Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	great_a	left_a	ventricle_n	2,486	5	12.8609	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27428	The folly and unreasonableness of atheism demonstrated from the advantage and pleasure of a religious life, the faculties of humane souls, the structure of animate bodies, & the origin and frame of the world : in eight sermons preached at the lecture founded by ... Robert BOyle, Esquire, in the first year MDCXCII / by Richard Bentley ...	Bentley, Richard, 1662-1742.	1699 (1699)	Wing B1931; ESTC R21357	132,610	286

the Heart then have been formed and constituted before the Blood was in being But here again the Substance of the Heart it self is most certainly made and nourished by the Blood which is conveyed to it by the Coronary Arteries And thus it is through the whole system of the Body every member doth mutually sustain and supply one another and all are coaetaneous because none of them can subsist alone But they will say That a little Ferment first making a Cavity which became the left Ventricle of the Heart did thence further expand it self and thereby delineate all the Arteries of the Body Now if such a slight and sorry business as that could produce an Organical Body one might reasonably expect that now and then a dead lump of Dough might be leaven'd into an Animal for there a like Ferment makes notable Tumours and Ventricles besides sundry long and small Chanels which may pass tolerably well for Arteries and Veins But I pray in this supposed Mechanical Formation when the Ferment was expanded to the extremities of the Arteries if it still had any elastical force remaining why did it not go on and break through the Receptacle as other Ferment must be allowed to have done at the Mouth and the Nostrils There was as yet no membranous Skin formed that might stop and repell it Or if the force of it was spent and did not wheel about and return what mechanical cause then shall we assign for the Veins for this Ferment is there supposed to have proceeded from the small capillary extremities of them to the Great Vein and the Heart otherwise it made Valves which would have stopp'd its own passage And why did that Ferment that at first dispersed it self from the Great Artery into infinite little ramifications take a quite contrary method in the making of the Veins where innumerable little Rivulets have their confluence into the Great Vein the common chanel of the Blood Are such opposite motions both equally mechanical when in both cases the Matter was under the same modification And again When the first Ferment is excited and forms the left Ventricle of the Heart if the Fluid Matter be uniform and of a similar texture and therefore on all sides equally resist the Expansion then the Cavity must continue One dilated more and more 'till the expansive force and the uniform resistance be reduced to an equality and so nothing at all can be formed by this Ferment but a single round Bubble And moreover this Bubble if that could make a Heart by reason of its comparative Levity to the Fluid that incloses it would necessarily ascend to the top and consequently we should never find the Heart in the midst of the Breast But if the Fluid be supposed to consist of Heterogeneous Particles then we cannot conceive how those dissimilar parts should have a like situation in two several Fluids when the Ferment begins So that upon this supposition there could be no Species of Animals nor any Similitude between them One would have its Lungs where another hath its Liver and all the other Members preposterously placed there could not be a like Configuration of Parts in any two Individuals And again What is that which determines the Growth of all living Creatures What principles of Mechanism are sufficient to explain it Why do not all Animals continually increase in bigness during the whole space of their Lives as it is reported of the Crocodile What sets a bound to their stature and dimensions Or if we suppose a Bound and Ne plus ultra to be mechanically fixed but then why so great a variety in the Bulk of the several Kinds why also such Constancy observed in that manifold Variety For as some of the largest Trees have Seeds no bigger or even less than some diminutive Plants and yet every Seed is a perfect Plant with Trunk and Branches and Leaves inclosed in a Shell So the first Embryon of an Ant is supposed by inquisitive Naturalists to be as big as that of an Elephant and to promise as fair at its primitive Formation for as spacious a Body which nevertheless by an immutable Decree can never arrive to the millionth part of the others Bulk And what modification of the first liquid Matter can vary so much as to make one Embryon capable of so prodigiously vast augmentation while another is confined to the minuteness of an Insect Is not this manifestly a Divine Sanction that hath fixed and determin'd the Shape the Stature the Appetites and the Duration of all Creatures in the World Hither must we have recourse in that great and mysterious Affair of an Organical Formation And I profess that I cannot discern one step in the whole that is agreeable to the natural Laws of Motion If we consider the Heart which is supposed to be the first principle of Motion and Life and divide it by our Imagination into its constituent Parts its Arteries and Veins and Nerves and Tendons and Membranes and innumerable little Fibres that these Secondary Parts do consist of we shall find nothing here Singular but what is in any other Muscle of the Body 'T is only the Site and Posture of these several Parts and the Configuration of the whole that give it the Form and Functions of a Heart Now why should the first single Fibres in the Formation of the Heart be peculiarly drawn in Spiral Lines when the Fibres of all other Muscles are made by a transverse rectilinear Motion What could determine the Fluid Matter into that odd and singular Figure when as yet no other Member is supposed to be form'd that might direct the Course of that Fluid Matter Let Mechanism here make an Experiment of its Power and produce a spiral and turbinated motion of the whole moved Body without an external Director When all the Organs are once framed by a supernatural and divine Principle we do willingly admit of Mechanism in many Functions of the Body but that the Organs themselves should be mechanically formed we conceive it to be impossible and utterly inexplicable And if any Atheist will give a clear and philosophical account of the things that are here touch'd upon he may then hear of many more and perhaps more difficult than these which their unfitness for a popular Auditory and the remaining parts of my Subject that press forward to be treated of oblige me now to omit But as the Atheist when he is put to it to explain How any Motion of dead Matter can beget Thought and Perception will endeavour to defend his baffled Impiety with the instance of Brutes which he calls Thinking Machines so will he now also appeal from the Arbitration of Reason in the Case of Animal Productions to Example and Matter of Fact He will declaim to us about the admirable Structure of the Bodies of Insects that they have all the Vital Parts which the largest of Quadrupeds and even Man himself can boast of and yet they are

