Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	love_n	love_v	sin_n	3,441	5	5.5656	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34395	The principles of the most ancient and modern philosophy concerning God, Christ and the creatures ... being a little treatise published since the author's death, translated out of the English into Latin, with annotations taken from the ancient philosophy of the Hebrews, and now again made English / by J.C., Medicinæ Professor.	Conway, Anne, 1631-1679.; Crull, J. (Jodocus), d. 1713?	1692 (1692)	Wing C5989; ESTC R8533	67,596	178

shall find none at all for all his Attributes are living yea Life it self Moreover seeing the Creatures of God so far as they are Creatures ought necessarily in some things to resemble their Creator now I demand in what dead Matter is like unto God If they say again in naked Entity I Answer There is none such in God or his Creatures And so it is a mere non ens or nothing But as touching the other Attributes of Matter viz. Impenetrability Figurability and Mobility certainly none of these have any place in God and so are not of his communicable Attributes but rather Essential Differences or Attributes of Diversity whereby the Creature as such is distinguished from God as also Mutability is of the Number of those differential Attributes whence it cannot be said that Mutability is of the communicable Attributes of God And in like manner Impenetrability Figurability and Mobility do not pertain unto the communicable Attributes of God but to those only in which the Creatures differ from him And seeing dead Matter doth not partake of any of the communicable Attributes of God we must certainly conclude that the same is a mere non ens or nothing a false Fiction or Chimaera and so a thing impossible If they say it hath a Metaphysical Goodness and Truth even as every Being is Good and True Again I demand What is that Goodness and Truth For if it hath no participation with any of the communicable Attributes of God it will be neither Good nor True and so a mere Fiction as before was said Moreover seeing it cannot be said wherein dead Matter doth any way partake of Divine Goodness much less can it be shown how it may be capable always to acquire a greater Perfection ad infinitum which is the Nature of all Creatures viz. to increase and infinitely advance towards a farther Perfection as is before demonstrated But what farther progress in Goodness or Perfection hath a dead Matter Because after it hath suffered Infinite Changes of Motion and Figure it is constrained always to remain dead as before and if Motion and Figure contribute nothing to the receiving of Life then certainly this is made never the better nay is not in the least degree promoted in Goodness For suppose this dead Matter had undergone all Forms and been transmuted into all Kinds of Figures even the most regular and exact What doth this profit this Matter or Body because it wants all Life and Sense So let us suppose the same to have undergone Infinite Kinds of Motion from slowness to swiftness Wherein therefore is it better by the way of its Intrinsecal Melioration For the Argument speaketh of Intrinsecal Melioration which is such a Melioration as the Nature of the Thing it self requireth and which is performed thereby but a mere dead Body or Matter requires no kind of Motion or Figure nor in it self is perfected more by one Motion or Figure than by another for it is alike indifferent to all Motions and Figures whatsoever and by consequence is not perfected or bettered by any of them And then what advantage will it have from all these helps if it always remain a dead and impassible Thing § 3. MY Third Reason is drawn from the great Love and Desire that the Spirits or Souls have towards Bodies and especially towards those with which they are united and in which they have their Habitation But now the Foundation of all Love or Desire whereby one Thing is carried unto another stands in this That either they are of the same Nature and Substance with them or like unto them or both or that one hath its Being from the other whereof we have an Example in all living Creatures which bring forth their young and in like manner also in Men how they love that which is born of them For so also even Wicked Men and Women if they are notextremely perverse and void of Parental Love do Love their Children and cherish them with a Natural Affection the cause whereof certainly is this That their Children are of the same Nature and Substance viz. as though they were Parts of them and if they are like them either in Body Spirit or Manners hereby their Love is the more increased So also we observe that Animals of one Species love one another more than those that are of a different Species whence also Cattle of one Kind feed together Birds of a Kind flock together and Fishes of a Kind swim together and so Men rather converse with Men than with any other Creatures But besides this particular Love there remains yet something of Universal Love in all Creatures one towards another