Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	good_a	speak_v	treasure_n	5,167	5	10.0843	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34395	The principles of the most ancient and modern philosophy concerning God, Christ and the creatures ... being a little treatise published since the author's death, translated out of the English into Latin, with annotations taken from the ancient philosophy of the Hebrews, and now again made English / by J.C., Medicinæ Professor.	Conway, Anne, 1631-1679.; Crull, J. (Jodocus), d. 1713?	1692 (1692)	Wing C5989; ESTC R8533	67,596	178

and Body and although they are thus united yet they still remain different in Nature one from another and so cannot be changed one into another To this I Answer if every Body even the least hath in it the Spirits of all Animals and other Things even as matter is said to have in it all Forms Now I demand Whether a Body hath actually all those Spirits in it or potentially only If actually How is it possible that so many Spirits essentially distinct from Body can actually exist in their distinct Essences in so small a Body even in the least that can be conceived unless it be by intrinseck Presence which is not communicable to any Creature as is already proved For if all kinds of Spirits are in any even the least Body How comes it to pass that such an Animal is produced of this Body and not another Yea how comes it to pass that all kind of Animals are not immediately produced out of one and the same Body which experience denies for we see that Nature keeps her order in all her Operations whence one Animal is formed of another and one Species proceeds from another as well when it ascends to a farther Perfection as when it descends to a viler State and Condition But if they say all Spirits are contained in any Body not actually in their distinct Essences but only potentially as they term it then it must be granted that the Body and all those Spirits are one and the same thing that is that a Body may be turned into them as when we say Wood is potentially Fire that is can be turned into Fire Water is potentially Air that is may be changed into Air. Moreover if Spirits and Bodies are so inseparably united that no Body can be without a Spirit yea not without many Spirits this is certainly a great Argument that they are of one Original Nature and Substance otherwise we could not conceive why in so various and wonderful dissolutions and separation of Things they should not at length be separted one from another as we see the subtiler Things may be separated from the grosser But whence is it that when a Body is at length corrupted out of this Corruption another Species of Things is generated So out of Earth and Water corrupted proceed Animals yea Stones if they putrefie or rot pass into Animals So Dung or other putrefied Matter generates Animals all which have Spirits But how doth Corruption or Dissolution of Body tend to a new Generation and that indeed of Animals If it be said the Spirits of those Animals are as it were loosed from their Bonds and set at Liberty by this dissolution and that then they can form or fashion to themselves a new Body out of the aforesaid Matter by virtue of their Plastick Faculty Unto this I reply How did the Primitive Body so hold it Captive Was it because it was so hard and thick If so it will be manifest that those Spirits are nothing else but subtile Bodies because hardness and density of Body could imprison them that they could not pass out for if a Spirit could as easily penetrate the hardest Body as the softest and most fluid it could as easily pass out of the one as the other nor would there be need of Death and Corruption to a new Life or Generation therefore this kind of Captivity of Spirits in some kind of hard Bodies and their deliverance therefrom when the Bodies become soft affords us a manifest Argument that Spirit and Body are originally of one Nature and Substance and that a Body is nothing but a fixed and condensed Spirit and a Spirit nothing but a subtile and volatile Body And here is to be noted that in all hard Bodies as in Stones whether common or precious and so also in Metals Herbs Trees and Animals yea in all Humane Bodies there don't only exist many Spirits which are as it were imprisoned in those gross Bodies and united with them and therefore cannot flow forth or fly out into other Bodies until they have passed Death or Dissolution but also many other very subtile Spirits which continually flow from them and which by reason of their subtilty the hardness of the Body in which they lay hid cannot detain and these Spirits are the more subtile Productions or the Sutures of the grosser Spirits detained in the Body for although these are detained therein yet they are not idle in their Prison but their Bodies are as it were Shops for them to work out those subtiler Spirits which afterwards flow out in colours sounds odours tastes and divers other Powers and Vertues whence the gross Body and the Spirits therein contained are as it were the Mother of those subtiler Spirits who take the place of Children for Nature still works to a farther perfection of subtilty and spirituality even as this is the most natural Property of all Motion and Operation For all Motion wears and divides and so renders a Thing subtile and spiritual Even thus in Man's Body the Meat and Drink is first changed into Chyle then into Blood afterwards into Spirits which are nothing else but Blood brought to perfection and these Spirits whether good or bad still advance to a greater subtilty or spirituality and by those Spirits which come from the Blood we see hear smell taste feel and think yea meditate love hate and do all things whatsoever we do and from hence also cometh the Seed by which Humane Kind is propagated and hence especially proceeds the Voice and Speech of Man which is full of Spirits form'd in the Heart either Good or Evil as Christ hath taught That out of the Plenty of the Heart the Mouth speaketh and that a Good Man out of the Good Treasure of his Heart bringeth forth Good Things c. Also that which goeth into a Man doth not defile him but that which proceeds out of him for in like manner as they proceed from him so shall they again return into him § 6. AND these are the proper Angels or Ministring Spirits of a Man although there are other Angels also as well Good as Evil which come unto Men Of which Angels Christ speaketh where he speaketh of those little Ones that believe on him Their Angels saith he always behold the Face of my Heavenly Father Which are the Angels of those Believers who become as it were like little Infants § 7. MY sixth and last Argument I shall deduce from certain Texts of Scripture as well of the Old as New Testament which do prove in plain and express Words that all Things have Life and do really live in some degree or measure Acts 17. 27. It is said He giveth Life to all Things Again 1 Tim. 6. 13. of God it is said That he quickens all Things And Luk. 20. 38. he is not called The God of the Dead but of the Living which though principally meant of Men yet it is generally to be understood of all other Creatures viz.

