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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A37031 The art of memory a treatise useful for such as are to speak in publick / by Marius D'Assigny ... D'Assigny, Marius, 1643-1717. 1697 (1697) Wing D280; ESTC R22842 37,788 118

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is not Orthodox nor agreeing with the Principles of Reason and Nature So that in these two Passages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differ in some respect but it is only in the Original Signification of the Words and in the Relation that the Spirit of Man hath to the Body and the Animal Faculties and Operations As it is a Spiritual Being separate from the Body and enjoys a Subsistence independent from this outward Tabernacle it is named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Spirit of Man created by the immediate Hand of God at that moment that it is put to inform and enliven the Organized Body which takes its immediate Beginning from other Principles This Spirit at the Dissolution of the Body is immortal and returns to God that made it and cannot be destroyed by Death It enters into another State and hath the freedom of its Faculties and Operations as the Holy Angels above It is deliver'd from the Pains and Slavery of the Body and from its Concernment with this vile Part of Man It enters into a new Acquaintance and into a Conversation with Beings answerable to it self In this blessed State stiled in Holy Writ The Joy of our Lord The Paradise of God Fulness of Joy God's Presence c. the Soul or Spirit retains all its Perfections Graces and Abilities and being delivered or let loose from the Body that clogs it from the Members and Organs decay'd by Sickness or old Age it thereby arrives to a more excellent Activity than it was formerly capable of when confined to the Limits and Bondage of the Senses It is not so much straitned in its Operations as when it was One in Society with the weak and infirm Body but every Faculty hath the greater liberty to manifest that Improvement that hath been made in them by our former Diligence Industry and Labours But while this Spirit continues in Conjunction with the Body and operates by the Senses and Organs it is properly named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anima or the Soul and in the Hebrew Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word derived from the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he breathed because its present Being and Subsistence relates to the Animal Functions maintained and continued by our constant breathing But tho most part of the Actions of this Spiritual Being are produced in and by the Organs of the Body there are at present many Operations of the Soul that have no relation to the Senses especially in such as are sanctified by the Spirit of God and are designed for a better and higher State Therefore in the former Passage to the Thessalonians St. Paul prays that God would sanctify their Spirits from the Corruption convey'd to them by the vicious Inclinations of the Body and that this immortal Part might be preserved pure and undesiled from all Sin and Infection That the Soul likewise that is the same Spirit as it works and acts by the Animal Senses of the Body and in conjunction with this outward Part might be also free from Sin and Pollution And that the Body also with all its Members might be sanctified and preserved blameless unto the Appearance of Christ Likewise the Author to the Hebrews tells us that the Word of God is so sharp as to divide between the Spirit and the Soul that is that it is so exact in its Commands and Injunctions in relation to Piety and Holiness as to lay an Obligation to be circumspect upon the Spiritual Being of Man in the Actions that are produced in conjunction with the Body and in the Operations that are separate from the Senses and that it censures both the Spiritual and the Sensitive Part of Man But by this near Conjunction of the Soul and Body it happens that the Habits of the former are more or less perfect and the Actions more or less excellent according to the good or vicious Disposition of the latter So that an Impediment or a Weakness in the Organ may hinder the Soul from acting But such Impediments if they proceed not from a natural Deficiency in the principal Part may in some cases be removed by an assidual Labour a resolute Industry a long Usage and the Blessing of the God of Nature As in the Example of a famous Orator who wore away the stammering of his Tongue with Peble Stones and attained to a Facility of Speech and Memory by speaking often to the roaring Waves of the Sea Indeed we are the more indebted to our wise Maker when he gives an excellent Soul in a well-disposed and well-organized Body and that the Temper of the one assists the Operations of the other CHAP. II. Of Memory its Seat and Excellency ST Austin names Memory the Soul's Belly or Store-house or the Receptacle of the Mind because it is appointed to receive and lay up as in a Treasury those things that may be for our Benefit and Advantage Divers Names and Descriptions are given to it but all may be reduced to this one Definition That it is that Faculty of the Soul appointed by our wise Creator to receive retain and preserve the several Ideas convey'd into it by the Inlets of the Understanding whether intellectual or sensitive Two Vertues belong to it readily to receive and long to retain whatsoever is committed to its Custody by the Understanding For Perfection of Memory consists in these two Qualities quickly to receive the Impressions or Images of things and to keep them long from Oblivion that the Intellect might there find them to employ them for such Uses as Reason may require There are likewise three differing Acts of this Faculty tho some reckon but two 1 st That which we properly call Memory which is a Retention of the Ideas of things admitted into the Soul 2 dly Recordatio Remembrance or a calling to Mind or a refreshing those Ideas that are there closeted up 3 dly Reminiscentia which is a Recovery of the same Ideas which were formerly lost or a renewing of those Impressions in the Memory that were blotted out or defaced by Forgetfulness The first may be found in some measure in the Brutes and other Animals who have a kind of local Retention of the Objects that are either grateful or hurtful to their Natures so that the presence of those things cause them either to fly from or to run to them having had a former Sense of their good or evil Qualities This Animal Memory differs in this from that of Man in that it requires the presence of the Objects to mind the dumb Creatures of their past Experience but the Soul of Man having more perfect and excellent Assistances needs not the Representation of Things to remember the former Passages neither is his Memory so narrow so weak and infirm as that of the Brutes But the two latter Acts of Memory are not to be found in them because they depend on the reasoning of the Understanding and cannot be produced without that Ability which we cannot
