luntatem et mentem Dei, "the will and mind of God;" which mens, Plato in Timæo maketh animam mundi, "the "soul of the world:" and in his sixth book, De Republica, he calleth it," the law of heaven;" in his Epistles, "the "leader of things to come, and the presence of things past.” But as Cyprian wrote of the incarnation of Christ our Saviour, Mens deficit, vox silet, et non mea tantum, sed etiam angelorum; " My mind faileth, my voice is silent, and not mine “only, but even the voice of angels:" so may all men else say in the understanding and utterance of the ways and works of the creation; for to him, saith 9 Nazianzenus, there is not one substance by which he is, and another by which he can, sed consubstantiale illi est, quicquid ejus est, et quicquid est; "whatsoever attribute of him there is, " and whatsoever he is, it is the very same substance that "himself is." But the Spirit of God which moved upon the waters cannot be taken for a breath, or wind, nor for any other creature, separate from the infinite active power of God, which then formed and distinguished, and which now sustaineth and giveth continuance to the universal. For the Spirit of the Lord filleth all the world; and the same is it which maintaineth all things, saith 'Salomon. If thou send forth thy Spirit, saith David, they are created: and Gregory, Deus suo præsentiali esse, dat omnibus rebus esse, ita quod si se rebus subtraheret, sicut de nihilo facta sunt omnia, sic in nihilum defluerent universa: "God giveth being "to all things, by being present with all things; so as if he "should withdraw himself from them, then as of nothing "the world was made, it would again fall away and vanish "into nothing." And this working of God's Spirit in all things s Virgil hath expressed excellently: Principio cœlum ac terras, camposque liquentes, The heaven, the earth, and all the liquid main, And this was the same Spirit which moved in the universal, and thereby both distinguished and adorned it. His Spirit hath garnished the heavens, saith Job. So then the Spirit of God moved upon the waters, and created in them their spirituality and natural motion; motion brought forth heat; and heat rarefaction, and subtilty of parts. By this Spirit (which gave heat and motion, and thereby operation to every nature, while it moved upon the waters, which were in one indigested lump and u chaos, disposed to all forms alike) was begotten air; an element superior, as lighter than the waters; through whose vast, open, subtile, diaphanic, or transparent body, the light, afterwards created, might easily transpierce: light for the excellency thereof being the first creature which God called good, whose creation immediately followed. This Spirit Chrysostom calleth a vital operation, aquis a Deo insitam, ex qua aquæ non solum motionem, sed et vim procreandi animalia habuerint. He calleth it," a vital operation given by God unto the waters, whereby the waters had not only motion, but also power to procreate or bring forth living creatures."” 66 66 66 SECT. VII. 1 Of the light created, as the material substance of the sun, and of the nature of it, and difficulty of knowledge of it; and of the excellency and use of it: and of motion, and heat annexed unto it. THESE waters were afterwards congregated, and called the sea and this light afterwards (in the fourth day) gathered and united, and called the sun, the organ and in strument of created light. For this first and dispersed light did not, as I conceive, distinguish the night from the day, but with a reference to the sun's creation, and the uniting of the dispersed light therein. This is proved by these words, * Let there be lights in the firmament, to separate the day from the night: which lights in the firmament of heaven were also made for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years, implying a motion instantly to follow, by which days and years are distinguished; after which succeeded time, or together with which that time (which was the measure of motion) began. For that space of the first three days which preceded the sun's creation, or formal perfection, when as yet there was not any motion to be measured, and the day named in the fifth verse, was but such a space, as afterwards by the sun's motion made a civil or natural day. And as waters were the matter of air, of the firmament, and of the lower and upper waters, and of the seas, and creatures therein; earth, the matter of beasts, plants, minerals, and man's body: so may light (for expression sake) be called the chaos, or material substance of the sun, and other lights of heaven: howbeit, neither the sun, nor any thing sensible, is that light itself, y quæ causa est lucidorum, "which is the cause that things are lightsome," (though it make itself and all things else visible :) but a body most illightened, which illuminateth the moon, by whom the neighbouring region (which the Greeks call æther, the place of the supposed element of fire) is affected and qualified, and by it all bodies living in this our air. For this light Avicenna calleth, vehiculum et fomentum omnium cœlestium virtutum et impressionum; "the conductor, and preserver, or nourisher of all celestial virtues and impres❝sions;" nothing descending of heavenly influences but by the medium or means of light. Aristotle calleth "light a quality, inherent or cleaving to a diaphanous body," lumen est qualitas inhærens diaphano: but this may be better 66 66 * Gen. i. 14. y Lux dicitur, quæ se, et omnia vi sibilia facit. Cusan. in Compend. cap. 7. et Exercit. lib. 5. 