Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	air_n	body_n	element_n	4,001	5	9.7677	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49843	Observations upon a sermon intituled, A confutation of atheism from the faculties of the soul, alias̀, Matter and motion cannot think preached April 4, 1692 : by way of refutation.	Layton, Henry, 1622-1705.	1692 (1692)	Wing L756; ESTC R39115	14,582	19

even their Powers to conceive or apprehend the true and next reasons or causes of such Performances To such purpose Phil. Melanchthon lib. de anima p. 20. He had just before recited Certas descriptiones Philisophicas quae si de pecudis anima tantum quaereretur utcunque monstrarent aliquid quod cogitari potest in materia fons esse actionum nondum tamen penitus haec perspicimus cur ita factum sit sapientia est artificis non nostra Pag. 112. he says Maxime admirandum est cerebrum quod est domicilium ac officina cogitationum And altho we do not thorowly know the Substance and Operation of the Brain nor the ubi or quomodo such things are wrought in it but must leave such Knowledge to the Wisdom of the Creator Yet thus much says he Men may know of it oriri ejus materiam à subtilissima parte seminis plena spirituum quae in formatione foetus in illam hominis arcem summam quasi exaestuat cum epar cor venulae inchoantur And this derivation of the Brain and its daily and known Performances make it look very like a mat●ria Cogitativa and as such it shall be left here notwithstanding our Author the Preachers pretences to the contrary In this page he handles Matter as if three of the Elements viz. Water Air and Fire were no parts of Matter which I pass for an apparent mistake And he says Matter cannot acquire Motion of itself without thrusting of some other Body or intrinsical Motion of an immaterial Spirit This is denied before and instances given of the Wind and Fire which move themselves and other things about them during the whole continuance of their own being P. 18. He says no parts of Matter considered in themselves are hot or cold white or black bitter or sweet and that they have neither light or colour heat or sound these are not says he in Bodies absolutely considered but in our Eyes Ears and other Organs of Sense I answer Quod non ego credulus illi I grant Men cannot perceive such qualities in Matter but by means of their Senses but withal do believe that there are Light and Bodies illuminating tho Men should not see them so Sounds not heard so Heat without Mens feeling it discoverable enough by seeing it at a distance consumption of the fewel and the scorcht blackness of such parts of the fewel as are left after such a fire But yet he will prove what he said to be true by an instance For says he If glass that hath no colour at all be broke and braid into small parcels those small parcels will look to be of a white colour and yet truly they have no more colour in them than they had before and that truly is none at all I grant him there is in this instance a deceptio visus and that the thing appears otherwise than it is Shall it be concluded that because our Senses are deceived in some things therefore we cannot trust them in any thing there seems small foundation for such a conclusion And I will thereupon put him another instance viz. Put a strait Stick into the water presently it will appear crooked but take it out and it will look strait again and was always so notwithstanding its appearance He may as well pretend to infer that there are really no crooked sticks in Nature as that Matter hath no real Qualities because Men are deceived in thinking his bray'd-Glass to be white And yet he says P. 19. That he hath sufficiently proved his Assertion But I beg his pardon for thinking he is mistaken He says there That the Qualities in Bodies can no more be conceived to be real than Roses or Honey can be thought to smell and taste their own sweetness Had he said than Roses have a sweet smell or Honey a sweet taste the saying might have been both coherent and true whereas now it seems to be neither P. 20. He pretends to believe and persuade that the Body of Man is a Senseless piece of Matter which hath neither colour warmth softness c. He says he hath proved this but I do not know where and I beg his pardon for not believing him For I must adhere to Thomas Didymus against him trusting my own Senses in their healthy and sound Condition to judge of their proper Objects placed at a reasonable distance and the fitting Sphere of their Activity and assisted by the ordinary Powers of Human Perception or Judgment which easily discovers that the Sight is deceived when it takes his bray'd-Glass to be really white or my Stick in the water to be really crooked He says farther It is not Blood and Bones that can judge nor can the Head or Brain do it as being only Body and not imaginative P. 21. But says he Our opposers may reply and so they do That the Animal Spirits and Insensible Particles there residing viz. in the Head and Brain do actuate the common Sense Phancy Memory Judgment and other Powers of the Understanding To this he replies the thing cannot be so for that their Spirits must have each a determinate Figure as Cubes Spheres Cones c. But this is not granted him for I say rather that these Spirits in the Head are Particles of the purest Blood Inflamed glowing and lucid irradiating the Brain and all the Ventricles or Concavities of it with the appendances of Apprehension and Memory thereunto belonging He says We do not grind inanimate Corn into Living and Rational Meal and that Nails Hair Horns and Hoofs may bid as fair for Understanding as the finest Animl Spirit of them all To this I answer That the inflamed glowing Particles of Blood called Spirits are not in themselves Sentient or Intelligent but they are the Actus primus corporis Organici viz. The Active Principle of Life Motion Sense and Understanding in Man and Beast stimulating and acting every Part and Organ of the Body to the performance of those Duties for which by the Great Creator they were intended and made Those Spirits therefore Act the Eye to see the Ear to hear the Tongue to speak the Liver to make blood the Heart to purifie and refine it the Understanding or Brain to apprehend judge and remember It cannot make one Organ perform the Function of another Organ but acts every Organ according to its proper Use and natural Capacity And therefore it is not the Soul or the Body that act inable or govern the Man but the Man by the activity of his Soul and the aptitude of his bodily Organs doth all those things which we daily see are done amongst us not by Soul or Body singly but by the Virtues and Contexture of both together For his saying that Men cannot grind Corn into Living and Rational Meal If it have a meaning it seems to intend that Corn cannot be so used as to effect Life and Rationality in Men and if it be taken in that sense the

