Wesley Corpus

Oh rare darkness! ‘Nature has seven chief properties, and can have neither more nor less, because it is a birth from the Deity in nature.’ Is nature a birth from the Deity in nature Is this sense If it be, what kind of proof is it Is it not ignoturn per aeque ignotum [‘To prove an unknown proposition by one equally unknown.’] ‘For God is triune, and nature is triune.’ ‘Nature is triune’! Is not this flat begging the question ‘And hence arise properties, three and three.’ Nay, why not nine and nine’ And that which brings these three and three into union is another property.’ (Part II. p. 64.) Why so Why may it not be two, or five, or nine Is it not rather the will and power of God ‘The first three properties of nature are the whole essence of that desire which is, and is called, “nature”’ (page 69). How Are the properties of a thing the same as the essence of it What confusion is this! But if they were, can a part of its properties be the whole essence of it ‘The first three properties of nature are attraction, resistance, and whirling. In these three properties of the desire you see the reason of the three great laws of matter and motion, and need not be told that Sir Isaac ploughed with Jacob Behmen’s heifer.’ (Page 37.) Just as much as Milton ploughed with Francis Quarles's heifer. How does it appear that these are any of the properties of nature, if you mean by ‘nature’ anything distinct from matter And how are they the properties of desire What a jumbling of dissonant notions is here! ‘The fourth property’ (you affirm, not prove) ‘is called “fire”; the fifth, “the form of light and love.”’ What do you mean by the form of love Are light and love one and the same thing ‘The sixth, “sound or understanding.”’ Are, then, sound and understanding the same thing’ The seventh, “a life of triumphing joy”’ (page 58). Is, then, a life of triumphing joy ‘that which brings the three and three properties into union’ If so, how can it be ‘the result of that union’ Do these things hang together