familiar use amongst those of the same tribe, to seem the most important part of language, and of all other, the terms the most significant and should aërial and ethereal vehicles come once, by the prevalency of that doctrine, to be generally received anywhere, no doubt those terms would make impressions on men's minds, so as to establish them in the persuasion of the reality of such things, as much as peripatetic forms and intentional species have heretofore done. 122. Isaac Barrow. 1630-1677. (History, p. 148.) GOD. The first excellency peculiar to the Christian doctrine I observe to be this; that it assigneth a true, proper, and complete character or notion of God; complete, I mean, not absolutely, but in respect to our condition and capacity; such a notion as agreeth thoroughly with what the best reason dictateth, the works of nature declare, ancient tradition doth attest, and common experience doth intimate, concerning God; such a character as is apt to breed highest love and reverence in men's hearts towards him, to engage them in the strictest practice of duty and obedience to him. It ascribeth unto him all conceivable perfections of nature in the highest degree; it asserteth unto him all his due rights and prerogatives; it commendeth and justifieth to us all his actions and proceedings. For in his essence it representeth him one, eternal, perfectly simple and pure, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, independent, impassible,1 and immutable; as also, according to his essential disposition of will and natural manner of acting, most absolute and free, most good and benign, most holy and just, most veracious and constant; it acknowledgeth him the maker and upholder of all beings, of what nature and what degree soever, both material and immaterial, visible and invisible; it attributeth to him supreme majesty and authority over all. It informeth us that he framed this visible world with especial regard to our use and benefit; that he preserveth it with the same gracious respect; that he governeth us with a particular care and providence, viewing all the thoughts, and ordering all the 1. Impassible, incapable of suffering pain, Lat. impassibilis. actions, of men to good ends, general or particular. It declareth him in his dealings with rational creatures very tender and careful of their good, exceeding beneficent and merciful toward them, compassionate of their evils, placable for their offences, accessible and inclinable to help them at their entreaty, or in their need, yet nowise fond or indulgent to them, not enduring them to proceed in perverse or wanton courses, but impartially just, and inflexibly severe toward all iniquity obstinately pursued; it, in short, describeth him most amiable in his goodness, most terrible in his justice, most glorious and venerable in all his ways of providence: whatever perfection in essence, state, or practice, either philosophers, by rational collection from innate notions, or from contemplation of natural effects, or upon observing occurrences in human affairs, or other institutions from the relics of primitive tradition, by politic reflection upon things, from other fountains, or by other means whatever, have by parts imperfectly, obscurely, and faintly attributed to God, all those our religion, in a full, clear, and peremptory manner, with advantage beyond what I can express, doth ascribe and assert unto him; not intermixing therewith, as other doctrines and institutions may be observed to do, any thing unworthy of him or misbecoming him; adjoining nothing repugnant to that which natural light discerneth or approveth; but showing somewhat beyond what it can descry concerning God's incomprehensible nature and manner of subsistence, his unsearchable counsels of wisdom, his admirable methods of providence, whereby he hath designed to commend his goodness to us, and to glorify his justice; which sorts of truths exceeding man's reach to devise or comprehend, as it becometh God, who so far transcendeth us in wisdom and knowledge, to reveal them; so they, wondrously conspiring with the perfections of God otherwise discernible by us, do argue 2 or confirm the divinity of the doctrine which acquainteth us with them for a doctrine, how plausible soever, which should teach us nothing about God, that by other means could not be found out, and whose bottom common-sense might not fathom,3 there were no urgent cause why we should derive it from heaven, or why we should not rather deem it the invention of some witty or subtile man. 2. Argue, make clear, Lat. arguunt. 2 or embrace; then, the length one can reach with the arms extended. 123. Robert South. 1633-1716. (History, p. 150.) THE STATE OF MAN BEFORE THE FALL. The understanding, the noblest faculty of the mind, was then sublime, clear, and aspiring, and as it were the soul's upper region, lofty and serene, free from the vapours and disturbances of the inferior affections. It was the leading, controlling 2 faculty; all the passions wore the colours of reason; it did not so much persuade as command; it was not consul, but dictator. Discourse 3 was then almost as quick as intuition; it was nimble in proposing, firm in concluding; it could sooner determine than now it can dispute. Like the sun, it had both light and agility; it knew no rest but in motion; no quiet but in activity. It did not so properly apprehend as irradiate the object; not so much find as make things intelligible. It arbitrated upon the several reports of sense, and all the varieties of imagination; not, like a drowsy judge, only hearing, but also directing their verdict. In short, it was vegete, quick, and lively; open as the day, untainted as the morning, full of the innocence and sprightliness of youth; it gave the soul a bright and full view into all things; and it was not only a window," but itself the prospect. Adam came into the world a philosopher, which sufficiently appeared by his writing the nature of things upon their names; he could view essences in themselves, and read forms without the comment of their respective properties; he could see consequents yet dormant in their principles, and effects, yet unborn, in the womb of their causes; his understanding could almost pierce into future contingents, his conjectures improving even to prophecy, or the cer 1. Sublime, exalted, high-toned. 