Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A36909
|
The visions of the soul, before it comes into the body in several dialogues / written by a member of the Anthenian Society.
|
Dunton, John, 1659-1733.
|
1692
(1692)
|
Wing D2634; ESTC R18582
|
76,133
|
186
|
but I 'm not so conceited and positive as to believe this the reason if you can give me a better But however I must beg the liberty to be positive in my next Cannon viz. Fifth Cannon That the cause of Winds flying backward and forward is the breathing of the World just as Mankind sucks breath in and out To prove this for I know you expect no less than a Demonstration I need not say you must consider for you do That there can be no Effect without a Cause no Motion without a Mover The Opinions that pass in this and the lower World too have not been enough examin'd viz. That the Sun Moon and Stars being Monstrous Bodies and continually upon the hurry 't is suppos'd that they moving drive the Winds along with 'em and that the difference of their Motions causes different Winds or an Agitation of the Air this and that way which is impossible because then we shou'd have no Westerly Winds most of the Erratick Stars moving Westward which hinder the Winds from coming that way besides all Southern and Nothern Winds wou'd be unnatural but we know that they are as common as Easterly Winds Nor wou'd the Rarification of Water as the Philosophers in the lower World Dream be enough to supply such great Winds and Hurricanes as sometimes happen for they only proceed immediately from the lungs of the World when it has catch'd cold or is dispos'd to Laugh or Whistle which makes the Air fly faster out I might add here instead of putting it into another Cannon That all Earthquakes proceed from the sighing of the World when 't is in a melancholy Humour for it raising up its Body as Man does his Breast when he sighs and being brittle where it has the fewest Ribs I mean Mines Quarries c. as vulgarly called the Buildings and Cities standing in those places tumble in into 's Bowels to secure themselves from a transport into the World of the Moon Well Gentlemen I hope 't is your Silence that gives Consent unto these Truths and not an Amazement at their Novelty In Confidence whereof I proceed to my Sixth Cannon viz. That Stars are the Bubbies of the World at which all Astrologers suck and that all that don't love Astrology were put out to Nurse and wein'd with grosser Dyet But I beg your Pardon Gentlemen I turn'd over a wrong Leaf this is your own received Principle therefore no need to prove it I meant thus That 't is as possible for an Ass to drink up the Moon as to cure Wounds by Sympathy Consist Ay indeed now you say something that is as much as to say 't is possible for an Ass to suck out one of the Eyes of the World for so you call'd it but just now but prav before you prove it prove a possibility that it may be proved Pr. Pray Gentlemen let me have fair play I mean the liberty of a Philosopher If I prove it I also prove a possibility of proving it Don't Consist Yes Pr. Very well To proceed then I am to tell you that my Correspondence from the other World is very good and creditable and 't is often found there that the Man travels in pains of Childbirth when the VVoman her self is Deliver'd without pain That if some sort of Leaves are rub'd whilst growing upon a Corn VVart c. that Corn or Wart shall die as the Leaf withers away Thus small ideal parts or fancy'd Representatives of what is real have the same Sympathetick Effect that a true Cause wou'd have when you come into the other World read Sir Kenelm Digby's Works in this kind Now those that can deny an Ass to have no Fancy deny themselves any But to be short and give you an Instance that is matter of Fact One of my Correspondents Ludov. vives gave me an account of a certain People that did imprison an Ass for drinking up the Moon the manner was thus The Ass being driven to the Water to drink the Moon shin'd very bright and reflected in the water just where the Ass drunk the Ass fancy'd strongly pull'd hard to draw in the Moon and it had the effect accordingly tho' some were so silly as to believe the Moon being in danger slipt out of sight behind a Cloud Hereupon the Ass was brought to the Bar to receive a Sentence according to his Deserts and as the Senate were gravely debating the matter one starts up a little wiser perhaps than the rest and made the short following Speech Gentlemen 'T is my private Opinion and I hope not unreasonably that 't is no trifling business for our Town to loose its Moon and I know but of one way to recover it again viz. by giving the Ass a strong Vomit to weaken his Fancy for 't is that that keeps the Moon a Prisoner in his Maw No says another I think it much better that the Ass be cut up and the Moon taken out of him in short they handled the Ass so severely that he had forgot his Supper and the Moon stole whole and undigested again into its own place against the next Night but ever after play'd at Bo-peep when she saw the Ass come near the Water Gentleman 't is all matter of Fact and as great a truth as my next Position Seventh Cannon That those Devils that were furthest pursu'd by Michael and his Angels viz. as far as the middle Region of the Air are all Taylors and cut out the Clouds into Shapes of Hogs Trees Ships Dromedaries c. on purpose to be talk'd on and wondered at by the ignorant Country People of the World below To prove which you may be pleas'd to remember the Prince of Wicked Angels fell by Pride in endeavouring to be like his Maker and when he was excluded and chased out of Heaven he cou'd not forget the Notion but wou'd yet be imitating and make the Representations of all Creatures in Clouds and Condens'd Bodies of Air I might if there was occasion to strengthen this Argument add that he has also his Oracles Miracles Sacrifices Priests in short above one half of the World his true and faithful Servents and all this because the old Notion of Imitation was so deeply rooted in his mind Now it being prov'd that the Prince of fallen Spirits does act so and so it follows that all the subordinate Mob have an Itch to imitate their Head it being a great truth Regis ad Exemplum totus Componitur Orbis Subjects will be imitating their King and Children their Parents let 'em act good or bad By Taylor and cutting out Clouds I mean only Metaphorically a shaping of Clouds and I shall think none of you Hereticks if you call 'em Carpenters or Statuaries Consist Well and the next Pr. That never any Spirit was sent into a Humane Body to joyn with it as its proper half or as a convenient residence but as into a Prison for Debt purely for Debt and not as is pretended for
