Sect. I.
IT is a principle of the Platonists, That every created thing hath a threefold being; Causal, Formal, Participated. In the Sun there is no heat, that being but an elementary quality, not of Celestiall nature: yet is the Sun the cause and Fountain of all hear. Fire is hot by nature, and its proper form: Wood is not hot of its self, yet is capable of receiving that quality by Fire. Thus hath heat its Causall being in the Sun, its Formall in the Fire, its Participated in the Fuel. The most noble and perfect of these is the Causal: and therefore Platonists assert, That all excellencies are in God after this manner of being; That in God is nothing, but from him all things; That Intellect is not in him, but that he is the original spring of every Intellect. Such is Plotinus's meaning, when he affirms,* 1.1 God neither understands nor knows; that is to say, after a formall way, As Dionysius Areopagita, God is neither an In∣tellectuall nor Intelligent nature, but unspeakably exalted above all In∣tellect and Knowledge.