Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	brain_n	part_n	spirit_n	1,451	5	5.2508	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63913	A phisico-theological discourse upon the Divine Being, or first cause of all things, providence of God, general and particular, separate existence of the human soul, certainty of reveal'd religion, fallacy of modern inspiration, and danger of enthusiasm to which is added An appendix concerning the corruption of humane nature, the force of habits, and the necessity of supernatural aid to the acquest of eternal happiness : with epistolary conferences between the deceased Dr. Anthony Horneck and the author, relating to these subjects : in several letters from a gentleman to his doubting friend.	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.; Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697.	1698 (1698)	Wing T3313; ESTC R5343	198,836	236

Confession from you that you are fearfully and wonderfully made you must at least allow your self to be the Workmanship of some Intelligent Being and altho' the commonness of the Object takes off your Admiration and you now find the Propagation of Mankind in a Method setled by the Divine Providence yet if you transgress not the Bounds of Reason you must affirm their first Production to be by the immediate Power of the Almighty Author of all Things and that every succeeding Generation of them are the Off-spring of one primitive Couple Having survey'd some of the Extremities of this mighty Machine and diligently passed over its outward Covering or Teguments my next advice to you is that you retire within and carefully examine not only the Parts wherein those Offices are perform'd but the Processes themselves such as that of Mastication Deglutition Chylification Sanguification the Inkindling of the Blood for the Lamp of Life its great Analogy in some respects with Culinary Fire viz. it s constant nenecessity of Ventilation through the vesiculae of the Lungs and a perpetual supply of a fit Pabulum or Fuel out of the received Aliment for the continuance of its Flame when you have done here and discover'd all the Secretions or Separations of the several Juices which are put off from the Sanguineous Mass in its wonderful Circulation and deposited in their several Receptacles till called for to their proper Employments you may lastly with that profound Humility and Veneration which becomes the Enquiry ascend into the Sanctum Sanctorum that Divine Emporium of the Soul the Brain where not only our Sensations but all our Cogitations our Perception Reflexion Intuition and all those noble Faculties of Memory Phantasy or Imagination c. are surprisingly transacted Here if you diligently and Philosopically take to pieces the several parts of the Soul I mean the Sensitive you may readily comprehend with an excellent and most judicious Man that its Systasis or Constitution is made out of these two parts viz. the Vital or Flamy which respects the Blood and the Lucid or Ethereal which respects the Brain or whose Hypostasis are the Animal Spirits by whose alone Energy and Intervention we account for the Phaenomena of the Animal Regiment in all things where the Superiour or Rational Soul is unconcern'd When you have thus finish'd your Physiological Contemplation an Application of this Consequence will I think be not only pertinent but natural and genuine That since first in relation to the Vital or Flamy Part there are so many prae-requisites in order to Digestion or Transmuting the gross and solid Matter of our Food into that soft and pappy Substance we call Chyle if any one of which be wanting some certain detriment will ensue whether this be in the Ventricle it self a deficiency of its native Heat a weakness in the Tone of any or all its Fibres a want or perversion of the secreted Juices which compose its Menstruum or Dissolvent Or if all things are orderly performed here and safely delivered hence yet since there are also many requisites to a fit passage of the said Chylous Juice into the Blood such as the admistion of the Bile and the Pancreatic Juice either of which being peccant in quantity or quality many Mischiefs will ensue but if in these secondary Passages all things have gone on well yet if the Passages to the common Store-house or Receptaculum happen to be obstructed and thereby rendred impervious to the liquor they should receive or if others of those curiously slender Tubes the Lacteal Vessels by the forcible protrusion of the contained Matter should break or suffer a Solution of their Continuity the Chyle must be extravasated and a fatal Inundation thereof in some little time comes on But if hitherto Matters have succeeded as they ought and this noble Liquor is at length safely arriv'd through its many Meanders and inconspicuous Ways and as safely deliver'd up to the Heart yet if here it be not rightly sanguify'd or turn'd into Blood or if when it is so made and continued in its Circuit the containing Blood Vessels either from a Deficiency of the Vis Motoria or Disorder of the Spirits in the Orbicular nervous Fibrils implanted in the Tunics of the said Vessels labour with an Obstruction or suffer such a Distension by the impelling Blood as produces a Diruption there presently follows Extravasation and Stagnation of the Vital Liquor Farther If the Blood it self as from many Causes it may