setting aside that great confusion which hath fallen out since by reason of Transgression which certainly must proceed from the same Foundation viz. in regard of their First Substance and Essence they were all one and the same Thing and as it were Parts and Members of one Body Moreover in every Species of Animals we see how the Male and Female Love one another and in all their Propagations which are not Monstrous and contrary to Nature they respect each other and that proceeds not only from the unity of Nature but also by reason of a certain eminent similitude or likeness between them And both these Foundations of Love between a Man and a Woman are expresly mentioned in Genesis but that which Adam spoke concerning his Wife This is Bone of my Bone and Flesh of my Flesh c. pertains unto the Unity of Nature for she was taken out of him and was a part of him and therefore he loved her Moreover also concerning Similitude it is said there was no Help found for him or before his Face as it is in the Hebrew i. e. among all Creatures he saw not his like with whom he would converse until Eve was made for him But there is yet another cause of Love when Beings that love each other are not one Substance but one gave Being to the other and is the proper and real cause thereof And so it is in the case between God and Creatures for he gave to all Being Life and Motion and therefore he loves all Creatures neither can he not love them yea at the same time when he seems to hate and be angry with them this his Anger and what proceeds therefrom viz. Punishments and Judgments turns to their Good because he perceiveth they have need of them So on the contrary the Creatures which have not wholly degenerated and lost all sense of God do love him and this is a certain Divine Law and Instinct which he put in all rational Creatures that they might love him which is the fulfilling of the whole Law But those Creatures which draw most near unto God in similitude or likeness do love him the more and are the more loved of him But if it be thought there is another principal cause of Love to wit Goodness which is the most vehement or powerful

Magnet thereof whence also God is above all the most to be loved because he is the best which Goodness is in some measure in Creatures either really or apparently wherefore such are loved of their Fellow-Creatures I Answer It must be granted indeed that Goodness is a great yea the greatest Cause of Love and the proper Object of it but this Goodness is not a distinct Cause from those before laid down but is comprehended in them Wherefore do we call a Thing Good But because it either really or apparently pleases us for the unity it hath with us or which we have with it Hence it comes to pass that Good Men love Good Men and not otherwise for Good Men cannot love Evil nor Evil Men Good Men as such for there is no greater similitude than between Good and Good For the reason why we call or esteem a Thing Good is this that it benefits us and that we are made Partakers of its Goodness and so here the First Cause of Similitude is still Militant So likewise when one Thing gives being to another as when God and Christ give Being to Creatures as from whom have every true Essence proceeded here is in like manner a certain Similitude for it is impossible that the Creatures should not in some Things be like their Creator and agree with him in some Attributes or Perfections This being supposed a Touch-stone we shall now return to our subject matter i. e. to examine whether Spirits and Bodies are of one Nature and Substance and so convertible one into another Therefore I demand What is the reason That the Spirit or Soul so loveth the Body wherewith it is united and so unwillingly departs out of it that it has been manifestly notorious the Souls of some have attended on and been subject to their Bodies after the Body was dead until it was corrupted and dissolved into dust That the Spirit or Soul gave a distinct Being to the Body or the Body to the Spirit cannot be the reason of this Love for that were Creation in a strict sence but this viz. to give Being unto Things agrees only to God and Christ therefore that necessarily comes to pass by reason of that similitude they have one with another or some Affinity in their Natures Or if it be said there is a certain Goodness in the Body which moves the Spirit to love it certainly this Goodness must necessarily answer to something in the Soul which is like it otherwise it could not be carried unto it yea let them inform us what that Goodness in the Body is for which the Soul doth so servently love it or in what Attributes or Perfections a Body is like a Spirit if a Body is nothing but a dead Trunk and a certain Mass which is altogether uncapable of any degree of Life and Perfection if they say a Body agrees with a Spirit Ratione entis or in respect of Being that is to say as this hath Being so that hath the same this is already refuted in the former Argument for if this Being hath no Attributes or Perfections wherein it may agree with the Being