Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	sin_n	soul_n	4,646	5	5.4196	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74656	Expository notes, with practical observations; towards the opening of the five first chapters of the first book of Moses called Genesis. Delivered by way of exposition in several lords-dayes exercises. By Benjamin Needler, minister of the gospel at Margaret Moses Friday-Street, London.	Needler, Benjamin, 1620-1682.	1654 (1654)	Wing N412; Thomason E1443_2; ESTC R209640	117,247	301

and then we must affirme corpore infici posse spiritum which is an absurdity for 1. Though the truth of this axiome be taken for granted that Corpus non potest agere in spiritum yet I conceive we may demurre to it For though it should be assented unto that this could not be done by the power of nature yet it may be done by the efficacy and power of divine ordination Especially if we consider what a strict union there is between the soul and the body and that according to the various disposition and affecton of the body the soul also is variously affected and disposed We finde by experience that children resemble their parents not onely in their countenance and the outward lineaments of their body but in their manners and inward habiliments of their mind We finde that the soul in a great measure followes the temper of the body and that the spirits humors organs of the body being vitiated and disordered there followes upon this frenzy Melancholy passion and the like The Learned say Potentia materiae est duplex 1. Naturalis quae educibilis est in actum vi alicujus agentis naturalis There is a naturall power in that which that materiall or corporeall which is educible into act by vertue of a naturall agent that is to say wood hath a naturall power to receive heat viz. vi naturalis agentis scilicet ignis 2. Obedientialis an obediential power which is educible into act by vertue of a superior agent this wood or stone hath an obediential power to be formed into astatue for this is not effected by a natural agent which doth necessariò agere but by vertue of an Artist such a power also hath the soul to receive spiritual gifts the supernatural gifts of the Spirit as faith hope c. We say the work of conversion is possibile naturae though impossibile naturâ possible to nature though impossible to be wrought by a natural power Obediential power of a subject to receive a new form puts not any causall power in the thing or matter to be changed all such power is without viz. in the efficient there is onely a power of reception in the thing or matter not a power of causality Now we may take into consideration whether vi superioris agentis corpus may not agere in spiritum To this I might adde the consideration of the fire of hell which for ought I can learne may be material and yet can t●rment spirits as calor naturalis hath two properties 1. Calefacere to make warme and this it acts of it selfe 2. Alimentum in debitas partes distribuere To convey nourishment into the severall parts of the body and this it acts as an instrument of the soule so Hel-fire may be considered in its selfe and so it burnes bodies or as an instrument of divine wrath and so it torments spirits 2. Be it granted that the soule is created pure by God and that it cannot be tainted by the body yet it may be polluted ratione suppositi by Gods ordination and appointment as it is the soul of a man son and heir of corrupt Adam If you aske me Supposing this be taken for granted that we are defiled upon the account of divine ordination as a punishment inflicted by God on man for his apostasie by what instrument or second cause this is effected or brought to passe I answer that as there is nothing more secret then the forming of the child in the wombe the union of the soul with the body and the manner how it is united thereunto so this also must needs be a secret by he mediation of what instrument or second cause man comes to be defiled There are also other Objections urged against the doctrine of the creation of the soul It seems not to suit with the justice and Obj. 2 goodnesse of God to shut up a pure and innocent soul into a stincking prison and to thrust it as it were into abridewell that it might be corrupted there The consequence is to be deny'd for he Resp 1 may be said to act unjustly that acts contrary to what he is bound to do according to principles of justice but God is not bound to infuse the soules of the sonnes of Adam who sinned in Adam and merited thereby eternall death into pure bodies But rather the contrary according to the curse In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death We say that God doth infuse a pure soul into an impure body as the phrase may vulgarly be taken for that would imply that our souls before they were united to our bodies were pure which suits not with our principles formerly mentioned Causa causae est etiam causa causat● Obj. 3 The cause of the cause is also the cause of that which is caused