Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	blood_n	body_n	spirit_n	1,496	5	4.9543	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69655	Autarchy, or, The art of self-government in a moral essay : in three parts : first written to a gentleman in the university, and since fitted for publick use.	G. B. (George Burghope)	1691 (1691)	Wing B5730; ESTC R4200	63,862	179

Climax So great is our aversion to Death our greatest Friend that would put an End to our Troubles and lay us up in Peace Young men put it far from them and Old men do not care to hear of it though descending down towards their Grave And I have experienc'd in my self now entring into my Declination a kind of Reluctancy to be told I was so far on my Journey I conclude therefore that there is something in Nature some Relict of the Old man that is afraid of Death though she carries it within her and thus perhaps it will be with you and therefore to please the lower Soul and reconcile it to the Government of the upper I shall endeavour to shew that it is the usual Gift and natural Consequent of Autocracy § 4. To this Purpose it will suffice to propose this one Consideration viz. That There is nothing that can conduce more directly to the Health of the Body and consequently to its Preservation to Old Age than the regular Vse of Meat Drink and animal Pleasures which Self-Government enjoins This alone is able to preserve Health and to recover it when lost and if some Original Distemper or fatal Providence interpose not to convey it down to Old Age to procure the Vigour of Youth in Age and a healthful and strong Constitution and consequently a Long Life c. This Truth is self-apparent and shines by its own Light for most Diseases are confess'd to be the Effects of Intemperance Vice tends to our Ruine from its first Entertainment and the Body of Sin naturally leads us to the Body of Death Excesses bring Sickness and Surfeiting will turn to Choler By surfeiting many have perished but he that taketh heed prolongeth his Life saith the wise Son of Sirach Ecclus 37. 30. Instances will best illustrate this Truth for their Conviction For thus the Glutton lives to eat not eats to live but to die when by contrarieties of Meats and Drinks he hath vitiated his Appetite and collected a Mass of Crudities in his Stomach the morbifick Matter which at last sends him out of the World Thus the Drunkard drowns himself in a Dropsie or by a Collection of Adventitious Heats inflames his Blood into a Fever when he shall call for Drink without Satisfaction and use it without Offence And I wish it were seriously considered how peculiar an Enemy this Sin is to our Lives and of how many sad Accidents it is the cause some times fatal to Body and Soul of which we have too many Examples So false is that flattering Proverb A Drunkard never takes hurt And indeed Drunkenness is a kind of Daemoniacism and taking away the use of the Members of the Body and Operations of the Soul the evil Spirit casts him sometimes into the Fire and sometimes into the Water Nor is it a wonder that when the internal Principle of Direction the Understanding is destroyed the Guardian Angel driven away and kept at a distance the Devil should take the advantage to do a Man a Mischief In a word Intemperance is such an universal Purveyor for the Grave that it is become long since a Proverb Plures gulâ quam gladio c. The Throat is the greatest Enemy as well as Preserver to it self and destroys more than the Sword Thus the impure Slave that with an Adulterous Eye pursues every Woman besides his Fears and Dangers wears out his Body and twists up his own Scourge A Disease I mean that destroys his Form and Beauty torments him with Pains when he should take his rest makes him water his Couch with his Tears and his Bed to be the Place of his Punishment because it was the Place of his Folly and at last consigns him over to Rottenness and to become his own Sepulchre And if Whoredoms and Adulteries do not always produce such Tragedies 't is because they are in some Measure restrain'd and so it is the Effect of Autarchy Nay those immaterial Diseases those of the Mind I mean that are not so conversant with gross Matter even these become prejudicial if not fatal to our Lives and Health Covetousness pines and withers the Body Envy dries it up and makes it pale and Pride begets Quarrels Contentions and Wars that send thousands to the Grave together I need not instance in more for 't is the Confession and Complaint of emasculated Debauchees that their Vices have been their Enemies and contributed to their Destruction So that there is a natural Reason as well as Providence in the Sentence of the wise Solomon Evil shall pursue the Sinner and he shall not prolong his days Prov. 10. 27. 13. 21. Eccles 8. 13. 'T is Autarchy alone that prescribes Moderation that distinguisheth betwixt the Abuse and Use betwixt the Poison and Nutriment of Meat and Drink that maintains a due Temperament and satisfies that Nature that she preserves § 5. And here I cannot conceive what Sensuality hath to say for it self and in its own defence unless it is by way of Recrimination Unless she leads you to the Cells of Asceticks and the Oratories of Recluses and shews you the pale and lean Effects of Fasting and Mortification the Skeletons of some few Saints who chose to anticipate Death and die whilst they lived See there will she say the Effects of Bigottism and Religious Frenzie what she would reduce the World to if she could procure once a perfect Empire there And what can Luxury it self do more Besides thou mayst observe that Wise men die as soon and as well as Fools and the Righteous fall promiscuously with the Wicked Alas Death makes no difference nor can Integrity Wisdom Valour or Parts oppose him The End of Man is determin'd and then why should the Means be blam'd he was to die at that time and therefore why should his Vices be accus'd for bringing him thither Thus Sin is ready to excuse it self though she lays the Fault at God's door and on his everlasting Decrees To all which I answer briefly First Waving the Question about the determination of our Lives of which I shall find occasion to give you mine opinion towards the end of this Discourse I say as to the Hardships Fastings and Mortifications of restraining Vertue I cannot find as I noted before that Autarchy absolutely and universally prescribes them but only where our particular necessities require them God hath given his Creatures richly though moderately to be enjoy'd and having given us his Son with him hath given us all things But when the Beast within the Sensual part begins to wax fat and kicks against its Master and Maker both there is then but too apparent Symptoms of a Spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an evil Habit of Mind and then Fasting and other Ghostly Exercises become our Duty For it is Physick to the Body as well as Soul and serves mutually their Necessities Besides I do not find any Command even in that Case to make our selves sick or to impair our