of a Spirit then it is only a mere Fiction for God created no Naked Ens or Being which should be a mere Being and have no Attributes that may be predicated of it besides also Ens is only a Logical Notion or Term which Logicians do call Genus generalissimum or the most General Kind which in the naked and abstracted Notion of it is not in the Things themselves but only in the Conception or Humane Intellect And therefore every true Being is a certain single Nature whereof may be affirmed such and such Attributes Now what are those Attributes of Body wherein it resembles a Spirit Let us examine the principal Attributes of Body as distinct from a Spirit according to their Opinion who so much dispute that Body and Spirit are so infinitely distant in Nature that one can never become the other The Attributes are these That a Body is impenetrable of all other Bodies so that the parts thereof cannot penetrate each other but there is another Attribute of Body viz. to be discerpible or divisible into parts But the Attributes of Spirit as they define it are penetrability and indiscerpibility so that one Spirit can penetrate another also that a thousand Spirits can stand together one within another and yet possess no more Space than one Spirit Moreover that a Spirit is so simple and one in it self that it cannot be rent asunder or actually divided into separate parts If now the Attributes of Body and Spirit are compared together they are so far from being like one another or having any Analogy of Nature in which nevertheless the true Foundation of Love and Unity doth consist as before was said that they are plainly contrary yea nothing in the whole World can be conceived ●o contrary to any Thing as Body and Spirit in the opinion of these Men. For here is a pure and absolute contrariety in all their Attributes because Penetrability and Impenetrability are more contrary one to another than black and white or hot and cold For that which is black may become white and that which is hot may become cold But as they say that which is impenetrable cannot be made penetrable yea God and Creatures do not so infinitely differ in Essence one from another as these Doctors make Body to differ from Spirit For there are many Attributes in which God and the Creatures agree together but we can find none wherein a Body can any way agree with a Spirit and by consequence nor with God who is the chiefest and purest of Spirits wherefore it can be no Creature but a mere Non-entity or Fiction But as Body and Spirit are contrary in the Attributes of Penetrability and Impenetrability so are they no less contrary in Discerpibility and Indiscerpibility But if they alledge that Body and Spirit do agree in some Attributes as Extension Mobility and Figurability so that Spirit hath Extension and can reach from one place to another and also can move it self from place to place and form it self into whatsoever Figure it pleaseth in which cases it agrees with a Body and a Body with it To this I Answer Supposing the first that a Spirit can be extended which yet many of them deny yea most who teach that Body and Spirit are essentially distinct yet the Extension of Body and Spirit as they understand it do wonderfully differ for the Extension of Body is always impenetrable yea to be extended and impenetrable as pertaining to Body is only one real Attribute proposed in two Mental and Logical Notions or ways of speaking for what is Extension unless the Body wheresoever it is be impenetrable of its own proper parts But remove this Attribute of Impenetrability from a Body and it cannot be conceived any longer as extended Moreover also the Extension of Body and Spirit according to their Notion infinitely differ for

difference as if a Man should go to demonstrate how a Carpenter builds a Ship or an House by an Example of God creating the first Matter or Substance wherein certainly there is as great a disparity or disproportion for God gave Being to Creatures but a Carpenter doth not give Being to the Wood whereof he builds a Ship But no Man can think because I have said All Motion of Creatures is of God that therefore he is or can be the Author or Cause of Sin For although the moving Power be of God yet Sin is not in the least of God but of the Creature who hath abused this Power and determined to some other end than it ought So that Sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an inordinate determination of Motion or the power of moving from its due place state or condition unto some other as v. g. a Ship is moved by the Wind but governed by the Mariner that it goes to this or that place where the Mariner is not the Author or Cause of the Wind but the Wind blowing he makes either a good or a bad use of the same whereby he either brings the Ship to the place intended and so is commended or else so manages her that she suffers Shipwrack for which he is blamed and worthy of Punishment Moreover Why is the Spirit or Soul so passible in corporal Pains For if when it is united with the Body it hath nothing of Corporeity or