by that cause viz. if God be the cause of the union of the soul with the body therefore he is the cause of that sinne that is occasioned by that union This rule is to be understood de causis Resp perse not de causis per accidens viz. God is the cause of his divine Law the Law is the cause of sinne per accidens as the Apostle I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came sin revived and I Rom. 8.9 died Yet no man will from thence conclude that God was the cause of sin How can Originall sin be propagated Obj. 4 and not the soul Non potest accidens traduci sine subjecto Accidents do frequently transire à subjecto Resp 1 in subjectum non transeunte subjecto as for instance heresie is propaged in these dayes and derived from one to another but so is not the soul which is the subject of these errours The same numericall accident cannot transire à subjecto in subjectum but so may the same in kind as appeares in the former instance Quest 5. vers 4. According to what space of time the yeares of the Patriarchs were measured The great age of the Patriarchs hath Resp enclined some to believe that their yeares did not containe the same space of time with those after the flood and with ours to this day Indeed we read of two periods of time especially by the ancients called yeares 1. There was annus solaris or that which they called their solar yeare which was the same with ours and contained 12. moneths Now this yeare was called solaris because it was measured by the Suns passing through the Zodiack 2. There was annus lunaris or that which they call their lunar yeares the same with our moneth or thereabouts now this was called Lunaris because it is measured by the Moons passing through the Zodiack Some think that the yeares of the Patriarchs were Lunar yeares The dayes of Adam were eight hundred yeares that is say Gen. 5.4 they eight hundred moneths c. Now this cannot in any case be allowed for these reasons 1. Enoch begat children at 65. yeares

suddenly extinguished Scripturall grounds are these The creation of Adam and Eve God's breathing into their face the breath of life is a Argu. 1 good probable argument at least If it be objected that this proves nothing because it was necessary that the soules of Adam and Eve should be by creation when there was nothing pre-existent whereby they might be naturally propagated Answer may be made that if any thing material had necessarily been required to the being of the soul of a man as to the souls of brutes then as the soules of other creatures were concreated in and with the matter of which they were made in the like manner in all reason should God have dealt with the soules of men but we finde it otherwise after the body was made and the matter prepared then the soul is infused The soul of Jesus Christ was created Arg. 2 and he was in all things like unto us sin onely excepted If it be objected that this was extraordinary that Christ might not be tainted with sin We may answer Non magis difficile erat Spiritui sancto semen Josephi quám virginis ab omni vitio purgare c. I suppose Christ was borne after an extraordinary way rather upon the account of the malediction that was pronounced against our first parents in case of eating the forbidden fruit that in the day they did eat thereof they should die the death Then upon the account of generation Ecclesiastes 12.7 Then shall the dust returne Argu. 3 to the earth whence it was and the spirit shall returne unto God who gave it where you have the essentiall parts of man his body and his soul compared one with another The body that was compacted of dust and it returnes to the dust from whence it was the soul created by God and that returnes to God that gave it When the Spirit of God speakes of the body he makes mention of the materiall cause but when of the soul onely of the efficient and the word gave it is emp●haticall and spoken by way of eminency for God gave the body as well as the soule Heb. 11.9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we Argu. 4 gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits It appeares by the Antithesis the Spirit of God makes between fathers of flesh and Father of spirits that we receive our body from our parents but our soul from God he is the Father of spirits Now marke how the Apostle argues If to those from whom we receive our worser part we give reverence haw much rather should we be in subjection to the Father of spirits It is worthy our consideration that God by a peculiar title is called the Father of spirits and herein he is opposed to the fathers of the flesh Now if the soul be by traduction those that are the fathers of the flesh would also be the fathers of the spirits neither would God by this title be distinguished from others The Objections made against this assertion are such as these Gen. 2. 