Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A49846
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A search after souls and spiritual operations in man
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Layton, Henry, 1622-1705.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing L759; ESTC R39121
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317,350
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468
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founded upon Rules and whether those Rules are right or wrong really their being accepted for right makes them obligatory to the Party accepting them so as Offences against Erroneous Rules reputed true are equally burthensome to the Conscience as if they were the most true and rectified that can be delivered to Men and yet they are capable of a more easie Cure viz. by discovery of the Falsity and Errour of them Hence may be inferred that without some sort of Rules and Submission to them the Acts and Power of Conscience are not perceivable which shews they do not flow from the Soul Material or Immaterial but from Education Custom Opinion and Rules to which Actions must be compared for without such a Comparison Judgment cannot be made whether they are right or wrong That Conscience grows as aforesaid appears also from diversity in the acts of it for some Men make a great scruple of Conscience to do things which others think they are bound in duty to do and cannot omit them without check of their Conscience whereas Immaterial Souls pass for all alike And if Conscience were a Natural Efflux from them there could not be such difference and contrariety in the Acts of it I have observed how it grows in Children and Beasts from the effects of their Education made powerful in them by the terrour of a Humane Vengeance expected to follow upon their swerving from the Rules of their Discipline and which the apprehension of Legal Punishments hath often inflicted upon Offenders before Temporal Execution overtook them The Conscience of Sins against God is of a like nature and the Terrour of it grows from Fear that he being offended for the Breach of what Men are perswaded he hath commanded to be done or not done will inflict terrible punishments for the same of unimaginable torment and endless duration as Men are taught to believe and expects by such Rules and Doctrines as are daily represented to them and pressed upon their apprehensions and belief And thus have I summed and shortned my formerly longer Expressions concerning Conscience to which I shall be glad to receive a reasonable Answer either long or short 4. Paragraph You quote the words Whatsoever is not of faith is sin and you say Faith here signifies Conscience My sense of those Words is Whatsoever Men do believing it to be a Sin that is a Sin in them though the Action in it self be good but if it be contrary to those Rules to which a Man hath submitted himself this is a Sin against the Mans Conscience though if there were no accepted Rule against it there would be no transgression in it You express also to think that Beasts cannot be brought by any Education to resist and conquer their Appetites forgetting what formerly I said of a Setting Dog whose Mouth will water and his Chaps move and all his Members and Motions shew a great Desire to be in with his Game and yet he will sit for a long time constrained by the remembrance of punishment to be expected and executed upon his doing otherwise And many instances may be produced of other Bestial Actions in this kind You make it my wonder That Sensual Powers do for much the greater part over-rule the Rational and prevail against it You say I may likely find it often so in my self and I grant it and therefore is that none of my wonder And you demand From whence comer Mens uneasiness of Mind upon such occasions I answer It comes from finding their Actions do not agree with their Rules and therefore not with their Duties for the Failure in which they expect punishment less or more according as their Delicts may seem to deserve not from Powers of Nature in its Simplicity but its Cultivated Capacity under the Conduct of Rules Examples or Opinions to which Men have submitted their Minds and this makes men nocent as the contrary makes men innocent in the judgment of their own Underftanding which is their Conscience 5 Paragr Upon your maintaining That Mans Soul is an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit created each for the Government of each Person I demand Whence it comes that this Soul doth not or cannot so prevail with or over the Person whom it should Govern as to keep it in Rational and Vertuous Ways of Living and Practice but that the far greater number of people follow Vicious Practices contrary to Right Reason and the Desire and Design of such an Intelligent Spirit And the true Cause of my wonder is What that can be in Man which hath Power to oppose and overthrow the Government and Command of this Kind of Soul in him To this you answer You say with St. James This comes from mens lusts which war in their members To you I reply and ask From what Original in Man do such Lusts grow viz. Affections Passions Sensualities Either they grow from the same Originals with Reason and his other Faculties viz. from the Contexture of his Soul and Body or from some other Cause You say I should not wonder at the thing for that universal Experience teaches that so it is This I grant and therefore do not wonder at the being so of the thing but at the Cause and Manner how this comes to pass viz. from what Original in Man this Effect can grow Apparent it seems that Affections and Passions in Man grow from the Contexture of his Soul and Body as all his other Powers and Faculties do and are Natural to him for one that hath them not is not a compleat Man But if their Energy proceed from Mans Soul a Spirit governing this Soul in acting the Affections and Passions so vigorously seems to act blindly and unintelligently or else that it is divided against it self and therefore its Kingdom cannot stand but such Lusts as it self produceth and acteth prevail to overthrow its Government and bring the poor indiscreet Soul under the Pestilent Power of Sin and Satan If thus it be not I desire you will Answer what I Object in this Point which is that Mans Soul acts against reason and its own Interest in so highly actuating of these Lusts or which is far more likely that the Humane Soul is not Intelligent For what you say concerning St. Paul's Text Rom. 9. I hold with you that many places of Scripture do testifie a Power in Man to act for his own Advancement in Piety and towards future Happiness And I assent to that Opinion the rather for that the same is consonant to the reason of Mankind but to agree this Opinion with St. Paul's Text is beyond my Capacity and I should be glad to know your manner of doing it You mention ill effects from the Opinion of the Materiality Omnia tuta timens consonant to the Nature of Zeal and Affection That in your Exhortations you have a great respect to the Resurrection and last Judgment I think to be well done and upon very firm Grounds but for the Immateriality it seems no
