Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	believe_v	church_n	infallible_a	2,870	5	9.5232	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53058	Philosophical letters, or, Modest reflections upon some opinions in natural philosophy maintained by several famous and learned authors of this age, expressed by way of letters / by the thrice noble, illustrious, and excellent princess the Lady Marchioness of Newcastle.	Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of, 1624?-1674.	1664 (1664)	Wing N866; ESTC R19740	305,809	570

as to be before for if we will do this we must not allow that the Eternal Son of God is Coeternal with the Father because nature requires a Father to exist before the Son but in God is no time but all Eternity and if you allow that God hath made some Creatures as Supernatural Spirits to live Eternally why should he not as well have made a Creature from all Eternity for Gods making is not our making he needs no Priority of Time But you may say the Comparison of the Eternal Generation of the Son of God is Mystical and Divine and not to be applied to natural things I answer The action by which God created the World or made Nature was it natural of supernatural surely you will say it was a Supernatural and God-like action why then will you apply Natural Rules to a God-like and Supernatural Action for what Man knows how and when God created Nature You will say the Scripture doth teach us that for it is not Six thousand years when God created this World I answer the holy Scripture informs us onely of the Creation of this Visible World but not of Nature and natural Matter for I firmly believe according to the Word of God that this World has been Created as is described by Moses but what is that to natural Matter There may have been worlds before as many are of the opinion that there have been men before Adam and many amongst Divines do believe that after the destruction of this World God will Create a new World again as a new Heaven and a new Earth and if this be probable or at least may be believed without any prejudice to the holy Scripture why may it not be probably believed that there have been other worlds before this visible World for nothing is impossible with God and all this doth derogate nothing from the Honour and Glory of God but rather increases his Divine Power But as for the Creation of this present World it is related that there was first a rude and indigested Heap or Chaos without form void and dark and God said Let it be light Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered together and let the dry Land appear Let the Earth bring forth Grass the Herb yielding seed and the Fruit-tree yielding Fruit after its own kind and let there be Lights in the Firmament the one to rule the Day and the other the Night and let the Waters bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath life and let the Earth bring forth living Creatures after its kinde and at last God said Let us make Man and all what was made God saw it was good Thus all was made by Gods Command and who executed his Command but the Material servant of God Nature which ordered her self-moving matter into such several Figures as God commanded and God approved of them And thus Madam I verily believe the Creation of the World and that God is the Sole and omnipotent Creator of Heaven and Earth and of all Creatures therein nay although I believe Nature to have been from Eternity yet I believe also that God is the God and Author of Nature and has made Nature and natural Matter in a way and manner proper to his Omnipotency and Incomprehensible by us I will pass by natural Arguments and Proofs as not belonging to such an Omnipotent Action as for example how the nature of relative terms requires that they must both exist at one point of Time viz. a Master and his Servant and a King and his Subjects for one bearing relation to the other can in no ways be considered as different from one another in formiliness or laterness of Time but as I said these being meerly natural things I will nor cannot apply them to Supernatural and Divine Actions But if you ask me how it is possible that Nature the Effect and Creature of God can be Eternal without beginning I will desire you to answer me first how a Creature can be Eternal without end as for example Supernatural Spirits are and then I will answer you how a Creature can be Eternal without beginning For Eternity consists herein that it has neither beginning nor end and if it be easie for God to make a Being without end it is not difficult for Him to make a Being without beginning One thing more I will add which is That if Nature has not been made by God from all Eternity then the Title of God as being a Creator which is a Title and action upon which our Faith is grounded for it is the first Article in our Creed has been accessory to God as I said not full Six thousand years ago but there is not anything accessory to God he being the Perfection himself But Madam all what I speak is under the liberty of Natural Philosophy and by the Light of Reason onely not of Revelation and my Reason being not infallible I will not declare my Opinions for an infallible Truth Neither do I think that they are offensive either to Church or State for I submit to the Laws of One and believe the Doctrine of the Other so much that if it were for the advantage of either I should be willing to sacrifice my Life especially for the Church yea had I millions of Lives and every Life was either to suffer torment or to live in ease I would prefer torment for the benefit of the Church and therefore if I knew that my Opinions should give any offence to the Church I should be ready every minute to alter them And as much as I am bound in all duty to the obedience of the Church as much am I particularly bound to your Ladiship for your entire love and sincere affection towards me for which I shall live and die MADAM Your most faithful Friend and humble Servant IV. MADAM I Have chosen in the first place the Work of that famous Philosopher Hobbs called Leviathan wherein I find he sayes That the cause of sense or sensitive perception is the external body or Object which presses the Organ proper to each Sense To which I answer according to the ground of my own Philosophical Opinions That all things and therefore outward objects as well as sensitive organs have both Sense and Reason yet neither the objects nor the organs are the cause of them for Perception is but the effect of the Sensitive and rational Motions and not the Motions of the Perception neither doth the pressure of parts upon parts make Perception for although Matter by the power of self-motion is as much composeable as divideable and parts do joyn to parts yet that doth not make perception nay the several parts betwixt which the Perception is made may be at such a distance as not capable to press As for example Two men may see or hear each other at a distance and yet there may be other bodies between them