is the Eternal Mind who when he sees fitting will provide you a Body to act in 1 Sp. What do you mean For my part I believe you and I are both of us just now created but if you are pre-existent and it now is 5000 Years and more since the beginning of your Existence pray answer me How many Sons Adam had what part of the Year the World was made in but don't answer after the old Evasion viz. at all times of the Year but in what Sign the Sun was first placed 2 Sp. I have forgot now 't is so long since 1 Sp. I thought Reminiscence had been co-essential with or a part of the Nature of Spirits for according to the best Definitions the Soul is a Cogitative Faoulty Now if Thinking Disposing Meditating Examining Compounding Dividing Apprehending Joyning the Subject and the Attribute Affirming Denying Suspending c be the Function and Natural Acts of the Soul it is necessary that Memory be an essential Attribute of it for how is it possible to compare two things together unless we remember the First after we have examin'd the Second for to think of two Things at once is impossible and it is so granted by all that make a due distinction between a Finite and an Infinite Being being what comes nearest this Act is the quick distinction of Letters in Reading or the swift yet regular Motion of the Fingers in Musick Now since Reminiscence is co-essential with Souls an Argument may be drawn from hence to prove you degenerate if not a Non Existent 2 Sp. That I have a Being I 'm certain and this Converse with you demonstrates it 1 Sp. Come I 'll grant you for once that you are pre-existent if you 'll grant me that my Body which I 'm just now going into is also pre-existent and was created before Adam had a Being but I 'll ask for no Concessions which I 'll not first deserve by demonstration For I may prove my Body contemporary with Adam's altho' not visible till above 5000 Years after he was created 2 Sp. Pray how can that be 1 Sp. When Matter was created 't was a great Store-house of all other Beings that were to be created from it all which lay confusedly sleeping in their Chaos but of this Lump was Adam created and if so he himself was potentially in it before he had a specifick Being After his Creation he was maintain'd from the productions of Earth and Water by a destruction of or more properly through a conversion of their Natures into his Hence Adam's Children were only a Transmutation of other material Bodies or the Effect of Meat and Drink in new Figures which lay once in such and such Creatures and before that in the material Chaos we first spoke of Now since the Mechanism of Nature is order'd that it cannot be destroy'd unless by its Author but only transmuted or chang'd into other Matter as a Fire that burns part of it goes to Ashes part into Soot part into Air but yet is always somewhere or in some thing so that all the visible Changes we see are nothing else but a conversion of one Element into another backwards and forwards according to the adaptness and modifications of Agents and Patients This consider'd it will plainly appear that that Body which I am just now going into was the last year part of it growing in such a Crop of Corn part of it in such an Appleâ—tree part of it in such a River part of it in such an Ox Sheep Fowl c. and only by a proper Revolution of Particles under different Species so adaptly disposited that Nature found the Composition to fit one new distinct Species by it self and according to its Commission or first Settled Chain of Causes produc'd a humane Body fit for the Actuation and Conjunction of a Spirit Hence 't is manifest my Body was as soon in the Bosom of its Causes as Adam's and the last Body that shall be created as soon as mine Nay to go farther since from Eternity the great Creator did design to make a World from which my Body was to be produced I might say that my Body was from all Eternity designedly and potentially tho' actually in time which is the utmost that can be said of the Pre existence of Spirits And I defie every Spirit in the Universe to prove the least difference in Time betwixt the actual Commencement of the Existence of its Body and its self or that the Potentiality of both is not equal to wit eternal 1 Sp. This Argument wou'd hold if it cou'd be prov'd That the Soul is not so clogg'd and incapacitated in its Act of Reminiscence by coming into the Body but that it might easily recollect what has happen'd in its pre existent state For we have innumerable Instances of the Soul's being more incapacitated in its Functions one time than another in the same Body and this by Fits Distractions Diseases c. Which to me appears demonstrative that if the Indispositions of the Body which are only accidental hinder a regular operation of the Soul much more may the Body it self when first ty'd to and made coessential with it 2 Sp. We 'll grant much depends on the Body as to the Mode of Perception and action but not so very much as is suppos'd To mention that leisure time of Dreams When perhaps the Body and Soul have the least actual dependance one of another we shall find the habit of Reminiscence fresh at awaking again but to shew for once that the Soul does not forget what it acts when separate from the Body by reason of the Body's indisposition Consider the Cases of Trances Examinations of Witches c. what think ye of a Soul that has rambled out of the Body for two or three days together and when it has return'd and the Body reviv'd it has told of infallible Truths some hundred Miles distance where it self actually was This we have hundreds of creditable Instances to prove which consider'd does fully from the first presuppos'd consequence of Reminiscence destroy the Doctrine of Pre-existence 1 Sp Well I shall consider of it as soon as I have any leisure in the mean time Farewel 2 Sp. Farewel FINIS