contract too great an Acidity or Viscosity or by Adustion grow perfectly Corrosive if its Crasis be considerably vitiated or disorder'd the Nutritious Juices must partake of the Infection and consequently the Assimulation or Apposition of their Particles for the growth and encrease of all the Parts of the Body cannot at all or not regularly be performed neither will the subtil parts of such a Blood tho' never so well elaborated in the Brain afford either a sufficient Plenty or an exactly homogeneous Spirit for the influencing the Nerves those Causes sine qua of every particular Function and Operation In a word that I may not ti●e you with a more particular Description of the parts of the Encephalon or Cabinet containing that inestimable Jewel the Soul when you consider that from any of these slightly mention'd Errors committed in any part the whole Fabrick suffers and the same becomes a tottering Carcass when you consider how very easily an heterogeneous Copula is admitted into the Nervous System there exciting those dismal irregular and horrid Explosions which after they have for sometime excruciated the frail Body leave it lifeless when you consider also how very easily those slender and to our fight impervious Conduits of the Nerves may by many ways be obstructed which happening at their Source as in the Apoplexy Lethergy Coma Carus we are presently deprived of our Sensations the Soul suffers an Eclipse and the ghastly Tyrant takes possession when you consider that the very Air so absolutely necessary for our Respiration does sometimes prove a Vehicle to those malign Mias●●ata which impetuously rush on and notwithstanding our pretended strength in the twinkling of an Eye extinguish the Lamp of Life when you consider these Particulars with a due attention you will find abundant reason instead of denying any thing to be Supernatural to confess that the Life of Man whether it be conceived as limited to a shorter or longer Date is nothing less than one continued Miracle Before I finish my Discourse of Supernatural Productions or those Effects which do surmount what we call the Powers of Nature and frequently hare witness to God's especial Providence I will take the liberty to make a short Digression and give you my Opinion how it comes to pass that these unusual and extraordinary Events have gained so little Credit not only with the Profane and Sensual but even amongst very many Sober and Learned Men. That I may do this to your greater Satisfaction I must

be defined otherwise than as a kind of two legg'd Animals without Feathers Thei● last Assault is against Heaven it self or the Divine Being whom they first seek to discredit by the multitude of anomalous Accidents which they say cou'd never come to pass if an Intelligent Being were the Director their Conclusion tho' perhaps not so plain is this that we need believe nothing but what we our selves are able to account for which in other words is to believe our own Understandings to be infinite and that is to believe we are so many Gods our selves Whoever looks upon our Modern Deism any otherwise than disguised Atheism will find himself deceiv'd for my own part I never yet heard of any one of them that cou'd forbear at one time or other giving us to understand that he was the modester sort of Infidel and whatever advantage it may be to their Principles this is certain that there is scarce a Profane Irreligious Person or Libertine about the Town who pretends not to be a very devout Deist As to their wild Ravings against the Christian Religion we have no occasion to reply other ways than this That had Christianity been all transacted behind the Curtain or in the Clouds had its Founder been as invisible as the King of the Pharies or were the History of Christ no better attested than those of the Mythologists who talk of once upon a time and the Land of Utopia we shou'd then I say have no small grounds for our Hesitation but since we find it otherwise and that all was acted openly at Noon-day before the Face of the Multitude since not only the Names of Christ and his Apostles but their Lives and stupendious Actions together with a Narrative of their Sufferings and Deaths are deliver'd to us by as undoubted Testimony as it is possible for any other Matters of Fact to be and stand upon perpetual Record their Adversaries will be lookt upon as a brain-sick People and no Man in his Wits will think this Religion soil'd till it is unquestionably proved that there never were such Persons on the Earth as our Saviour and his Disciples or that they never performed those works of which it is reported they were the Authors till they can do this it signifies nothing at all that they cannot reconcile the want of a Mediator or the Mystery of Man's Redemption by the Sufferings of Christ to their own crack-brain'd Fancies or to their own Notions of the Divine Attributes 'T is generally observed that by an immoderate Curiosity in searching after the Divine Arcana instead of inlightening others Men do but stagger and confound themselves which if they righ●ly consider'd the certain Limits of their own Capacities they might with less difficulty be dehorted from this dangerous Extravagance and calmly acquiesce in the revealed Will of God But to return to the present Corruption of our Natures and the Necessity of Divine Assistance to concur with our own