a bodily Nature Why is it grieved or wounded when the Body is wounded which is quite of a different Nature For seeing the Soul can so easily penetrate the Body How can any Corporeal Thing hurt it If it be said the Body only feels the pain but not the Soul this is contrary to their own Principles because they affirm that the Body hath neither Life nor Sense But if it be granted that the Soul is of one Nature and Substance with the Body although it is many degrees more excellent in regard of Life and Spirituality as also in swiftness of Motion and Penetrability and divers other Perfections then all the aforesaid difficulties will vanish and it will be easily conceived how the Body and Soul are united together and how the Soul moves the Body and suffers by it or with it What the Opinion of the Hebrews is appears from a place in Kabbal denud Tom. 1. Part. 3. Dissert 8. Cap. 13. p. 171. seq § 3. FOR we may easily understand how one Body is united with another by that true agreement that one hath with another in its own Nature and so the most subtile and Spiritual Body may be united with a Body that is very gross and thick sc by means of certain Bodies partaking of subtilty and grossness according to divers degrees consisting between two Extreams and these middle Bodies are indeed the Links and Chains by which the Soul which is so subtile and Spiritual is conjoined with a Body so gross which middle Spirits if they cease or are absent the Union is broken or dissolved so from the same Foundation we may easily understand how the Soul moves the Body viz. as one subtile Body can move another gross and thick Body And seeing Body it self is a sensible Life or an intellectual Substance it is no less clearly conspicuous how one Body can wound or grieve or gratifie or please another because Things of one or alike Nature can easily affect each other And to this Argument may be reduced the like difficulties viz. how Spirits move Spirits and how some Spirits strive and contend with other Spirits also concerning the Unity Concord and Friendship which good Spirits reverence among themselves for if all Spirits could be intrinsecally present one with another How could they dispute or contend about place And how can one expel or drive out another and yet that there is such an expulsion and conflict of Spirits and especially of the Good against the Evil some few who have been acquainted with their own Hearts have experimentally known If it be said the Spirit of God and Christ are intrinsecally present in all Things contends with and makes War against the Devil and his Spirit in the Heart of Man I Answer That this is also a very unfit similitude viz. when God and Creatures are compared in their Operations For his Ways are infinitely Superiour to ours yet nevertheless in this case also here remains a strong Objection For the Spirits of God and Christ when they strive against the Devil and the Evil Spirits in the Heart of Man do unite themselves with certain good Spirits whom they have sanctified and prepared for this Union and by these as a Vehicle or Triumphant Chariot they contend against and encounter those Malignant and Wicked Spirits And in as much as these Evil Spirits contend against those Good Spirits in the Heart of Man they contend against God and Christ and these Good Spirits are the Spirits of this faithful and pious Man who is become Good when as before he was Evil For God and Christ do help every pious Man to prevail over the Evil Spirits in this Conflict but suffers the Wicked and Unfaithful to be captivated and overcome for God helps none but those that fear love and obey him and trust in his Power Goodness and Truth for with such he is united and the good Spirits of such Men are as so many Swords and Darts whereby those dark and unclean Spirits are wounded and repulsed But if it be demanded how the Soul of Man can be united with God though it were in a State of the highest Purity because he is a mere Spirit but the Soul even in its greatest Purity always partakes of Corporeity I Answer It is done by Jesus Christ who is the true and proper Medium between both for Christ and the Soul may be united without a Medium by reason of that great Affinity and Similitude between them which those Doctors cannot demonstrate between Spirit and Body who say they are of a Nature so contrary one to another § 4. I shall draw a Fifth Argument from what we observe in all visible Bodies as in Earth Water Stones Wood c. What abundance of Spirits is in all these things For Earth and Water continually produce Animals as they hath done from the beginning so that a Pool fill'd with Water may produce Fishes though none were ever put there to increase or breed and seeing that all other Things do more originally proceed from Earth and Water it necessarily follows that the Spirits of all Animals were in the Water and therefore it is said in Genesis that the Spirit of God moved upon the Face of the Waters viz. that from hence he might produce whatsoever was afterwards created § 5. BUT if it be said this Argument doth not prove that all Spirits are Bodies but that all Bodies have in them the Spirits of all Animals so that every Body hath a Spirit in it and likewise a Spirit