2. On the seventh day God ended his worke which he had made and he rested on Obje 1 the seventh day from all his work which he had made This Scripture must be understood of the workes of creation therefore the soules of men and women are not now created God after the sixth day ceased from the Resp creation of new species not from the creation of new individuals Now the rationall soules that are now created by God non specie sed numero differunt differ not in kinde but in number from the soule of Adam which was at first created Though God ceased from the work of creation in regard of species yet not in regard of individuals Gen. 46.26 All the soules that came with Obje 2 Jacob into Egypt which came out of his loynes besides Jacobs sons wives all the soules were threescore and six soules coming out of Jacobs loines is the same with this that the soul of man is by generation The soul here is put by a synecdoche for Resp the totum compositum for the whole man Now though the soul may not be said to be generated yet the totum compositum or the man may as hereafter shall be demonstrated If the soul of man be not produced by generation then man is in a worse condition Obje 3 then a plant or a brute which can and do beget soules suitable to their kinde viz. animam vegetativam sensitivam Man is in a better condition then a brute even in regard of generation because by Resp that very act Nobilissima forma unitur cum materia That which is urged advances the condition of man and not lowers or debases it we may observe the lesse use God makes of second causes in the carrying on of any work the more excellent that work is viz. Adam and Eve exceeded their posterity in soul and bodily perfections the body of Christ that was formed in an extraordinary way by the Spirit of God was of a finer make and a more excellent composure then the body of any man or woman in the world and this may be the reason which made his torments on the cross exquisitely painfull It is true we read of some that were rolled in barrells stuck with nayles and of others whose flesh was plucked off with hot iron pinchers and of others that have been broyled on a Gridiron their deaths might be more harsh and severe in themselves considered then the death of Christ and yet Christ might suffer as much or more bodily paine then they According to the rules of Philosophy we say That the nature and quality and measure of paines must be taken not so much from the force or violence of the agent as from the condition and temper of the patient the fire hath not the same operation upon Gold as it hath upon Lead The lead suffers a great deale more from the fire then the gold If a man should deale blowes with an even hand on a sound body and on a sickly crazy body their pain would be unequal though the blowes were equall now to our purpose without question the body of Christ was soft and tender Aristotle hath this rule Quò complexio nobilior mensque dexterior eò mollior ac tenerior solet esie caro The more noble the complexion and the more dextrous the mind the more soft and tender the body The body of Christ was of a most excellent temperament Quae fiunt per miraculum excellentiora sunt quám quae fiunt per naturam Those things that are done by miracle are more excellent then those things that are done by naturall causes viz. the wine that Christ made at a marriage in Cana of Galilee and the body of Christ If God creates the soul of all those that are Object begotten then he concurres with whoremongers and adulterers in the act of generation Nam fornicariis

sonne in his own likenesse viz a sinfull man like himselfe Homo mortalis genuit mortalem corruptus corruptum A mortall man begat a mortall sonne a corrupt man begat a corrupt sonne God at first created man in his likenesse but afterwards man fallen begets a sonne in his own likeness a sinfull creature like himselfe But this might be said of Cain and Abel as well as Seth Object It was not said of Abel because he had no off-spring and corruption was to run in Resp a blood We are all by nature the children of wrath Nor of Cain that it might appear that the righteous seed are subject to originall depravation and defilement as well as others Holy persons do not beget children as Saints and therefore their Saintship is not derived to their posterity but their sin Quest 3. vers 3. Whether the soul of man be generated by the Parents or as the Learned phrase it An anima sit ex traduce vel per creationem This question being full of perplexities Resp I shall deliver my selfe in severall Propositions 1. Prop. There is no creature the cause of it selfe or the fountaine of its own being 2. Prop. That all effects with reference to their causes are not carried on after the same way or manner v●z Some effects are produced by the concourse of four causes the efficient materiall formal final and thus are all corporeall substances Some by the concourse of three causes viz. efficient material and final as for instance formae accidentales ut nigredo albedo black and white produced by three causes 1. The efficient who workes it 2. An end propounded in the working of it 3. Some subject matter on which