Natural Power we have an intelligible account of the former in one of the Articles of the Church of England where it is said that Sin viz. Original is the Fault and Corruption of the Nature of every Man that naturally is engender'd of the Off-spring of Adam whereby Man is far removed from his first Righteousness and is of his own Nature inclin'd to evil so that the Flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and in every Person born into this world deserveth the Divine Indignation and this Natural Infection doth remain even in them that are Regenerate whereby the Lust of the Flesh called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some expound the Wisdom some the Affection some Sensuality others the desire of the Flesh is not subject to the Law of God The Learned Orator Dr. Allestry speaks to this purpose upon this Argument Our Saviour saith he suffer'd on the Tree that we might be renew'd into that Constitution which the Tree of Knowledge did disorder Before Man eat of that his lower Soul was in perfect Subordination to his Mind and every Motion of his Appetite did attend the Dictates of his Reason and obey them with that resignation or ready willingness with which our outward Faculties do execute the Will 's Commands then any thing however grateful to the Senses was no otherwise desir'd than a● it serv'd to the regular and proper ends and uses of his making there was a rational harmony in the tendencies of all his parts and that directed and modulated by the Rules and Hand of God that made them in fine th●● Grace was Nature and Vertue Constitution Now to reduce us to this state as near as possible is the Business of Religion but this it can in no degree effect but as it does again establish the Subordination of the Sensual to the reasonable part within us that is till by denying Satisfaction to the Appetite which is now irregular and disorderly in its desires we have taught it how to want them and to be content without them and by that means have subdued its Inclinations According to this great Man the Corruption of our Nature does not lye in the Mind but only in the lower Soul and Regeneration is no more than the reducing that lower Soul to obedience to its superior the Mind but because this plain Point has been made a mighty Mystery by some People I shall yet farther explain it When Man by his Fall had incurr'd the Penalty of Death and became a Mortal Creature he thereby usher'd in Diseases and Infirmities the Fore-runners of Death and Dissolution and therefore propagated unequal Mixtures and Constitutions which naturally according to the prevailing part of the Mixture raises powerful and pressing Lusts and Passions which not only make violent and repeated storms upon Reason but they also interrupt her Operations in other Duties by the frequent touches of the Animal Spirits upon that Image in the Brain of the Beloved Action and intrudes it among our Thoughts whether we will or no and for this cause tho' in other things we are reasoning Men when the Tender is toucht we can scarce understand a plain Conclusion from plain Premises till the gratifying of the prevailing Lusts has wasted many of our sensible Spirits and then Reason freed from Violence puts on Shame and Remorse for her Defeat but no sooner is Nature recruited than Reason is prest to forget her Repentance And this is the best of our degenerate Condition for in most Men either through the want or the abundance or irregular Motions of the Animal Spirits the reasoning Faculty is generally obstructed and they reason weakly in every thing nay sometimes this power is quite blockt up and some Men become distracted others meer Changlings But besides that in the best of us the Reasoning Power is often obstructed and has forcible Inclinations to deal with the work of Reason in general is by the first Apostacy abundantly increased She must maintain Patience and Submission under Diseases Pains

characterise the Rational Soul of Man it is by no means to be allowed Whether the Master of its Composition retain'd the same Sentiments at his Death concerning the Reasoning Principle within him I have not inform'd my self but it is easie enough to conceive the Thought more readily indulged that the looser Scheme of Religion might serve turn and that the Sensitive Appetite might not admit of any Restraint by the fears of a Post Mortem aliquid How the Learned S m came in among this Gang is somewhat strange That he was acquainted with them we are given to understand by a Letter of Mr. B t s in which was enclosed an Epitome of Deism I must confess I have been inform'd that excellent Physician was tainted with these Principles but yet I could never understand but that he dy'd far from an irreconcileable Enemy to Christianity and firmly perswaded of a future Retribution I shall not mention such of them as are now living although they seem to pride themselves in having been the Parents of those Monstrous Births which they have boldly set their Names to and deliver'd to the giddy World for the Standards of Truth and Reason it may please Almighty God to enlighten their Understandings and to bring about so happy a Reformation that they may be satisfy'd in the certainty of those Divine Truths which will shine still with the greater Lustre the more powerfully they are assaulted and flourish under the Scandal and Contempt of their