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	see_v	water_n	3,933	5	6.4607	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57656	Medicus medicatus, or, The physicians religion cured by a lenitive or gentle potion with some animadversions upon Sir Kenelme Digbie's observations on Religio medici / by Alexander Ross.	Ross, Alexander, 1591-1654.; Ross, Alexander, 1591-1654. Animadversions upon Sir Kenelme Digbie's Observations on Religio medici.	1645 (1645)	Wing R1961; ESTC R21768	44,725	128

of its punishment of the bodies ●lso for sin to be separated for a while Thus have I briefly pointed at your ab●rrations having snatched some few ●oures from my other occasions for study cannot in these distracted times 't is not ●ut of an humour of contradiction or vain-●lory nor of any intention I have to bring ●ou or your Booke into obloquie that I ●ave marked out its obliquities but only ●o sa●isfie the desire of my friends for whom we are partly borne who have laid this charge on me and to let green head and inconsiderate young Gentlemen se● that there is some danger in reading you● Book without the spectacles of judgement for whilst they are taken with the gildin● of your phrase they may swallow unawares such pills as may rather kill the● cure them I have passed by divers slips o● lesse danger and consequence because I want time and would not seem too Eagle-sighted in other mens failings whereas I have enough to doe with mine owne Respicere id manticae quod in tergo est I acknowledge there is much worth and good language in your Book and because you are so ingenuous and modest as to disclaime these opinions if they square not with maturer judgements I have with as great modesty and gentlenesse as I could refelled them having neither dipt my pen in gall nor mingled my inke with vineger The God of truth direct all our hearts into the way of truth Amen ANIMADVERSIONS UPON Sir KENELME DIGBIE'S OBSERVATIONS ON Religio Medici LONDON Printed for JAMES YOUNG Animadversions upon Sir KENELME DIGBIE'S Observations on Religio Medici I Having done with the Physician was counselled by my friends to view that noble and ingenuous Knights Observations who hastily running over Religio Medici and having let fall some phrases from his pen which have or may startle the Reader I thought good upon the solicitation of my said friends to point at them by a few Animadversions It is no wonder that he hath phrased some things amisse for the best have their failings quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus And S. Bernard wee say saw not all and what are spoken or written hastily are not spoken and written warily Canis festinans caecos parit catulos 1. I find Sir Kenelme to be of opinion that the changing of the condition of a damned soule from paine to happinesse could not be effected without God had made that soule another creature then what it was as to make fire cease from being hot requireth to have it become another thing then fire I doe not see any reason why the essence of the soule must be changed upon the change of its condition from paine to happinesse for these are accidents which may be present or absent without the destruction of the subject in which they are Wee are all by nature the sons of wrath by grace regeneration we are made the sons of God not by changing of our natures and essences as Illyricus thought for though Paul changed his condition and name hee changed not his nature for he was the same man being a vessell of mercy which he was being a vessell of wrath If hee saith that in Eternity there is no change I answer that that continued duration which wee call Eternitie is unchangeable yet in the things themselves which are eternall there is a passive power or possibilitie of change or else wee cannot say that unchangeablenesse is a property in God but communicable to the creature which cannot be As for the fire it may doubtlesse for a while cease to be hot and yet not cease to be fire as that fire in the Babylonish furnace which did not touch the three Children and yet burned the Chaldeans this it could not have done had it not been fire 2. Aristotle defines light to be actus perspicui which Sir Kenelme likes not because hee knowes not the meaning The meaning is plaine that light is the active qualitie of the aire or water by which they are made perspicuous or fit mediums through which wee see visible objects for in darknesse though the aire be a bodie still yet it is not the medium of our sight but onely potentially let the light come then it is perspicuous that is through which wee may see the objects actually and so it is actus perspicui For in Philosophy that is called the act which giveth a being to a thing whether that being be accidentall or essentiall so the light giving an accidentall being to the aire in making it perspicuous is fitly defined by the Philosopher Actus perspicui quâ perspicuum therefore here are no naked termes obtruded in the Schooles upon easie minds as Sir Kenelme thinketh 3. When Sir Kenelme thinkes that the first matter hath not an