and Wisdom that influences our Wills and Endeavours yet we are not to be sluggish and idle But as we come into the World with active Abilities we are in all reason obliged to employ them and make them instrumental in procuring our own Good Nay we are to seek and endeavour this Improvement and not wholly to depend on the favourable Will and Blessings of our Maker But of all Improvements those of the Spiritual part of Man are chiefly to be minded because our present and future Happiness will thereupon depend because such Improvements are not subject to the Casualties of the Body nor cannot easily be taken from us by Violence or Death but as this excellent Being is Immortal all the Ornaments and Perfections acquired to it do accompany it into another State and are not changeable without our Wills and contrary Endeavours How soon are the Excellencies of the Body destroyed and 〈◊〉 the Gifts of God and Nature humbled in the Dust together with all our Labours to imbellish and adorn this outward part of our Selves made the Sport and Food of the vilest Worms But the precious Souls of Men with the Graces and Vertues that enrich them are not so quickly spoiled they are to continue with that Heavenly Substance and to abide with it for ever Death the great Destroyer of God's Works can't separate those Perfections from the Souls with which God's Blessings and our Endeavours have enrich'd them For this Noble Part as well as the Body is capable of great Improvement The latter grows and encreases by degrees in the use of the ordinary Methods appointed by God in Nature Thus the Soul with every Faculty is to be enlarged increased and advanced to Perfection by the means prescribed to us by the Divine Wisdom The Understanding is to be enriched with an increase of Prudence Wisdom and Knowledg the Will of Man with the Habits of Moral and Christian Vertues Thus ought the other Faculty of the Soul called the Memory to be enlarged increased and imbellished To this purpose St. Bernard hath an excellent Saying Dilatari oportet animam ut fiat habitatio Dei Sup. Cant. Serm. 28. For that intent our wise Creator hath appointed in his Church the use of his Word and Ordinances hath ordered his inspired Prophets and Apostles to deliver to us the Sacred Mysteries of our Religion and the most Heavenly Directions that we may grow in Grace and in the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3. 18. And for the same purpose our good God hath opened to us the Books of Nature and Providence that we might continually read study and understand the Secrets of his Divine Wisdom and draw nearer to the Perfections of the Mind unto which we shall never attain till we are admitted to the Vision of God Now this precious Jewel is by the Philosophers defined Forma substantialis corporis viventis per quam vivimus sentimus nutrimur intelligimus loco movemur The substantial Form of our living Body by which we live are sensible nourished understand and move from place to place Aristotle tells us it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the living organized Body 'T is altogether Spiritual and proceeds from the immediate Agency of our wise God Creator and Preserver of all things who at the time of Conception and Formation of the Body when the Parts and Organs are duly prepared and fitted to receive this Heavenly Guest creates it without any Concurrence or Assistance of the Parents Witness the Words of the Ecclesiastes chap. 12. vers 7. That at the Dissolution the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it And it is observable in this Excellent and Spiritual Being here are divers Faculties which are either natural vital or animal by which the Soul in conjunction with the Body produces divers Functions and Actions of Life The Natural Faculty is that Power of the Soul by which the Body assisted by the natural Heat and Food is nourished grows and produces acts of Generation The Vital Faculty is that by which the Vital Spirits are engendered in the Heart and Life is preserved in the whole Body The Animal Faculty is likewise that Power of the Soul by which a Man is sensible moves and performs the principal Functions which are Imagination Reason and Memory which indeed are the chief Functions of the reasonable Soul We must here take notice of a considerable difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anima and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritus Indeed the Divine Oracles make use of both Words to express the same Spiritual Being as in Matth. 10. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell This same Soul is named the Spirit in the last Prayer of the Proto-Martyr Acts 7. 59. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Therefore the Soul and the Spirit in the Scripture-Language signifies that same Spiritual Being that enlivens moves and governs this dull Mass of the Body which cannot be destroyed by the Malice of Men and which at the Separation is received into an Estate of Bliss by our great Saviour and the Holy Angels his ministring Spirits Yet if we examine some other Passages of Holy Writ we shall meet with a Distinction not Essential but Accidental In 1 Thess 5. 23. St. Paul desires that their whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the Appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ And the Author to the Hebrews Chap. 4. v. 12. declares That the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit Interpreters differ something in the Exposition of these two Passages Mr. Calvin understands by the Soul the Will and its Affections and by the Spirit the Understanding and all its Gifts which Interpretation seems to be weak and not answering the Scope of the Words Others and amongst the Antient Fathers not a few tell us by the Soul is meant the Sensual and Animal Part of Man and by the Spirit the more refined and more sublime Part the Intellect and its Perfections This Interpretation in my Judgment draws nearest to the meaning of the Apostle but we must take heed of a gross Error contrary to all Reason and Philosophy of some of them who make Man to be composed of three Parts Body Soul and Spirit and multiply Beings without Necessity The Spirit given by God to enliven move and govern this Body is but one and hath all the Abilities granted to it which they ascribe to two distinct Substances it hath the Power to govern the Senses as it is united to the Body and as it withdraws it self from the Senses it performs all Spiritual Operations Therefore this Gloss which is designed by them to solve the difficult Question about the Descent of Christ into Hell in my Opinion