THE Folly and Unreasonableness OF ATHEISM Demonstrated from The Advantage and Pleasure of a Religious Life The Faculties of Humane Souls The Structure of Animate Bodies The Origin and Frame of the World In EIGHT SERMONS Preached at the Lecture Founded by The Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esquire In the First Year MDCXCII By RICHARD BENTLEY D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary and Library-Keeper to His MAJESTY The Fourth Edition Corrected LONDON Printed by I. H. for H. Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1699. To my most Honoured Patrons TRUSTEES appointed by the Will of the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq The Right Reverend Father in God THOMAS Lord Bishop of Lincoln Sir Henry Ashurst Kt and Baronet Sir Iohn Rotheram Serjeant at Law Iohn Evelyn senior Esquire Most Honoured GOD having disposed the Heart of that incomparable Person the Honourable Robert Boyle Esquire lately deceased the Glory of our Nation and Age whose Charity and Goodness were as universal as his Learning and Fame To settle an Annual Salary for some Divine or Preaching Minister who shall be enjoyned to perform the Offices following 1. To preach Eight Sermons in the Year for proving the Christian Religion against notorious Infidels viz. Atheists Deists Pagans Iews and Mahometans not descending to any Controversies that are among Christians themselves These Lectures to be on the First Monday of the respective Months of Ianuary February March April May September October November in such Church as the Trustees shall from time to time appoint 2. To be assisting to all Companies and encouraging them in any Undertaking for propagating the Christian Religion 3. To be ready to satisfie such Real Scruples as any may have concerning those Matters and to answer such New Objections or Difficulties as may be started to which good Answers have not yet been made You have been pleased to believe me able in some measure to perform these Offices and to command this First Essay to be made publick I am very sensible of the great Honour as well as the great Extent and Difficulty of the Task and shall endeavour to the utmost of my poor ability to answer the religious and generous Design of that Excellent Person and the good Opinion you have entertained of My most Honoured Patrons Your very obliged and humble Servant R. Bentley March 17. 1691 2. THE Folly of Atheism And what is now called DEISM Even with Respect to The PRESENT LIFE The First SERMON preached March 7. 1691 2. Psalm XIV v. 1. The Fool hath said in his Heart There is no God they are corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doth good I Shall not now make any enquiry about the time and occasion and other circumstances of composing this Psalm nor how it comes to pass that with very little variation we have it twice over both here the 14th and again number the 53d Not that these and such-like are not important considerations in themselves but that I think them improper now when we are to argue and expostulate with such persons as allow no Divine Authority to our Text and profess no greater or it may be they will say less Veneration for these Sacred Hymns than for the profane Songs of Anacreon or Horace So that although I my self do really believe that all such as say in their Hearts There is no God are foolish and corrupt both in Understanding and Will because I see infinite Wisdom it self has pronounced them to be so nevertheless this Argument would at present have no force upon these men till in due time and method we have evinced the sufficient Authority of Holy Scripture But however there are other Books extant which they must needs allow of as proper Evidence even the mighty Volumes of visible Nature and the everlasting Tables of Right Reason wherein if they do not wilfully shut their Eyes they may read their own Folly written by the Finger of God in a much plainer and more terrible Sentence than Belshazzar's was by the Hand upon the Wall And as the impious Principles of these persons do preclude any argumentation from the Revealed Word of God so they prevent us also from speaking at present to the second part of the Text. The whole Verse hath apparently two Propositions the one denoting the Folly of Atheism The Fool hath said in his Heart There is no God the second declaring the Corruption and Flagitiousness of Life which naturally attend it They are corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doth good Now this latter part to a genuine Atheist is meer Iargon as he loves to call it an empty sound of words without any signification He allows no Natural Morality nor any other distinction of Good and Evil Just and Unjust than as Human Institution and the Modes and Fashions of various Countries denominate them The most Heroical Actions or detestable Villanies are in the nature of things indifferent to his approbation if by secrecy they are alike conceal'd from Rewards or Punishments from Ignominy or Applause So that till we have proved in its proper place the eternal and essential Difference between Virtue and Vice we must forbear to urge Atheists with the Corruption and Abominableness of their Principles But I presume the first part of the Text the Folly and sottishness of Atheism which shall be the subject of this Discourse will be allowed to come home to their Case since they make such a noisy pretence to Wit and Sagacity and I believe several of them first engage in that Labyrinth of Nonsense and Folly out of an absurd and preposterous affectation of seeming Wiser than their Neighbours But before I proceed any farther it will be necessary to clear and vindicate this expression of the Psalmist The Fool hath said in his Heart There is no God For I know not any Interpreters that will allow it to be spoken of such as flatly deny the Being of God but of them that believing his Existence do yet seclude him from directing the Affairs of the World from observing and judging the Actions of Men. I suppose they might be induced to this from the commonly received notion of an Innate Idea of God imprinted upon every Soul of Man at their Creation in Characters that can never be defaced Whence it will follow that Speculative Atheism does only subsist in Our speculation whereas really Humane Nature cannot be guilty of the crime that indeed a few sensual and voluptuous Persons may for a season eclipse this native Light of the Soul but can never so wholly smother and extinguish it but that at some lucid intervals it will recover it self again and shine forth to the conviction of their Conscience And therefore they believed that the words would not admit of a strict and rigorous Interpretation but ought to be so temper'd and accommodated to the nature of things as that they may describe those profane persons who though they do not nor can really doubt in their