actuall existence without the forme he must know that the first matter is a substance and hath a reall actualitie or that which is called Actus entitativus in the Schooles without the forme else it could not be the principle or cause of things for how can there proceed any effect from that which hath no being but when the forme comes it receives formall actuality without which it is but in possibilitie which being compared to this act it is a kind of non-entitie 4. The notions of matter form act power existence c. have in the understanding a distinct entity but in nature are no-where by themselves Againe these words are but artificiall termes not reall things Notions have their being only in the mind 't is true but these are not notions for then all things that are made of matter and forme are made of notions and so notions are the first principles and causes of all things So likewise the objects of the two noblest Sciences to wit Physick and Metaphysick are onely notions and artificiall termes not reall things which cannot be 5. He doth not conceive that wise men reject Astrologie so much for being repugnant to Divinity c. To relie too much upon that vain art he judgeth to be rather folly then impiety I know not who hee meanes by wise men but the Church and Fathers have rejected this art as repugnant to Divinity and impious Aquila Ponticus a translatour of the Bible was thrust out of the Church of Christ for his study in this art And how can this art be excused from impiety which overthrowes the liberty of mans will makes the soule of man mortall and materiall by subjecting it to the power of the Stars makes God the authour of sinne makes men carelesse of doing good or avoiding evill which ascribes the coming of Christ the working of his miracles the Prophets predictions the Apostles labours the patience sufferings and faith of the Saints to the influence of the Stars And so in a word overthrowes all religion and prayer Orandi causas auferre conantur saith S. Austin and therefore this art will rather lay the fault of mans misery upon God the mover of the Stars

which the great animal of the world moves it selfe Such definitions are good for women and ●hildren who are delighted with toyes wise men search into the causes and na●ures of things But is not Nature a princi●le of motion and rest No say you What then A straight line a settled course Gods hand and instrument Is not ●his obscurum per obscurius Nature is not a ●ine for it is no quantity nor is it like a ●ine for these are entities too remote to make any similitude between them Nature is as like a line as the ten Plagues of Egypt were like the ten Commandements a ridiculous similitude And why is Na●ure rather a straight then a circular line We see the world is round the motions of the heavens and starres are circular the generation and corruption of sublunary bodies is also circular the corruption of on● being still the generation of another snow begets water and water snow the river● returne to the sea from whence they flow Redit labor actus in orbem And what say you to the circulation o● the bloud in our bodies Is not Natur● then a circular rather then a straight line Againe Nature is not a settled course bu● in the workes of Nature there is a settled and constant course if you will speak properly and like a Philosopher which you love not to doe And suppose wee admit that metaphorically Nature is the hand of God and an instrument yet it is not such an instrument as the hammer is to the house which cannot move it selfe but as the fire was to the Chaldeans and the red sea to the Egyptians for the one of it selfe burned the other of it selfe drowned and moved downwards to its own place without an externall agent Otherwise you must say that God burned the Chaldeans and God drowned the Egyptians and so you will make God both fire and water Nay if Nature doth not worke and produce its immediate effects but God in Nature then you may say It is not the fire but God that rosts your meat and extracts your physicall spirits and quintessences For you will not have Gods actions ascribed to Nature lest the honour of the principall agent be devolved upon the instrument And what else is this but with Plato to make this world a great animal wherof God is the soule Principio coelum ac terras camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum lunae titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet Inde hominum pecudumque genus vitaeque volantûm Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus Igneus est ollis vigor c. Now if Nature be not the principle of motion what is that which moveth or altereth the water from cold to heat when it is on the fire Is it not the nature of the fire Againe is not forme and matter the nature of things but these are causes and causes are principles of motion Doe no● you know that the forme actuates the Compositum and restraines the extravagancie of the matter Doth not the matter receive the forme and sustaine it but to actuat● restraine receive and sustaine are motions of which you