malicious Adversaries I must confess I had a great desire to see the Arguments of these Men and when I had procur'd them I look'd them over without any such anticipated Prejudice as could sway me to a Partiality Pro or Contra I rather premise this as believing it no easie matter for any Man who would be thought to have a Respect or Veneration either for God or true Religion to peruse such Treatises without so great an Abhorrence and Detestation of the Authors as will hinder him from giving either a due attention to what they write or to consider throughly the proper weight of their Expressions Now upon a mature and deliberate consideration of what I find they have deliver'd I have ventur'd to pass this Censure that the Authors have plainly discover'd themselves to be Men very far short of sound or right Reasoning of very little Piety and Men of no certain or steddy Principles And this Sentence I have adventur'd to pass upon them on these Accounts that whereas in one place I find them highly pleading for a Natural Religion ridiculing Revelation and mustering up all the Arguments that themselves and their Friends the Libertines can furnish out in another they change their Aspect and submissively condescend that the Scriptures should have some little Authority they speak modestly of the two Testaments calling them Sacred Records and ingeniously confess that since Humane Reason is like a Pitcher with two Ears which may be taken on either side in our Travels to the other World we should choose the Common Road as the safest for tho' Deism may serve to manure our Consciences yet certainly if sowed with Christianity it will produce the most plentiful Crop There is nothing says the same Person in another place where he had been just before using Arguments to the discredit of our Immortality more unaccountable and contradictory than to suppose a hum drum Deity chewing his own Nature a Droaning God sit hugging of himself and hoarding up his Providence from his Creatures This is an Atheism no less irrational than to deny the very Essence of a Divine Being It is the same also to believe the Soul to be Mortal as to believe an Immortality without Rewards and Punishments Thus it is very common with this sort of Men to dogmatize even in the most important Points of Religion strenuously affirming for Truth what their Reason dictates and presently after when they have said all they can they are forced to grant that what they have said is only such twilight Conjecture as Humane Reason of which we yet so vainly boast can furnish them withal 't is now an Aliquid Divinum which does all things and our Capacities being unable to discern the same make us fasten either upon the Elementary Qualities of Hippocrates or Galen or the Cartesian Rule of Geometrical Proportions The Conclusion of all is this that since we are not qualify'd to understand the real Essence or intime Nature of things we can know nothing certainly all our Philosophy excepting Scepticism is little more than Dotage These are their own words which I think may give us a very justifiable occasion to look upon these Men very improper Standards for our Reason or Religion to be directed by and as unfit Oracles for us to consult As for their Divinity if a parcel of fine words will satisfie we may think very devoutly of them but indeed I cannot for my own part perswade my self when I consider the tendency of their common Discourse and their Converse in the World but that their Religion may be fairly resolv'd into 〈◊〉 De●s●● or the single Belief of a first Cause and that our Immortality was tack't to it that the Bait might be swallowed with the less suspition and the extravagant Absurdity of their Novel Opinions less strictly examin'd or inquir'd into For when we find Men devoted to the study of ●●religion to frame and invent Arguments to disturb and perplex our Faith we have surely but little Reason to think well of their Persons or to regard their Speeches And that this has been the design of those I am speaking of even the whole bent of their Minds in manifest enough in the manner of their paraphrasing the Mosaick History in their endeavours to establish the Sufficiency of Natural Religion to future Happiness and opposing the same to the Revelation of Christ Jesus in their collecting Arguments out of Ethnic Authors for the Mortality of the Soul and the Eternity of the World in their in●●●●●ting a Possibility for a free and reasoning Principle to be compatible to Matter and all this with the same Assurance as if they had receiv'd Intelligence from the Court of Heaven I am inform'd one of their late Treatises which contains the Heads of their Opinions will be e're long taken to pieces and judiciously examined however difficult the Task may appear I see nothing in them to discourage any ingenious Man in the Undertaking for if we deprive them of their Varnish and set them in a clear Light we shall find but little in them more than empty Sound and insignificant Harangue They have been either feignedly or really ignorant of Antiquity which is clear from their gross mis-representation of some Passages and their falsifying downright in others They have rack't their Brains for their beloved Cause of Natural Religion but have not offer'd which they ought first of all to have done one Syllable to disprove the Founder of the Christian Religion or the