Selected quad for the lemma: diversity_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
diversity_n	soul_n	unity_n	variety_n	362	5	11.5554	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26270	The government of the passions according to the rules of reason and religion viz, love, hatred, desire, eschewing, hope, despair, fear, anger, delight, sorrow, &c.	Ayloffe, W. (William)	1700 (1700)	Wing A4290; ESTC R23106	50,268	134

observ'd of St. Austin touching the insolence of the Stoicks that they only differed from other Philosophers in an affected Arrogancy of terms and that although their expressions were more haughty yet were their sentiments no sublimer than those of other Sects In effect they blame not so much the Passions as their Excesses and if they vainly boasted some fond desire of smothering them yet they never had any hopes of effecting it It seems much less difficult to govern the Passions than the Senses for Love and Fear are sooner brought to reason than Hunger or Thirst so that in as much as we can command our Senses we may by reason subject our Passions likewise and render our desires and fears as virtuous as we make our fastings and watchings religious acts Reason is the great propriety of Man all other qualifications are but exotick and adventitious he loseth them without impoverishing himself and provided he be rational he can always stile himself Man This must be the great source of our felicity and by managing the motions of the inferiour part of the Soul we shall learn how all the Passions may serve to our advantage Fear proves our security and Hope animates us to generous Enterprizes by so much the more glorious as they seem to be environed with difficulties In short the Passions are not so predominant but that they may be subjugated by reason Virtue would want employ if she had not Passions to vanquish or at least to regulate Fortitude bridles in Fear Modesty measures our Desires Temperance represses the violent instigations of Voluptuousness Clemency moderates the efervescency of Choler and if it were not for this Princes would neither be merciful nor just If the Passions receive such great advantages from the assistance of Virtue after some training in her School they repay her richly and serve her as faithfully Fear is the greatest part of Prudence and tho' some tax her with anticipating Evils yet she doth not so much forestall dangers to make them more afflicting but by considering them at a distance she teaches us how we may happily avoid them or patiently undergo them Boldness attends Valour and the most illustrious Conquerors owe their Lawrels to the generosity of this Passion Choler supports Justice animating Magistrates to the punishment of Criminals so that there is not any one Passion but what is subservient to Virtue when it is guided by reason and those who have vented so much of their malicious Eloquence in crying down the Passions have only shewed they were ignorant both as to their use and merit We may define Passion then to be a motion of the sensitive Appetite occasioned by imagination of a real or an apparent good or evil In its birth it hath no other malignity than what it contracts from the Corruption of Humane Nature But when the understanding begins to be obfuscated with the fuliginous Clouds of their Vapours or else vanquish'd with the softer blandishments of their solicitations and so perverts the Will then and only then their motions turn rebellious and who was but irregular before is now become entirely criminal for as the impulses of the inferiour part of the Soul are no ways free of themselves they cannot be vicious but when they are voluntary These Passions we shall endeavour to bring under the Government of Reason and by the assistance of Grace happily transmute them into so many Virtues 'T is not enough here to know the Cause of our Malady unless we are instructed in the Cure too For these are distempers which charm and the Patient frequently fears nothing more than recovery We cannot destroy our Passions without making a rupture in the Oeconomy of our Nature yet we may draw great Service from them more than barely as some fancied by trying our Courage in repelling their too rapid violence or our constancy in supporting them patiently I hope to demonstrate that as Providence did work our Salvation out of our ruine so we may gather our tranquility and happiness out of that very mighty disorder which our Passions occasion in us Of the Number of our Passions SOme have made the Passions as 't were to flow from two different Springs which they term the Concupiscible and the Irascible Apetite Supposing that such contrary Motions could not be effected by one and the same Power or part of the Soul Yet with their leave I should rather follow the Opinion of St. Austin not believing that a diversity of Sentiments presupposes a diversity of Faculties too since one Man frequently desires Things contrary in themselves yet he conserves the unity of his Person in the variety of his Desires The Holy Father had a severe Tryal of this in his Conversion his Soul was distracted with differing Sentiments and the good Saint wonder'd that having but one Will he should be capable of forming such very opposite Resolutions so that the Passions may possibly flow all from the same individual Source since the Soul is not either divided or multiplied by its various Faculties preserving the unity of its Essence even in the multitude of its Operations The Philosophers themselves are divided in their Opinions concerning the Number of the Passions yet I can't but side with St. Austin in this particular likewise and hold that Love is the only Passion which agitates us For as the same vast Body of Water generally termed the Sea has distinct Names in every respective Part of the World through which it passes or as the Heaven 's made a different Divinity of each Attribute and Perfection of God so the various Effects of this one Passion has been the great occasion of Man's judging that there were many of several Natures supposing that it changed its Condition as often as it changed its Conduct Thus Reason confirms our Belief that there 's but one only Passion and what others have thought to be such were but only so many Properties of this one Desiring and Shunning Hope and Fear are the Motions of Love by which it seeks what pleases and flies what is disagreeable to it 'T is but a very frivolous Objection to this Hyyothesis That Love must of Consequence transform it self into its Contrary which is Hatred for even that very Motion of Love is reconcilable with Reason and Experience since one Cause produces contrary Effects the Sun melts wax and hardens Clay Justice punishes Crimes and rewards Virtue or if we may presume to fly a step higher God only hates sin because he loves himself Whether there were any Passions in the State of Innocence 'T IS so long a Tract of Time since Man lost his Innocence that we at present have but a faint Idea of what it was nay did not the Justice of God punish the Crimes of the Father in the Person of the Son peradventure we should hardly regret the loss as irreparable as it is Every one discribes the State of Innocence according to his own Imagination yet doubtless as the Earth brought