difference as if a Man should go to demonstrate how a Carpenter builds a Ship or an House by an Example of God creating the first Matter or Substance wherein certainly there is as great a disparity or disproportion for God gave Being to Creatures but a Carpenter doth not give Being to the Wood whereof he builds a Ship But no Man can think because I have said All Motion of Creatures is of God that therefore he is or can be the Author or Cause of Sin For although the moving Power be of God yet Sin is not in the least of God but of the Creature who hath abused this Power and determined to some other end than it ought So that Sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an inordinate determination of Motion or the power of moving from its due place state or condition unto some other as v. g. a Ship is moved by the Wind but governed by the Mariner that it goes to this or that place where the Mariner is not the Author or Cause of the Wind but the Wind blowing he makes either a good or a bad use of the same whereby he either brings the Ship to the place intended and so is commended or else so manages her that she suffers Shipwrack for which he is blamed and worthy of Punishment Moreover Why is the Spirit or Soul so passible in corporal Pains For if when it is united with the Body it hath nothing of Corporeity or a bodily Nature Why is it grieved or wounded when the Body is wounded which is quite of a different Nature For seeing the Soul can so easily penetrate the Body How can any Corporeal Thing hurt it If it be said the Body only feels the pain but not the Soul this is contrary to their own Principles because they affirm that the Body hath neither Life nor Sense But if it be granted that the Soul is of one Nature and Substance with the Body although it is many degrees more excellent in regard of Life and Spirituality as also in swiftness of Motion and Penetrability and divers other Perfections then all the aforesaid difficulties will vanish and it will be easily conceived how the Body and Soul are united together and how the Soul moves the Body and suffers by it or with it What the Opinion of the Hebrews is appears from a place in Kabbal denud Tom. 1. Part. 3. Dissert 8. Cap. 13. p. 171. seq § 3. FOR we may easily understand how one Body is united with another by that true agreement that one hath with another in its own Nature and so the most subtile and Spiritual Body may be united with a Body that is very gross and thick sc by means of certain Bodies partaking of subtilty and grossness according to divers degrees consisting between two Extreams and these middle Bodies are indeed the Links and Chains by which the Soul which is so subtile and Spiritual is conjoined with a Body so gross which middle Spirits if they cease or are absent the Union is broken or dissolved so from the same Foundation we may easily understand how the Soul moves the Body viz. as one subtile Body can move another gross and thick Body And seeing Body it self is a sensible Life or an intellectual Substance it is no less clearly conspicuous how one Body can wound or grieve or gratifie or please another because Things of one or alike Nature can easily affect each other And to this Argument may be reduced the like difficulties viz. how Spirits move Spirits and how some Spirits strive and contend with other Spirits also concerning the Unity Concord and Friendship which good Spirits reverence among themselves for if all Spirits could be intrinsecally present one with another How could they dispute or contend about place And how can one expel or drive out another and yet that there is such an expulsion and conflict of Spirits and especially of the Good against the Evil some few who have been acquainted with their own Hearts have experimentally known If it be said the Spirit of God and Christ are intrinsecally present in all Things contends with and makes War against the Devil and his Spirit in the Heart of Man I Answer That this is also a very unfit similitude viz. when God and Creatures are compared in their Operations For his Ways are infinitely Superiour to ours yet nevertheless in this case also here remains a strong Objection For the Spirits of God and Christ when they strive against the Devil and the Evil Spirits in the Heart of Man do unite themselves with certain good Spirits whom they have sanctified and prepared for this Union and by these as a Vehicle or Triumphant Chariot they contend against and encounter those Malignant and Wicked Spirits And in as much as these Evil Spirits contend against those Good Spirits in the Heart of Man they contend against God and Christ and these Good Spirits are the Spirits of this faithful and pious Man who is become Good when as before he was Evil For God and Christ do help every pious Man to prevail over the Evil Spirits in this Conflict but suffers the Wicked and Unfaithful to be captivated and overcome for God helps none but those that fear love and obey him and trust in his Power Goodness and Truth for with such he is united and the good Spirits of such Men are as so many Swords and Darts whereby those dark and unclean Spirits are wounded and repulsed But if it be demanded how the Soul of Man can be united with God though it were in a State of the highest Purity because he is a mere Spirit but the Soul even in its greatest Purity always partakes of Corporeity I Answer It is done by Jesus Christ who is the true and proper Medium between both for Christ and the Soul may be united without a Medium by reason of that great Affinity and Similitude between them which those Doctors cannot demonstrate between Spirit and Body who say they are of a Nature so contrary one to another § 4. I shall draw a Fifth Argument from what we observe in all visible Bodies as in Earth Water Stones Wood c. What abundance of Spirits is in all these things For Earth and Water continually produce Animals as they hath done from the beginning so that a Pool fill'd with Water may produce Fishes though none were ever put there to increase or breed and seeing that all other Things do more originally proceed from Earth and Water it necessarily follows that the Spirits of all Animals were in the Water and therefore it is said in Genesis that the Spirit of God moved upon the Face of the Waters viz. that from hence he might produce whatsoever was afterwards created § 5. BUT if it be said this Argument doth not prove that all Spirits are Bodies but that all Bodies have in them the Spirits of all Animals so that every Body hath a Spirit in it and likewise a Spirit