see Nature is the principle except you will deny the two internall causes of things but so you must deny generation and corruption composition and mixture in Nature which I thinke you will not doe as you are a Physician You say that there is in monsters a kind of beauty for that the irregular parts are so contrived that they become more remarkable then the principall fabrick It is not their beauty but their monstrosity and irregularity that makes them remarkable for the eye is as soon drawn with strange and uncouth as with beautifull objects the one to admiration and stupiditie the other to delight A woman as beautifull as Venus will not draw so many eyes as if she were ●orne with a dogs head and a fishes taile 'T is not you say a ridiculous devotion to say a prayer before a game at Tables I think ●t is profanation and taking of Gods Name in vaine For what doe you pray for that God would prosper your game to win your neighbour● mony to which you have no right If Abraham durst scarce ●ntercede to God for the preservation of five populous Cities how dare you be so bold with him as to solicite him to assist you in your idle foolish and sinfull desires and in divers respects unlawfull recreations You will not have us labour to confute judiciall Astrologie for if there be a truth therein it doth not injure Divinity This is as much as if you would say Let us not labour to resist the Divell for if hee loves our salvation hee doth not injure us If there were truth in that Art we would not confute it but we see there is so much deceit vanitie and impietie in it that Councels Canons civill and municipall Lawes and Gods Word condemne it therefore wee confute it You had better then in plaine termes said that Mercury doth not dispos● us to be witty nor Iupiter to be wealthy then to tell us that if Mercury disposeth 〈◊〉 to be witty and Jupiter to be wealthy you wi●● thanke God that hath ordered your nativity unto such benevolent aspects I know the Star were made to be signes to measure time to warme and illuminate but not to giv● wealth and wit promotion comes neithe● from East nor West but from the Lord It 's hee that gives and takes saith Iob It 's hee that filleth the hungry and sends the r●c● empty away saith the Virgin His wisdome hath wealth and honour in her left hand Solomon went not to Mercury but to God for wisdome Was Abraham ●saac Iacob and other rich men in Scripture borne under Iupiter How disposeth he us to be wealthy Passively that is to be capable of wealth or willing to take it when it is profer'd us then I think the most men in the world are borne under Iupiter For Quis nisi mentis inops Who will refuse wealth when profer'd except very few Or disposeth hee us actively that is makes he us fit to raise our owne fortunes Surely whereas there be ma●● waies to attaine wealth wit in some learning in others industry in others boldnesse with hazzarding of their lives and vigilancie and paines in others Againe oppression robbery theeving lying and many other waies there be of getting wealth you must make Iupiter the cause of all these meanes But if hee can make us rich what need wee pray to our heavenly Father for our daily bread You were as good tell us of the goddesse Pecunia of the god Aesculanus and his son Argentarius worshipped among the Romans for being the authors of mony brasse and silver that if they dispose wealth on us wee will thank the Supreme giver for it not them as to call Mercury and Iupiter benevolent aspects because they dispose

us to be wealthy and witty You confesse that the Divell would disswade your beliefe from the miracle of the brasen Serpent and make you think that wrought by sympathy and was but an Egyptian trick It seemes he dealt otherwise with you then with the Ophit hereticks hee perswaded them that this was a true miracle and tha● therefore Serpents should be worshipped hee would perswade you that this was no miracle but an Egyptian trick Secondly he might have more easily perswaded you that the Egyptians and other Nations from the report of this miracle learned their worshipping of Serpents then that Moses learned this erecting of the Serpent from the Egyptians Thirdly here could be no sympathy either between the disease and matter of the Serpent which was brasse being there was brasse enough in the Tabernacle with looking on which their stings might have been cured or between the figure of the Serpent and the wound for the figure being a quality and artificiall could not be the subject of sympathy which is a hid vertue having alwaies a naturall substance for the subject of it and seeing that sympathies and antipathies follow not the matter of things and therefore are not elementary qualities but the specificall ●orme there could be no such qualitie in that Serpent having no other essentiall forme but of brasse which hath no such sympathy as to cure an inflammation by the bare look on it afar off Fourthly where there is a sympathy between two bodies there is a delight and an attraction of the one to the other Rhabarb by sympathy drawes choler