it must be wrought And this we may observe that these accidents depend rather on the material cause then either efficient or finall they depend on the efficient and finall quoad fieri as to their being but on the material both as to their being and continuance in their being white and black may continue Efficiente finali causâ sublatis When the efficient and finall cause is removed but this cannot be said of the subject matter whereon it is wrought Another instance may be given in substantial formes they the soul of man being excepted are produced by three causes efficient materiall finall and this we may observe there is a great deale of difference between the soul of a man and the soul of a beast respectu materiae the soul of a brute can neither exist nor act viz sentire appetere sine materia sua the soul of man is capable of both Some effects againe are produced by two causes efficient and finall thus are Angels and rationall soules 3. Prop. That that phrase that the Learned make very much use of viz. Eductio formae è potentia materiae is applicable to the forme of a brute but not to the forme or soule of a man The forme of a brute could not have had its being but vi passiva materià but the forme or soul of a man licèt in materiam inducitur non tamen educitur è potentia materiae God might if he had pleased have created rationall soules and these might have lived and acted to his praise without the concurrence or assistance of any materiall substance whatsoever 4. Prop. That the Originall of formes is in profundo very latent and Mysterious This was the reason why the ancient Fathers differed so much in this point Origen was of opinion that all soules were at first created together with the Angels and afterwards put into bodies Tertullian will have the soul ex traduce Augustine leaveth this question undecided neither dares he determine any thing An eminently elegant and learned moderne Auther tells us that in this we may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that a modest hesitancy may be very lawfull here 5. Prop. That most of our Divines with whom I humbly close are of opinion that the soul of man is by creation not by traduction or generation their reasons are both rationall and Scripturall Rationall grounds are these If the soul be by propagation it must Argu. 1 be one of these three wayes vel per multiplicationem vel per divisionem substantiae ipsius animae vel per generationem à semine aliquo either by multiplication of the soul or by division of the substance of the soul or prolificâ virtute seminis Not the first way for This action of multiplication it must either be a naturall or a voluntary action if it be a naturall action and not voluntary how can it be that a rationall soul endowed with understanding and will should multiply it selfe neither knowingly nor willingly If it be a voluntary action then the cause of barrennesse will be seated in the will because the soul will not multiply it selfe If this were a truth few rich men but would have more and few poore men that would have so many children Quomodo in Adulteris sequatur foetificatio cùm eam maximè nollent Not the second way by division of the substance of the soul for why should the rationall soul be rather divisible then an Angel when it is the common judgement of Philosophers That spirits are indivisible Omnis spiritus est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not the third way Prolificâ virtute seminis si in cum semine gencretur anima semen dici poterit ànimatum si ità annon anima rationalis erit mortalis quia non sempere ffuso semine sequitur prolificatio Nulla virtus activa agit ultra suum genus Argu. 2 There is no agent can produce that which is of greater perfection and of a more eeminent nature and kinde then it selfe thus the soul exceeds the body therefore nothing materiall or corporeall can produce the soul If it be objected nothing materiall can produce such an effect by its own naturall power or by the helpe and assistance of common providence but by the speciall hand and power of God it will a mount to as much as this assertion anima fit per creationem As the dissolution or corruption of the Arg. 3 body dissolveth not the soul neither doth the constitution or generation of the body give being to the soul if the soul had its being from the body it must decay with the body As the soul cannot be destroyed by any Argu. 4 materiall or physicall power at least by the assistance of common providence so neither can it be produced thereby what is the reason why all the force on earth cannot reach the soul Because it is of a spirituall substance now it seemes to be as repugnant to right reason for a spirituall substance to be produced by any thing materiall as to be destroyed thereby Especially if you consider it is farre easier to destroy then it is to build up there is no such art required in demolishing as there is in erecting of an edifice those things which are long and difficulty composed and framed are