or a corporeal substance and millions of immaterial Spirits nay were their number infinite cannot possess so much place as a small Pinspoint for Incorporeal Spirits possess no place at all which is the reason that an Immaterial and a Material Infinite cannot hinder oppose or obstruct each other and such an Infinite Immaterial Spirit is God alone But as for Created Immaterial Spirits as they call them it may be questioned whether they be Immaterial or not for there may be material Spirits as well as immaterial that is such pure subtil and agil substances as cannot be subject to any humane sense which may be purer and subtiller then the most refined air or purest light I call them material spirits onely for distinctions sake although it is more proper to call them material substances But be it that there are Immaterial Spirits yet they are not natural but supernatural that is not substantial parts of Nature for Nature is material or corporeal and so are all her Creatures and whatsoever is not material is no part of Nature neither doth it belong any ways to Nature Wherefore all that is called Immaterial is a Natural Nothing and an Immaterial Natural substance in my opinion is non-sense And if you contend with me that Created Spirits as good and bad Angels as also the Immortal Mind of Man are Immaterial then I say they are Supernatural but if you say they are Natural then I answer they are Material and thus I do not deny the existence of Immaterial Spirits but onely that they are not parts of Nature but supernatural for there may be many things above Nature and so above a natural Understanding and Knowledg which may nevertheless have their being and existence although they be not Natural that is parts of Nature Neither do I deny that those supernatural Creatures may be amongst natural Creatures that is have their subsistence amongst them and in Nature but they are not so commixed with them as the several parts of Matter are that is they do not joyn to the constitution of a material Creature for no Immaterial can make a Material or contribute any thing to the making or production of it but such a co-mixture would breed a meer confusion in Nature wherefore it is quite another thing to be in Nature or to have its subsistence amongst natural Creatures in a supernatural manner or way and to be a part of Nature I allow the first to Immaterial Spirits but not the second viz. to be parts of Nature But what Immaterial Spirits are both in their Essence or Nature and their Essential Properties it being supernatural and above natural Reason I cannot determine any thing thereof Neither dare I say they are Spirits like as God is that is of the same Essence or Nature no more then I dare say or think that God is of a humane shape or figure or that the Nature of God is as easie to be known as any notion else whatsoever and that we may know as much of him as of any thing else in the world For if this were so man would know God as well as he knows himself but God and his Attributes are not so easily known as man may know himself and his own natural Proprieties for God and his Attributes are not conceiveable or comprehensible by any humane understanding which is not onely material but also finite for though the parts of Nature be infinite in number yet each is finite in it self that is in its figure and therefore no natural Creature is capable to conceive what God is for he being infinite there is also required an infinite capacity to conceive him Nay Nature her self although she is Infinite yet cannot possibly have an exact notion of God by reason she is Material and God is Immaterial and if the Infinite servant of God is not able to conceive God much less will a finite part of Nature do it Besides the holy Church doth openly confess and declare the Incomprehensibility of God when in the Athanasian Creed she expresses that the Father is Incomprehensible the Son Incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible and that there are not three but one Incomprehensible God Therefore if any one will prove the contrary to wit that God is Comprehensible or which is all one that God is as easie to be known as any Creature whatsoever he surely is more then the Church But I shall never say or believe so but rather confess my ignorance then betray my folly and leave things Divine to the Church to which I submit as I ought in all Duty and as I do not meddle with any Divine Mysteries but subject my self concerning my Faith or Belief and the regulating of my actions for the obtaining of Eternal Life wholly under the government and doctrine of the Church so I hope they will also grant me leave to have my liberty concerning the contemplation of Nature and natural things that I may discourse of them with such freedom as meer natural Philosophers use or at least ought to do and thus I shall be both a good Chistian and a good Natural Philosopher Unto which to make the number perfect I will add a third which is I shall be MADAM Your real and faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM THough I am loth as I have often told you to imbarque my self in the discourse of such a subject as no body is able naturally to know which is the supernatural and divine Soul in Man yet your Author having in my judgment strange opinions both of the Essence Figure Seat and Production of the Soul and discoursing thereof with such liberty and freedom as of any other natural Creature I cannot chuse but take some notice of his discourse and make some reflections upon it which yet shall rather express my ignorance of the same subject then in a positive answer declare my opinion thereof for in things divine I refer my self wholly to the Church and submit onely to their instructions without any further search of natural reason and if I should chance to express more then I ought to do and commit some errror it being out of ignorance rather then set purpose I shall be ready upon better information to mend it and willingly subject my self under the censure and correction of the holy Church as counting it no disgrace to be ignorant in the mysteries of Faith since Faith is of things unknown but rather a duty required from every Lay-man to believe simply the Word of God as it is explained and declared by the Orthodox Church without making Interpretations out of his own brain and according to his own fancy which breeds but Schismes Heresies Sects and Confusions But concerning your Author I perceive by him first that he makes no distinction between the Natural or Rational Soul or Mind of Man and between the Divine or Supernatural Soul but takes them both as one and distinguishes onely the Immortal Soul from the sensitive Life of