Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	act_n	soul_n	spirit_n	2,370	5	4.9507	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37031	The art of memory a treatise useful for such as are to speak in publick / by Marius D'Assigny ...	D'Assigny, Marius, 1643-1717.	1697 (1697)	Wing D280; ESTC R22842	37,788	118

and Wisdom that influences our Wills and Endeavours yet we are not to be sluggish and idle But as we come into the World with active Abilities we are in all reason obliged to employ them and make them instrumental in procuring our own Good Nay we are to seek and endeavour this Improvement and not wholly to depend on the favourable Will and Blessings of our Maker But of all Improvements those of the Spiritual part of Man are chiefly to be minded because our present and future Happiness will thereupon depend because such Improvements are not subject to the Casualties of the Body nor cannot easily be taken from us by Violence or Death but as this excellent Being is Immortal all the Ornaments and Perfections acquired to it do accompany it into another State and are not changeable without our Wills and contrary Endeavours How soon are the Excellencies of the Body destroyed and 〈◊〉 the Gifts of God and Nature humbled in the Dust together with all our Labours to imbellish and adorn this outward part of our Selves made the Sport and Food of the vilest Worms But the precious Souls of Men with the Graces and Vertues that enrich them are not so quickly spoiled they are to continue with that Heavenly Substance and to abide with it for ever Death the great Destroyer of God's Works can't separate those Perfections from the Souls with which God's Blessings and our Endeavours have enrich'd them For this Noble Part as well as the Body is capable of great Improvement The latter grows and encreases by degrees in the use of the ordinary Methods appointed by God in Nature Thus the Soul with every Faculty is to be enlarged increased and advanced to Perfection by the means prescribed to us by the Divine Wisdom The Understanding is to be enriched with an increase of Prudence Wisdom and Knowledg the Will of Man with the Habits of Moral and Christian Vertues Thus ought the other Faculty of the Soul called the Memory to be enlarged increased and imbellished To this purpose St. Bernard hath an excellent Saying Dilatari oportet animam ut fiat habitatio Dei Sup. Cant. Serm. 28. For that intent our wise Creator hath appointed in his Church the use of his Word and Ordinances hath ordered his inspired Prophets and Apostles to deliver to us the Sacred Mysteries of our Religion and the most Heavenly Directions that we may grow in Grace and in the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3. 18. And for the same purpose our good God hath opened to us the Books of Nature and Providence that we might continually read study and understand the Secrets of his Divine Wisdom and draw nearer to the Perfections of the Mind unto which we shall never attain till we are admitted to the Vision of God Now this precious Jewel is by the Philosophers defined Forma substantialis corporis viventis per quam vivimus sentimus nutrimur intelligimus loco movemur The substantial Form of our living Body by which we live are sensible nourished understand and move from place to place Aristotle tells us it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the living organized Body 'T is altogether Spiritual and proceeds from the immediate Agency of our wise God Creator and Preserver of all things who at the time of Conception and Formation of the Body when the Parts and Organs are duly prepared and fitted to receive this Heavenly Guest creates it without any Concurrence or Assistance of the Parents Witness the Words of the Ecclesiastes chap. 12. vers 7. That at the Dissolution the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it And it is observable in this Excellent and Spiritual Being here are divers Faculties which are either natural vital or animal by which the Soul in conjunction with the Body produces divers Functions and Actions of Life The Natural Faculty is that Power of the Soul by which the Body assisted by the natural Heat and Food is nourished grows and produces acts of Generation The Vital Faculty is that by which the Vital Spirits are engendered in the Heart and Life is preserved in the whole Body The Animal Faculty is likewise that Power of the Soul by which a Man is sensible moves and performs the principal Functions which are Imagination Reason and Memory which indeed are the chief Functions of the reasonable Soul We must here take notice of a considerable difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anima and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritus Indeed the Divine Oracles make use of both Words to express the same Spiritual Being as in Matth. 10. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell This same Soul is named the Spirit in the last Prayer of the Proto-Martyr Acts 7. 59. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Therefore the Soul and the Spirit in the Scripture-Language signifies that same Spiritual Being that enlivens moves and governs this dull Mass of the Body which cannot be destroyed by the Malice of Men and which at the Separation is received into an Estate of Bliss by our great Saviour and the Holy Angels his ministring Spirits Yet if we examine some other Passages of Holy Writ we shall meet with a Distinction not Essential but Accidental In 1 Thess 5. 23. St. Paul desires that their whole Spirit and Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the Appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ And the Author to the Hebrews Chap. 4. v. 12. declares That the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit Interpreters differ something in the Exposition of these two Passages Mr. Calvin understands by the Soul the Will and its Affections and by the Spirit the Understanding and all its Gifts which Interpretation seems to be weak and not answering the Scope of the Words Others and amongst the Antient Fathers not a few tell us by the Soul is meant the Sensual and Animal Part of Man and by the Spirit the more refined and more sublime Part the Intellect and its Perfections This Interpretation in my Judgment draws nearest to the meaning of the Apostle but we must take heed of a gross Error contrary to all Reason and Philosophy of some of them who make Man to be composed of three Parts Body Soul and Spirit and multiply Beings without Necessity The Spirit given by God to enliven move and govern this Body is but one and hath all the Abilities granted to it which they ascribe to two distinct Substances it hath the Power to govern the Senses as it is united to the Body and as it withdraws it self from the Senses it performs all Spiritual Operations Therefore this Gloss which is designed by them to solve the difficult Question about the Descent of Christ into Hell in my Opinion