that human Arts have so far prevailed as to communicate to dead and hard Matter a fixed and regular Motion Witness Architas his Dove and Regiomontanus his Eagle both made of Wood and a Fly of Iron made by the last who all flew at their full liberty in the Air to a certain and considerable distance and returned in a regular manner to the places from whence they first set out and this Men would not then believe could be done without an Immaterial Spirit that these Engines therefore were moved by Daemons and the Artists were Conjurers was a common opinion of those times and hitherto Artists are with Difficulty defended from such Imputations Dr. Willis in his Anima Brutorum p. 40. De illis redarguendis solicitus non sum qui viventium sensus facultates quascunque perceptivas non nisi à substantia immateriali immortalique obire posse contendunt he says He did not think such Thinkers worthy of any answer and this perhaps might be his reason for it he knew that our Preacher's Affertion was maintained by several learned Men but after a different mode of Argumentation for when they were press'd by the Argument taken from the Actions and Faculties of the Brutes viz. that they have and act as many Senses as Men have and use them as perfectly that they have as strong and active Affections Passions Appetites and local Motions as Men have that they have Phansie Memory and Perceivance like those of Men tho in far lower degrees than those of Men are Upon averment that all these Faculties in the Brutes were acted by a material Spirit and a demand why the same might not be effected amongst Men the Maintainers of Immateriality seem much put to it for an answer to this Objection and they are divided upon it some of them say that Brutes have neither Senses nor Affections nor Appetites nor any sort of Perceivances at all and that they know no more of what they do than the Organ-pipes know when they make Musick or a pair of Bellows that they blow the Fire whence they would infer that they have not and need not any sort of Soul for that they neither use nor have any sensible Faculty at all But this Argument appears to me as I suppose it did to Dr. Willis argumentum ducens ad absurdum and therefore but a Fallacy For what can lightly appear more absurd to the common sense of Mankind than boldly and seriously to affirm that a Dog or a Horse doth neither hear see smell taste nor even feel when they are whipt spurr'd or beaten and that Beasts have neither Love Wrath Fear Expectation or Desire these Assertions appear so contrary to Mens daily experience and therefore so absurd as to make Dr. Willis think such Arguers deserve no answer and yet Des Cartes and Sir K. Digby profess to argue on that side and thereby to support the necessary Immateriality of a human Soul Others there are who to support the necessity of such an Immateriality take a quite different and even a contrary course for observing the infirmity and absurdity of the forecited Argument they agree and acknowledge that Brutes have and use all their Senses Affections Passions Appetites and local Motions as Men use them and that they have and use Phanfie Memory Perceivance and Choice like but in a much lower degree than those of Men but say they the Brutes cannot thus act without the assistance and guidance of Spirits or Souls nay and that it is not a Material Soul which can serve for such purposes but that Brutes must of necessity be reputed to have Immaterial Souls praeexistent before they came into their brutal Bodies and that shall subsist in a state of Separation after the death of such brutal Bodies And this they say and affirm with design to persuade that there is an absolute necessity for Men to have Immaterial Souls because say they the very Brutes cannot act their Senses and Faculties without such Souls And these were such Arguers as Dr Willis thought not to deserve his Answer and yet Dr. More asserts this opinion in terminis and Baxter follows the same very near altho not altogether so fully But they are all eagerly bent to establish the Immateriality and Immortality of Human Souls for fear that otherwise there would not be a sufficient ground or foundation for the expectation of Rewards and Punishments future to this Life not enough remembring or considering the Article of the Resurrection and the last Judgment appointed by God for that very purpose of distributing Recompences according to the behaviour which Men have used in passing through the Trials and Temptations of this World Our Preacher insists That if Sensation were inherent in Matter Stocks and Stones would be Percipient and Rational Creatures To this I say that may be competent to and inherent in one sort of Matter which is very incompetent to and incoherent with another sort of Matter But he seems to intend a confounding all sorts of Matter together as if Logs Metals and Stones were of the same nature with Flesh Blood and Brain or those of Water Air and Fire amongst all which sorts of Matter I say there are very great Differences and some of these sorts of Matter are capable of such Effects and Operations as others of them are not P. 15. Aimed only against Atheists and such as deny there are any Spiritual Substunces I say thereunto I am not of that Belief or Opinion P. 17. He says Matter cannot acquire Motion of it self This I deny For I say that Wind and Fire are Matter and yet Self-movers nor do they or can they ever lose their Motion or cease moving so long as they continue to be Wind or Fire And if we shall consider the Dust of which Adam was made we may find that it may be so comminuted and refined as when pounced through a fine Searce the smallest part of it will rise up again like a thin cloud ascending upwards of itself and apt to be moved with every little Breath resembling and fine as those Atoms which we call Motes in the Sun and which of their own nature maintain a perpetual Motion It seems a Compositum of such active Particles impregnated with rorid Steams and Juices apt to ascend by adhering to any solid Body are not apt alone for Motion but that by the hand and skill of a Divine Artist there may be made of such like Ingredients a Cogitative Matter For an instance of which we may propound the Insects who have nothing but mere earth and dust impregnated for their Originals and yet act regularly and according to the Rules and Directions of Art and Science witness the Bees the Ants and the admirable Textures of the Spiders God thereby revealing to us that he can out of mere Matter produce Arts and Sciences and especially for the preservation and benefit of his Creatures but far beyond the Practise or Knowledge of Men to perform and