to it but what delight or attractive vertue was there in an artificiall brasen Serpent to draw out the venome of a wound Fifthly where cures are performed by sympathy there is a touching of the thing curing and the thing cured as Rhododendrum which kills Asses being eat by them cures men of the bitings of Serpents being applyed to them Sixthly had hee told you that it was not the image of the Serpent but the imagination of the beholder that cured him hee had said somewhat but yet hee had deceived you for though the imagination helps much to the curing of some diseases in one or two perhaps among a thousand yet it was never knowne that so many people together as the Israelites should have each one of them such strong imaginations as to be cured by them It was not then either the image or the imagination that cured them but their faith in him that was lifted upon the Crosse as the Serpent was erected by Moses in the desart These other perswasions of Sathan to make you doubt of Elias his miracle of the combustion of Sodome of the Manna in the desart are impious and ridiculous for though Bitumen and Naphtha will suddenly and at some distance catch fire yet hence it will not follow that Elias used such stuffe for the consuming of his sacrifice for the stuffe being a fat substance gathered from the superficies of the water of Asphaltites lake or the dead-sea neere Iericho was as well knowne to Baals priests as to Elias being neighbours to that lake Againe the Text saith that the fire of the LORD came downe which consumed the sacrifice and dried up the water and how could Eliah so deceive such a multitude of people being there present as to kindle a fire in the water with Bitumen and they not perceive it And though this stuffe will burne in the water yet water will never kindle it for then it should burn continually in the lake from whence it comes Lastly the Text tells you of no other ●tuffe but of wood and water and the fire ●hat came downe from God Secondly whereas Sathan would have told you that ●here was a bituminous nature in the lake of Gomorrha before the firing of that place and ●herefore that Sodomes combustion was natu●all hee shewed himselfe to be that lyar ●rom the beginning for there was no lake ●here till these Cities were destroyed as ●he Text sheweth And it also plainly tels us that the Lord rained fire from the Lord out ●f heaven And if there had been a lake ●here before of an Asphaltick nature how will it follow that the combustion of Sodome was naturall Was Sodome and the other Cities built in that lake Who set ●he lake on fire How is it that ever since ●hat lake hath been full of Bitumen that it ●ever flamed since if it did shew us some ●istory for it Thirdly though Manna was gathered plentifully in Arabia in Iosephus ●is dayes and then was no miracle yet in ●he dayes of Moses Manna in that same de●art was miraculous though not in respect of the matter yet in regard of the circumstances for then forty yeares together fe●● such abundance that was able to feed tha● populous Nation the like quantitie wa● never knowne to fall before or after I● was no miracle for Christ to feed peopl● with bread and fish but to feed so man● thousands with five loaves and two fishe● was the miracle Again it was miraculous that hee who gathered most Manna ha● not too much and hee that gathered least had no want Besides it was mir●culous that what was reserved till the next day turned unto wormes except upon the Sabbath day and that it should fall six dayes of the week and the seventh day none to be found was not this miraculous Mar● also how long it was kept in the urne unputrefied You could never be enclined to any position● of Atheisme for these many yea●es you hav● been of opinion there never was any I wish you could make this good and your opinion true but if there have been no A●heists how will you call those fooles who have said in their heart There is no God Why did Saint Paul call the Ephesians be●ore their conversion Atheists or without ●od in the world What was contemptor Deûm Mezentius in the Poet who acknow●edged no other god but his right hand ●nd his dart Dextra mihi deus telum quod missile libro And Nisus who thought every mans desire to be his god Sua cuique deus fit dira cupido The Athenians and ●ll others are to ●lame who made severe lawes against A●heists I have read that Galen the grand Dictator of your Art was an Atheist and ●oo many more Secondly You thinke Epicurus to be no Atheist for denying Gods providence over the triviall actions of inferiour creatures But I say hee is no lesse an Atheist that denies Gods providence or any other of his Attributes then hee that denies his Essence Though Epicurus and Democritus babbled something of a Deity yet in holding the world to be casually and rashly agglomerated of small atomes they were very Atheists And so were Diagoras Milesius Theodorus Cyrnensis and many others Reade Tully and hee will tell you whether Epicurus were not an Atheist who wrote against the gods that both he Democritus were Atheists for denying that the