2. Controlling: to control is, derivatively speaking, to keep a contre rolle (Fr.), and thus to be able to check the accounts of subordinate officials. Hence arose the modern meaning, to keep within due limits. 3. Discourse, the discursive faculty, Lat. discursus, the reasoning power, whereby we pass from premises to conclusion; whereas intuition, or insight, is that inborn property of the mind, whereby we attain knowledge without any intervening process. "Discourse of reason" is an ordinary phrase in Shakespeare and the contemporary writers. See also Paradise Lost, v. lines 488, 489. 4. Vegete, fresh, vigorous, nimble. 5. Window, literally wind-eye, the eye or inlet for the wind, ow representing O. E. eáge, eye; though in O. E. itself window was eag-duru, eye door. This last-mentioned circumstance may account for an old spelling, windore, apparently arising from a notion that the word meant the door of the wind. tainties of prediction; till his fall, he was ignorant of nothing but sin; or, at least, it rested in the notion, without the smart of the experiment. Could any difficulty have been proposed, the resolution 6 would have been as early as the proposal; it could not have had time to settle into doubt. 6. Resolution, solution of the difficulty. 124. Gilbert Burnet. 1643-1715. (History, p. 153.) CHARACTER OF WILLIAM III. He had a thin and weak body, was brown-haired, and of. a clear and delicate constitution. He had a Roman eagle nose, bright and sparkling eyes, a large front, and a countenance composed to gravity and authority. All his senses were critical and exquisite. He was always asthmatical; and the dregs of the small-pox falling on his lungs, he had a constant deep cough. His behaviour was solemn and serious, seldom cheerful, and but with a few. He spoke little, and very slowly, and most commonly with a disgusting dryness, which was his character at all times, except in a day of battle; for then he was all fire, though without passion. He was then everywhere, and looked to everything. He had no great advantage from his education. De Witt's discourses were of great use to him; and he, being apprehensive of the observation of those who were looking narrowly into everything he said or did, had brought himself under a habitual caution that he could never shake off, though, in another sense, it proved as hurtful as it was then necessary to his affairs. He spoke Dutch, French, English, and German equally well; and he understood the Latin, Spanish, and Italian; so that he was well fitted to command armies composed of several nations. He had a memory that amazed all about him, for it never failed him. He was an exact observer of men and things. His strength lay rather in a true discerning and sound judgment than in imagination or invention. His designs were always great and good; but it was thought he trusted too much to that, and that he did not descend enough to the humours of his people to make himself and his notions more acceptable to them. This, in a government that has so much 1. Invention, a word once used as expressive of that faculty of the mind by which it creates something new. of freedom in it as ours, was more necessary than he was inclined to believe. His reservedness grew on him; so that it disgusted most of those who served him. But he had observed the errors of too much talking more than those of too cold a silence. He did not like contradiction, nor to have his actions censured; but he loved to employ and favour those who had the arts of complaisance; yet he did not love flatterers. His genius lay chiefly in war, in which his courage was more admired than his conduct. Great errors were often committed by him; but his heroical courage set things right, as it inflamed those who were about him. He was too lavish 2 of money on some occasions, both in his buildings and to his favourites; but too sparing in rewarding3 services, or in encouraging those who brought intelligence. He was apt to take ill impressions of people, and these stuck long with him; but he never carried them to indecent revenges. He gave too much way to his own humour almost in everything, not excepting that which related to his own health. He knew all foreign affairs well, and understood the state of every court in Europe very particularly. He instructed his own ministers himself; but he did not apply enough to affairs at home. He believed the truth of the Christian religion very firmly, and he expressed a horror of atheism and blasphemy; and though there was much of both in his court, yet it was always denied to him and kept out of his sight. He was most exemplarily decent and devout in the public exercises of the worship of God; only on week-days he came too seldom to them. He was an attentive hearer of sermons, and was constant in his private prayers and in reading the Scriptures; and when he spoke of religious matters, which he did not often, it was with a becoming gravity. His indifference as to the forms of church government, and his being zealous for toleration, together with his cold behaviour towards the clergy, gave them generally very ill impressions of him. In his deportment towards all about him, he seemed to make little distinction between the good and the bad, and those who served well or those who served him ill, 2. Lavish, fr. Fr. lavasse, a violent rain, an inundation. 3. Rewarding: formerly all kinds of deeds, whether good or bad, were rewarded or requited; though as it is partly but another form of guerdon (see note 10, p. 132), its radical sense would seem to be the same as its modern. 4. Foreign, Fr. forain, L. L. foraneus, properly means what is foris, or out of doors. |