whereby they are extendible into great Substances beyond what the Substance it self can make And so we may distinguish Extension into Material and Virtual which two-fold Extension every Creature hath Material Extension is that which Matter Body or Substance hath as considered without all Motion or Action and this Extension to speak properly is neither greater or lesser because it would still remain the same A Virtual Extension is a Motion or Action which a Creature hath whether immediately given from God or immediately received from its Fellow Creature That which is immediately given of God from whom also it hath its Being and which is the natural and proper effect of its Essence is in ● more proper way of speaking a proper Motion of the Creature proceeding from the innermost parts thereof and therefore may be called Internal Motion as distinguished from External which is only from another and therefore in respect thereof may be called Foreign and when the said External Motion endeavours to carry a Body or any Thing to a place whereunto it hath properly no natural inclination then it is preternatural and violent as when a Stone is thrown up into the Air which Motion being preternatural and violent is plainly Local and Mechanical and no way vital because it doth not proceed from the Life of the Thing so moved But every Motion proceeding from the proper Life and Will of the Creature is vital and this I call a Motion of Life which is not plainly Local and Mechanical as the other but hath in it a Life and Vital Virtue and this is the Virtual Extension of a Creature which is either greater or lesser according to that kind or degree of Life wherewith the Creature is endued for when a Creature arrives at a Nobler Kind and Degree of Life then doth it receive the greater Power and Virtue to move it self and transmit its vital Motions to the greatest distance But how Motion or Action may be transmitted from one Body to another is with many a matter of great debate because it is not a Body or Substance and if it be only Motion of Body how Motion can pass properly with its own subject into another because the very being of Modus or Manner consist herein viz. to exist or be inherent in its own Body The Answer to this Objection which seemeth to me best is this That Motion is not propagated from one Body to another by Local Motion because Motion it self is not moved but only moves the Body in which it is for if Motion could be propagated by Local Motion this Motion would be propagated of another and this again of another and so ad infinitum which is absurd Therefore the manner of the said propagation is as it were by real Production or Creation so that as God and Christ can only create the Substance of a Thing when as no Creature can Create or give Being to any Substance no not as an Instrument so a Creature not of it self but in subordination to God as his Instrument may give existence to Motion and vital Action and so the Motion in one Creature may produce Motion in another And this is all a Creature can do towards the moving it self or its Fellow Creatures as being the Instrument of God by which Motions a new Substance is not created but only new Species of Things so that Creatures may be multiplied in their Kinds whilst one acts upon and moves another and this is the whole Work of the Creature or Creation as the Instrument of God but if it moves against his Will whose Instrument it is then it Sins and is punished for it But God as before was said is not the cause of Sin for when a Creature Sins he abuseth the Power God hath granted him and so the Creature is culpable and God intirely free from every spot or blemish hereof If therefore we apply those things which have been already spoken concerning the Attributes of a Body viz. that it hath not only Quantity and Figure but Life also and is not only locally and mechanically but vitally moveable and can transmit its vital Action whithersoever it pleaseth provided it hath a Medium aptly disposed and if it hath none it can extend it self by the subtile Emanation of its parts which is the fittest and most proper Medium of it to receive and transmit its vital Action Hereby it will be easie to Answer to all the Arguments whereby some endeavour to prove that a Body is altogether uncapable of Sense and Knowledge and it may be easily demonstrated after what manner some certain Body may gradually advance to that Perfection as not only to be capable of such Sense and Knowledge as Brutes have but of any kind of Perfection whatsoever may happen in any Man or Angel and so we may be able to understand the Words of Christ that of Stones God is able to raise up Children to Abraham without flying to some strained Metaphor and if any one should deny this Omnipotence of God viz. that God is able of Stones to raise up Children to Abraham that certainly would be the greatest Presumption FINIS