66 avouched of the heat, which it transporteth, and bringeth with it, or conducteth: which heat, say the Platonicks, Zabeunte lumine residet in subjecto; "the light being departed doth reside in the subject, as warmth in the air," though the same be deprived of light. This light Plotinus and all the Academics make incorporal, and so doth Montanus, cui nec duritia resistit, nec spatium; " which nei"ther hardness resisteth, nor space leaveth." a Aristotle findeth corporality in the beams of light, but it is but by way of repetition of other men's opinions, saith Picolomineus, Democritus, Leucippus, and Epicurus, give materiality to light itself, but improperly for it passeth at an instant from the heaven to the earth; nor is it resisted by any hardness, because it pierceth through the solid body of glass, or other crystalline matter; and whereas it is withstood by unclean and unpure earthy substances, less hard, and more easy to invade than the former, the same is, b quod obstaculum natura terreum atque sordidum, non capit candidam luminis puritatem; "because an obstacle, by nature earthy and foul, doth not receive the pure clear"ness of light:" alluding to that most divine light, which only shineth on those minds which are purged from all worldly dross and human uncleanness. But of this created light there is no agreement in opinion; neither do I marvel at it, for it cannot be found either in the fathers, philosophers, or schoolmen, or other ancient or latter writers, that any of them understood either it or themselves therein all men (to cast off ignorance) have disputed hereof, but there is no man that hath been taught thereby. Thomas Aquinas, (not inferior to any in wit,) as he hath shewed little strength of argument in refuting the opinions of Beda, Hugo, Lombard, Lyranus, and others; so is his own judgment herein as weak as any man's: and most of the schoolmen were rather curious in the nature of terms, and more subtile in distinguishing upon the parts of doctrine already laid down, than discoverers of any thing hidden, Ficin. li.de Lumine, cap. 11. a Picol. de finit. b Plotin. either in philosophy or divinity: of whom it may be truly said, Nihil sapientiæ odiosius acumine nimio; “ Nothing is "more odious to true wisdom, than too acute sharpness." Neither hath the length of time and the search of many learned men (which the same time hath brought forth and devoured) resolved us, whether this light be substantial, corporal, or incorporal: corporal they say it cannot be, because then it could neither pierce the air, nor those hard, solid, and diaphanous bodies, which it doth; and yet every day we see the air illightened: incorporal it cannot be, because it is sensible: sensible it is, because it sometime affecteth the sight of the eye with offence, and therefore by most of the fathers so esteemed. Others say (as Patricius) that it cannot be matter, because no form so excellent as itself to inform it; neither can it be any accident, which is not separable without the destruction of the subject: for light being taken from the sun, the sun is no more the sun in existence. Secondly, If light were proceeding from matter and form, then either, or both, must be one of these, lucid or bright, dark or opaque, diaphanous or transparent; but darkness cannot be parent of light, and things diaphanous (being neither light nor darkness, but capable of either) cannot be the cause of either, and therefore must the matter, or form, or both, be lucid and shining. Lucid and shining obtain their so being of the light; and therefore if we derive this being of light from a former, then would the progress go on infinitely and against nature; and therefore he concludeth, that light in the sun hath his being primarily and immediately of itself, and is therefore the sun's form, and the form of all lucid and shining bodies: but what is taught hereby, let others judge. But in my understanding, lumen (which may be Englished by the word shine) is an intentional species of that which may be Englished by light; and so this shining, Lucida corpora sunt plena sua luce, alienis tenebris impervia. Opaca sunt plena suis tenebris alieno lumine. Transparentia seu diaphana carent suis et lumine et tenebris: alienis et lumine et tenebris permeantur. Scal. subt. ex. 71. RALEGH, HIST. WORLD. VOL. I. е |