Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	immortal_a	soul_n	7,080	5	5.8875	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44631	Remarks on the new philosophy of Des-Cartes in four parts ... / done by a gentleman.	Howard, Edward.	1700 (1700)	Wing H2978; ESTC R11446	138,891	395

Person as if with the Point of a Weapon I should wound the same Part of my own Body And did not the Soul and Senses thus apprehensively Conspire there would not be that Reluctancy Defence and Prevention us'd by us for the safety of our Corporeal Parts nor should we be so actually sensible that Mortality is the inevitable consequence of unsupportable Violence Wounds and Maladies that surrender our Bodies to Death And this clearly invalidates the Allegations and Instances that he gives on this Head together with the Example he mentions of a Sword that may so hurt or dismember any Part of the Body that we may in Mind be grievously apprehensive of the local Motion of the Force or Blow as it wounds the Part tho' the Motion of the Sword and Body hurt be very different From whence he concludes That the Humane Mind by a bare speculation of local Motion together with its forcible onset made on the Body may judge of all Corporeal Afflictions and Sensations whatsoever And is not this a pretty kind of Quibble in Des-Cartes by not considering That it was not the Motion of the Blow or the wounded Part that represented to the Intellect or Mind the hurt receiv'd but as the Pain of the Member or Part assur'd the Imagination unto which it was inseparably united It being very possible for a Man to be sensibly apprehensive of a Wound or Blow tho' he does not conceive or see the Motion of the Weapon that gave it But as he is sensible of the Pain he could not doubt that it was effected by forcible means tho' no otherwise relating to the Wound or more diversified from sensible Conception than on this occasion this Author does render the Mind or what he calls a Thinking Substance by a modality of Thinking without Sense Nor is it Imaginable how any Thing that is not Elementarily Compos'd can operate on the Humane Body that is so constituted Wherefore the Word Substance applied to the Soul cannot be understood Incorporeal by the determination of Des-Cartes who wheresoever he treats of Substance appropriates unto it quantitative and dimensive Parts both in a Plilosophical and Mathematical Consideration And particularly in the last Page of this Fourth Part of his Philosophy condemns the Doctrine of Atoms deliver'd by Democritus because he allows them no Commensurable Quantity Had it been demanded of this French Philosopher What kind of Substance must be the Essence of the Soul when separated by Death from the Body in whose Elementary Composition it did precedently Exist He could not define it otherwise than quantitative as every Thing call'd Substance is by his Opinion allow'd to be and therefore the same after the period of the Body's Life And consequently no less agreeable to his Doctrine if Affirm'd That the thinking Substance call'd by him the Humane Soul must have when separated from the Body a Circumscrib'd or Elementary Being suitable to the Nature of Substance as it may be conceiv'd quantitatively Dimensive Which Objection should a Cartesian endeavour to evade by Affirming That the Soul separated from the Body is progressive to the Sphere of Spirits or Things superlatively refin'd and stripp'd from Matter and unto which some allow Definitive not Circumscrib'd Beings he must next grant That the Soul cannot have Existence there otherwise than in a Material Superficies proportionable to its Substance and there eternally Circumscrib'd where Spirits and Immaterial Beings are without such Limits which were all one as to reside temporally amongst spiritual Existencies To avoid which Absurdity he cannot be thought to mean otherwise than that the Soul upon its immediate departure from the Body is Metamorphos'd into a Spirit And next that it has a spiritual Passage through all Elementary Bodies that intervene betwixt it and its immaterial Residence appointed by God But here may arise a Querie Whether Motion can be Attributed to any Thing without Body Or in what manner it can Move where Bodies are or be in Motion without removing of them Which in that Circumstance would render a Soul however deem'd spiritual Commensurably Moving as by Parts of Time it might have an intermixt Progression with other Substances as its temporary Measure Certain it is that Stars the Luminaries of Heaven if duely consider'd their wonderful Motion unalterable Essence and continuation may be allow'd our most visible and perpetual miraculous Objects or somewhat more than in Nature can be properly worded But should those Etherial Beings be suppos'd in any Place where Elementary Substances might Exist it were impossible they could move uncommixt with Things of different Nature from theirs Wherefore it must be granted That the Orbs above together with the Stars and Planets are of one simple Essence or Manner of Existence and therefore cannot Mingle or Move with other Matter distinct from their own Tho' by Divine Appointment as Parts of the same miraculous Substance they are only Illuminated But should the Soul of Man be Assimilated by any refin'd Contemplation to the Nature to the Etherial Luminaries for want of a more obvious or excellent Comparison 't is not easie to conceive how in its Passage from the Body when Life departs it should remove to its appointed Residence separated from Intervening Substances which in their Temperatures and Parts are of the same Elementary Composition with the Humane Body that had been actuated by it Which Objection was doubtless consider'd as causing some Hesitation in the Thoughts of Des-Cartes who notwithstanding the pretended curiosity of his Imagination in reference to the Soul dispos'd according to his Method into the Original Formation by God as he delivers the Operation of the Humane Body He does not at all express the Manner of its departure from its Corporeal Station at the period of Life Or by what means transferr'd or remov'd to its Immortal Residence which was to be expected from the process he delivers Who having determin'd that the Humane Soul is a thinking Substance and notionally Active in the Conduct of the Living Body he might as well have Inserted the Method of its Progression after Death from its Bodily Habitation and how being a Substance it arriv'd to its Immortal Abode without being Complicated Mov'd or Moving in its Passage with any material Thing by any resemblance to what it perform'd when acting in the Inclosure of the Body of Man All which according to the liberty he gives to his Invention might have been as successfully deliver'd by him as the dispatch he gives to his Globuli and Vortices by variety of Schemes and Diagrams that have no better proof than the Suppositions of Des-Cartes But it seems he thought it safer for his Pen to Inscribe his Imagination of the Soul primarily convey'd by the Act of the Almighty into the Humane Body than by what subsequent Means or Pasport from above its Substance arriv'd after the Death of the Body to its determin'd Existence Of which I find no mention in any of his Works other than that he leaves the Manner of the Soul 's passing from the lifeless Body together with its Journey to its Immortal Residence to the miraculous Conduct of the Almighty And I think it devoutly Judicious if according to his Example I silence my Querie on this Incomprehensible Subject Since by the Will of the Omnipotent Disposer and Conservator of the Universal World together with the Being of Mankind in Soul and Body our rational Abilities more aptly tend to admire than determine the Manner by which we are Ensoul'd to live or after Death to remain Immortal A Contemplation sublimely incumbent on the Humane Mind that is enough Capacitated to understand its Intellectual Dignity however its Essence and Operations within us are superlative to our Apprehensions or exact Definitions to be given of them Wherefore I doubt not that my Discussions on this great Particular are no less valid where I differ from him than what I have Remark'd on not a few of his main Principles Maxims Notions Hypotheses and Schemes or demonstratively wav'd or rejected the Insufficiency of others on whatsoever account So that I dare Affirm that I have not omitted any significant or useful Animadversion And had I more particularly insisted on any Speculations or Matter seemingly varied and Instanc'd by him I had in effect but encreas'd Words to one and the same tendency And therefore where in Substance my Observations on some Things include other I desire that my Reader would ingenuously consider them as they ought to be understood And tho' this Author is very inclinable to Celebrate his own Esteem by frequently Affirming That his Assertions and Tenents are Philosophically and Mathematically certain I will boast of no Success of mine to the contrary farther than is Equivalent with the Proofs I have made and to which I refer the Judicious Peruser And thus I conclude the Fourth and last Part of my Remarks on the Plilosophy of Des-Cartes FINIS