communion of thy ineffable Joys, and in the embraces of thy

Love,

Love, and fhall eternally Praise and Adore thy Goodness. Amen. Halleluja.

But, O my God, there is a Beatifick Temper as well as a Beatifick Vifion, and Heaven imports not only an outward Poffeffion, but an inward State and Difpofition of Mind. Thy Kingdom is in great measure within us, and as great a good as thou art, every Soul how foever difpofed, is not qualified to enjoy thee. There must be a Wedding Garment provided for the Marriage Feaft. Ŏ Sanctifie us therefore and Purifie us by thy Grace, that we may be meet Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light, and help us to behold thy Face now in Righteoufnefs, that when we awake up after thy Likeness, we may be fatisfied with it.

CHAP. VI.

That all Material Objects, and perhaps moft Spiritual ones, are feen or underftood by the Mediation of Ideas.

I.

WE

have in the foregoing Chapter given an Account of certain Qbjects that are Self-intelligible, and which are perceived by themselves. And they are all of the Immaterial Kind, within which Boundary,as we have hitherto confined our felves, fo I fee not X 3 how

how we can ever pafs beyond it. Not that there appears any neceffity to fuppofe, as we fhall further obferve by and by, that all Objects that are of this Order, are understood by us after this manner, but that there are no other fo understood but they. For às for mate, rial Objects, or things of a Corporeal Nature, that they cannot be understood immediately, or by themselves, there are feveral Reasons to maintain, and fuch as are both clear in themfelves, and distinct from one another.

2. First of all because these Material Objects are without the Mind. I call them Objects because I suppose them to be fome way or other Intelligible, but that they are not Intelligible by themselves, I think this very Confideration is fufficient to evince. For fince there is a neceffity of fome Union between the Act, or rather the Power acting and its Objects, 'tis plain, that whatever is perceived or understood, muft be fome way or other prefent to the Mind. And accordingly the Union of the thing perceived with the perceptive Power, is by Aquinas made as neceffary to Perception as the perceptive Power it felf, when he tells us, That to Vision, both Senfible and Intellectual, two things are requifite, viz. the vifive Power, and the Union of the thing feen with the Sight. Because there is no actual Vision, but by this,

* Part 1. Quest.

12. Art. 2.

that the thing feen is some way or other in the Seer. * Ad vifionem tam fenfibilem quam Intellectualem,

Intellectualem, duo requiruntur, Scilicet virtus vifiva, & unio rei vifa cum vifu. Non enim fit viio in actu, nifi per hoc, quod res vifa quodammodo eft in vidente. Well, but then, if whatever is understood must be fome way or other prefent to the Mind, because no Power can act upon an Object that is utterly diftant from it, then by the fame Proportion whatever is understood by it felf, muft by it felf be immediately prefent to the Mind. But now 'tis plain, that material Objects have not with the Mind any fuch intimate Prefence or Union. And accordingly, continues the fame Doctor in the fame place, That in Corporeal things it is apparent that the things feen cannot be in the Seer by its own Effence, but only by its Similitude. As for inftance, the Similitude of a Stone is in the Eye, by which there is actual vision, and not the very fubftance of the Stone it felf. And therefore we may conclude fince material Objects are not by themselves immediately prefent to the Mind, that therefore they are not by themselves immediately perceived by it. For as where there is no Union at all of the Intelligible Object withthe Intellective Power, there can be no Perception at all; fo where there is no immediate Union, there can be no immediate Perception.

3. But then again 2dly, as thefe material Objects are without the Mind, fo alfo are they utterly disproportionate to it, and therefore 'tis not reasonable to fuppofe, that they are immeX

diately

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