in the Law and have a Law written in their Hearts and are a Law to themselves In Answer to this I quote as a parallel Text 1 Cor. 11.14 Doth not even Nature it self teach you that if a Man have long Hair it is a Shame to him I say this Text seems to expound what he meant by Nature in the former Text viz. that second Nature arising from Education and the general Customs practised and observed amongst Men. In all the Countries of St. Paul's Progress and Travels Men used to wear their Hair short and thence it look'd to him like an unnatural thing to do otherwise and yet at that Time both in Germany France and England those Nations had a general Custom for Men to wear their Hair at as full a Length as the Women especially those who were of a Superior Quality amongst them Hence I would infer St. Paul's Nature by which Men do the Things contained in the Law intends a Nature cultivated by Education acting though not by the Rules of Moses's Law not known to them yet by other Rules parallel and equivalent and according to the Direction of their several Educations and such Rules as happened to be taught them and they believed themselves obliged to obey Men so educated and informed acted by Force of such their second Nature according to their accepted Rules and Customs the Moral Duties positively expressed in and commanded by the Laws delivered by Angels unto Moses Capacities of Humane Nature could and did attain to such Perfections by Rules Education and Custom as led them to the Performance of those Actions which Moses commanded As Men by Custom and Education are taught to mannage Armies and Treaties to Argue and Infer to Dance Sing c. All which and infinite other Thoughts and Things do very fat exceed the Powers and Practice of an Humane Nature in its naked Simplicity as of one Born or exposed in a Wilderness or Desert without Education or Company of any but the Beasts The best amongst the Heathens did as you say conquer Vices assisted and directed by good Rules Education Imitation and Practice but never by Powers of Nature uncultivated naked and simple as in some Men it may have been found You say Such Heathens governed their Inclinations by the Prevalency of their Reason above or over their Sensual Desires And I grant That assisted by Rules Education and Examples of others who instructed them their Reason did prevail to rectifie or controle the common inordinate and irregular Desires of their Appetites and Passions You told me before One Swallow makes not a Summer And I say now of these Heathens Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto an exceeding small Number of them if compared with the vast Multitudes of those who acted otherwise They were Men composed ex meliori luto factâ— ex ligno quo sit Mercurius assisted and elevated by an happy Education good Rules commendable Examples which themselves improved by Consideration and Study and made them habitual to themselves by Practice I say that such a Conduct is no more natural to Humanity than it is to Speak Read Write build Forts play upon the Lute or any such like Practices There are Capacities in Humane Nature able to attain to all these and very many other Acts and Practices but not without the Assistance of Education Rules Examples Labour Exercise and Practice So by Nature thus cultivated these high Heathens acted to great Degrees of Goodness and became a Law to themselves not from simply natural Inclinations or the Notices of a Humane Soul in its naked Naturals or any Power growing out of it as from a Proper Internal Original like to those of the Senses Appetites Affections Passions the Understanding Invention Memory Judgment Will for these proceed from Internal and Natural Originals viz. the Contexture of the Body and Soul in Man and act of themselves in that Compositum without needing to be taught or learnt and they form the Capacities of Man's Learning ready and fit for all Mens Performances apt to be advanced directed and perfected by Education Rules and Examples and made so easie as to appear in some measure Natural by the Custom and Practice of them as we may perceive in a Practised Lutinist who plays with such apparent Ease and Readiness as if that Faculty were Natural to him and had come of it self upon him And thus the good Deportment of Heathens became and might be esteemed and spoken of as Natural to them not simpliciter sed secundum quid mediantibus the Education Rules Imitation Practice and Custom and from this acquired Nature in Man it seems his Conscience discerning the Sinfulness of Homicide Adultery Theft and Covetousness are derived and not from an Internal or meer Natural Principle or as an Effluvium emanant from his Immortal or Immaterial Soul Paragraph 4. You tell me That in considering the great and generally prevalent Power of Sensuality in Man I ought to take in the Struggles of Reason against it And I agree that I ought to do so and say that I have done so in all my Disquisitions concerning that Matter I have said That in Contests between Sensuality and Reason they both plead before the Judgment arguing each according to their several Conceptions the one Side for a present and certain Pleasure or Satisfaction the other for a Future or more remote and less certain Good to be obtained or Suffering to be avoided according as Men have been taught by their Education the Rules and Examples of others their own Experience or such Conceptions as they have submitted themselves unto I had said that an Intelligent Soul in Man whereby he lives and is goern'd should probably be able to compel the Obedience of the Sensual Faculty You boggle at the Word compel and change it into effectually perswade and I am content to agree to your wording of it But evident it is that the Rational Soul or Faculty is not able effectually to perswade the Sensitive Faculties to submit themselves to the Directions of Reason or Piety but in more than a hundred for one or more likely a thousand for one it comes to pass that this Rational Soul or Faculty instead of prevailing over Sensual Inclinations and Forces it is by them overborn and baffled to that Degree as to be hurried with them into a greedy Accomplishment of such Desires as are contrary to the Dictates of such Soul or Rational Faculty even when strengthened with all its Assistances of Education Rules good Examples Exhortations and Conscience To this you answer That the Prevalency of Sense against the Rational Soul grows not from Humane Nature but from the Depravation of it occasioned by the Sin of Man and the Curse thereupon ensuing This Depravation you say doth very much encline Men to follow the Violent Bent of their Sensitive Appetites and Passions against the Struggles of Reason the Effects of Grace which though sufficient may for want of being attended unto