admit in other Animals And tho these two Acts which some reckon to be but one be produced by the same Faculty as the Acts of Memory yet they differ in this that the Memory may be without the use of reasoning but the others require the Assistance of the Rational Faculty to recover the lost Ideas by the help of certain Circumstances that remain yet in our Mind Besides it 's very common that some who are excellent for Memory may be the more apt to be guilty of Forgetfulness and to let slip out of their Thoughts many weighty Matters Again Memory precedes Remembrance in relation to Time for we can't call to mind Things that we never had in our Memory before And I judg there is this difference between Recordatio and Reminiscentia that the first is a plain Remembrance of Things remaining yet in the Memory but not thought upon before by reason of the multiplicity and crowd of other Ideas whereas Reminiscentia is a recovery of the lost Ideas which were blotted out of the Memory and again refreshed and renewed by the assistance of some known Circumstances and Passages that lead us to the minding again of those Things that we had forgotten however we must acknowledg between them the difference of magis minus Now there are four natural Motions observable in Memory First the Motion of the Spirits which convey the Species or Ideas from the thinking Faculty to that of Memory Secondly the Formation or Reception of those Ideas and the fixing or imprinting them into the Fancy Thirdly a returning back of those Spirits from the memorative Faculty to the rational Fourthly that Action by which the thinking Faculty reviews what is treasured up in Memory which indeed is the very Act of Memory Therefore some have defined Memory Apprehensio in Anima existentium specierum cum indagatione inquisitione An Apprehension of the Mind of those Ideas that are in the Soul accompanied by a Search and Inquisition We must here make one Observation more That as the Peripateticks commonly distinguish three distinct Things in every Faculty so we must note the same in that of Memory First there is the Faculty Power or Ability of Memory which we fancy to reside in the Soul as in its proper Subject and to produce Acts by that Organ appointed by our wise Maker namely the Cerebellum Secondly to this Ability or Faculty belongs the Habit of Memory which is acquired by repeated Acts for there may be a Faculty in the Soul which through Neglect or otherwise may be useless and it often happens that the Faculty is perfected by a constant and continual Practice and Habit whereas Slothfulness decays and ruines the most excellent Ability The third Thing observable in Memory is the several Acts produced by the Faculty which at last make up an Habit. We shall find this Distinction to be of some use in the following Chapters Now the Seat of Memory is generally acknowledged to be in the hinder part of the Head which we call Occiput in the third Closet named Ventriculus Puppis or Cerebellum For as all the Naturalists are of opinion that in the Brain there are three Operations of the Soul the Imagination Reason and Memory they have from the Direction of Experience assigned to the two first the two greater Closets of the Brain and to the latter the less and hindermost For I need not busy my self to prove that all the Functions of Life have their particular Organs and the Soul acting little or nothing without the concurrence and assistance of the Body our wise Creator hath appointed the several distinct parts where the Spirit is to move and act to produce the differing Actions of Life according to that old and approved Saying of the Physicians Cor sapit pulmo loquitur fel suscitat iras Splen ridere facit cogit amare jecur The Heart is the Seat of Wisdom the Lights are employed in Speaking the Gaul moves us to Anger the Spleen inclines to Laughter and the Liver to an Amorous Temper Thus in this Closet of Memory the Soul treasures up the Ideas of Things making use of a clear and subtile Spirit ascending from the Heart to form the Impressions which contain either a longer or shorter space answerable to the Temperature of the Body and the Largeness of this Closet For they have observed that such have a capacious Memory whose hinder-part of the Head is larger than ordinary but when that part is otherwise plain and narrow such Persons are seldom gifted with a rich and an officious Memory It is most certain that the good or evil Disposition of the hindermost part of the Head contributes much either to the largeness or shallowness of Memory For when that part of the Brain is sound and the Passage open and wide by which the Spirits ascend up to it with Ease and without any Obstruction such Men are quick of Apprehension and their Memory is the more happy and the more susceptible of the Ideas But if the way be obstructed that conveys up the Spirits or if there be any natural or casual Defect in that part they will quickly find it by the decay of Memory Some having received a considerable Blow in that side of the Head as a Greek Author relates forgot all their nearest Relations And it is reported of Messala Corvinus the Orator that by an Accident he became so stupified as to forget his own Name The Casualties therefore that may happen to this excellent Faculty by the Prejudices to which this part of the Brain is subject should awaken our Care and Diligence to preserve and defend it But as the Parts of the Body and the Soundness and Perfection of the Brain are great Helps to a good Memory they have caused the Naturalists to divide Memory into Natural and Artificial The Natural is when the Person hath this great Advantage from his Natural Parts without any help from his own Industry and when his wise Maker hath bestowed upon him all the inward Qualifications needful for a large and happy Memory The Artificial is that which is acquired by our Care Study Invention and Labour For it is the Opinion of Cicero That the goodness of our Memory proceeds not always from our Natural Perfections but sometimes from the Contrivance and Art of Man And our Experience can verify the same that Memory is capable of increase and decrease and that the Art of Man may add much and accomplish this excellent Ability However if we offer to neglect and suffer this rare Faculty to be unpolish'd and covered over as it were with the Rubbish of Idleness and Debauchery when God and Nature have been bountiful to us in this respect we cannot expect to use it with that Advantage as others who have laboured to increase their Maker's Gifts by their Study and Industry Of some it hath been reported that they had prodigious Memories Mithridates that famous Enemy of the Roman State was