without any consideration of its Consequents or Effects For the brutish Part ●n Man is the same with that in Beasts uncapable of the future Prospect of Good and Evil and fully satisfied with what is present So truly Bestial is this lower part of our Nature that it admits not of Hopes or Fears but tends greedily to present Enjoyment This is that Conduit by which the Devil conveys his Temptations into us and the Instrument by which we destroy our selves Hence it is that we know no Moderation in the use of animal Pleasures but run into that Excess from whence proceeds the dreadful Catalogue of Crimes which St. Paul enumerates as The Fruits of the Flesh Gal. 5. 19 20 21. § 8. It may be here questioned by some with more Curiosity perhaps than Profit were it not that we should be jealous over every thing that might eclipse the Divine Goodness Why th● ever Gracious and Merciful Deity should infuse the Pure Spirit fresh new-created and immaculate into the defil'd Vessels of the Body Why should he join such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such disagreeing Natures the Heavenly to the Earthly Vehicle there to lose not only its Glory but Innocency For what is this but Mezentius like might Atheism object to join the living and dead Bodies together that the one might die leisurely but infallibly by the Putrefaction of the other or to put an undefiled Virgin innocent and unknowing of Sin into the Stews where she shall meet with Temptations of all sorts to sollicite her Chastity and from whence morally it is impossible for her to escape unpolluted 'T is true the Doctrine of the continual Creation of humane Souls and their Infusion into Bodies is obvious to these and other mighty Prejudices as that of their Traduction is to greater and therefore some thoughtful Men have revived a long-since-forgotten Hypothesis of the Creation of all humane Souls together with the Angels and other invisible Beings before that of the visible of their Lapse from their Primitive Integrity as likewise did the Angels and Mankind after both and after a long time of Inactivity of their being sent down to Bodies diversly circumstantiated according to their several demerits there to grind in their Prison-houses till Time had worn out and the Divine Pity forgiven them their Crimes till Grace and the Exercise of Vertue had reviv'd the Coelestial Fire and the lost Image of God in them c. This is the Prae-existentian Doctrine which they say would fitly solve all the doubts about the Goodness of God in our Origination and dissolve all that Darkness that seems to obscure the Face of Providence I mention not this Opinion because I would oblige any Man to believe it but for its Novelty as to most Men and for its Ingenuity nor would I perswade you to it if you can clea● the Divine Goodness or Justice withou● it For it is not only the Privilege of the Schools to dispute but of every Christian modestly to opine freely of things undefin'd by God and his Church B●● seeing this Hypothesis receives so littl● Light from reveal'd Religion that it i● generally look'd upon as the Product o● Fancy I shall endeavour to untie th● Knot in plainer Terms and upon mor● allowed Principles wherein I must ye● run back as high as the Fall of Angels § 9. When Heaven by the Lapse o● so many of its Inhabitants first int● a state of Sin and then into that o● Punishment bound up in everlasting Chains against the Judgment of the grea● Day became something empty and the Coelestial Powers were reduced to a lesser Number it pleased the Creatour of al● things in order to the filling up of those Vacancies to make a Race of Creatures of a mixt and middle Nature a little lower than the Angels and yet higher than the Beasts that perish Man I mean Partaker of both the Heavenly and Earthly Natures united together that the Earthly Part might teach him Humility to avoid the aspiring thoughts and so the Fate of the lapsed Angels and that the Heavenly Part might exalt his Thoughts and lift them up to God his Creator As his Strength and Endowments were lesser than those of the Angels so were his Failures less fatal than theirs He was plac'd in a state not of Condemnation in case of disobedience as they were but of Falls and Recoveries of Sin and Repentance His Station was not so high as theirs lest if he fell his Fall might prove like theirs Final and yet high enough to make his Recovery a Work not a Pastime and a Work of that Difficulty to require the Help of a Divine Saviour Thus his very Composition became his ●dvantage and his Earthly Part with its attendant Lusts and Temptations became accidentally the Cause of all the Mercies he hath received ever since To which I may add That as he consists of two opposite Principles so each must have its peculiar Law or Inclination in opposition one to another That of the Spirit and that of the Flesh each tending as it were to its proper Centre the one inviting him upwards the other downwards For each Nature would be incompleat without its attendant Inclinations and Fruitions to caress it The Spiritual would be as good as dead without its Intellect and Prospect and consequently Desires of Future Good and the Earthly part had as good cease to be as cease to be sensible of Earthly Pleasures If we could not experiment the Delights of Seeing Hearing Tasting c. how dull and flat would our Lives be like a Play without Scenes or Intrigue without the Passions of Love or Hatred or any thing to move the Spectators 'T is then not only out of a Principle of giving each Nature its Perfections but also for the Comfort of both that God hath endued us with Sense and Appetite as well as Reason For these take off the Acerbities of Life and render it tolerable they support the Body and Mind under all the Pressures that God lays upon both under the Sun Without these Life would not be worth the Acceptance when proffer'd or Preservation when accepted of § 10. And that which perfectly rebates the Objection against the Goodness of God is this That there is no necessity of Sinning intended to be imposed upon us for our Appetites and Passions are not sinful in themselves nor directly and simply incite us to it but by accident when put in a Commotion and Rage and when the Reins are loose and broken like the Horses of the Sun when a foolish Phaeton undertakes their Management which would otherwise bless that World with Light and Influence which it now burns up Or like the Blood in a ferment that sometimes destroys that Body it daily nourishes 'T is their Nature 't is true to desire to be satisfied and move strongly towards that Object they would enjoy else we should have no Love or Hatred but they are design'd for Subjection and not for Government to