[ 1541] To have a perfect Knowledg of God, impossible.
WE read in the Prophet Esay of the S••raphins standing about the Throne of the Lord, and that each of them had six wings; that with twain the
Kaina kai palaia Things new and old, or, A store-house of similies, sentences, allegories, apophthegms, adagies, apologues, divine, morall, politicall, &c. : with their severall applications / collected and observed from the writings and sayings of the learned in all ages to this present by John Spencer ...
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- Kaina kai palaia Things new and old, or, A store-house of similies, sentences, allegories, apophthegms, adagies, apologues, divine, morall, politicall, &c. : with their severall applications / collected and observed from the writings and sayings of the learned in all ages to this present by John Spencer ...
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- London :: Printed by W. Wilson and J. Streater, for John Spencer ...,
- 1658.
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"Kaina kai palaia Things new and old, or, A store-house of similies, sentences, allegories, apophthegms, adagies, apologues, divine, morall, politicall, &c. : with their severall applications / collected and observed from the writings and sayings of the learned in all ages to this present by John Spencer ..." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A61120.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 16, 2024.
Pages
Page 533
Cherub covered the face of God, with twain his feet, and with twain he did fly;* 1.1 intimating (as one well noteth on the p••ace) that with twayn they covered his face, the face of God, not their own face; with two wings they covered his feet, not their own feet; They covered his face, his beginning being unknown; they covered his feet, his end being incomprehensible, onely the middle are to be seen; the things which are, whereby there may be some glimmering know∣ledg made out, What God is. Thus as the Wiseman hath it, That which is a••ar off, and exceeding deep,* 1.2 Who can find it out? Who can find out, What God is? The knowledg of him à priori is so far off, that he whose arm is able to break even a bow of steel, is not able to reach it; so far off, that he who is able to make his nest with the Eagle, is not able to fly unto it;* 1.3 And so exceeding deep, that he who could follow the Leviathan, could not faddom it; that he who could set out the center of the Earth, is not able to find it out. And who then is able to reach it? In a word, so far of••, and so deep too, that the depth saith, It is not in me: And the Sea saith, It is not with me: deep to Men and Angels, as ex∣ceeding the capacity of both;* 1.4 Insomuch, that S. Augustine saith, making out the question; What God is? gives this answer, Certè hic est de quo et quum dici∣tur non potest dici, &c. Surely, such a one is he, who when he is spoken of, can∣not be spoken of; who, when he is considered, cannot be considered of; who, when he is compared to any thing, cannot be compared; and when he is defined, groweth greater by defining of him.
Notes
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* 1.1
Origines exp••sit. in Isaiam, cap. 6. 2.
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* 1.2
Eccles. 7. 24.
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* 1.3
Deus res quae∣dam est captu et venatu dif∣ficilis, &c. Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. 2.
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* 1.4
Augustin. de fide, contra Arrianum, cap. 6.