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A57675 The philosophicall touch-stone, or, Observations upon Sir Kenelm Digbie's Discourses of the nature of bodies and of the reasonable soule in which his erroneous paradoxes are refuted, the truth, and Aristotelian philosophy vindicated, the immortality of mans soule briefly, but sufficiently proved, and the weak fortifications of a late Amsterdam ingeneer, patronizing the soules mortality, briefly slighted / by Alexander Ross. Ross, Alexander, 1591-1654. 1645 (1645) Wing R1979; ESTC R200130 90,162 146

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soule as you call it in saying that her being in a body is her being one thing with the body she is said to be in for if she be one thing with the body she hath the same essence and essentiall properties of a body which I beleeve you wil not subscribe to Sect 22. Pag. 441. c 1 1. Should a soule by the course of nature obtaine her first being without a body and be perfect in knowledge she must be a compleat substance not a soule whose nature is to acquire perfection by the service of the senses 1. You suppose what is not to be supposed for no soul can obtain her first being by the course of nature 2. If she did yet it were not repugnant to her nature to be perfect in knowledge 3. Perfection in knowledge will not make her a complete substance 4. Though the soule naturally acquires perfection by the service of the senses yet that hinders not her bringing in of knowledge with her Adams soul had perfect knowledge as it was fit being all the works of God were created in their perfection and Adam was to be the Doctor and instructor of his posterity and because he was created both in the state and place of happinesse which could not subsist without knowledge yet Adams soule ceased not therefore to be a soule or the forme of his materiall body nor did her knowledge make her a complete substance for in her substance she was no more complete then our soules are in our nativity Neither did that knowledge which Adam brought with him hinder his soule from acquiring by the service of his senses a fuller measure of understanding for hee neither had the knowledge of future contingencies nor of the secrets of mens hearts nor of every particular individuum of every species nor of every stone or sand in the world which belonged nothing to his perfection and happinesse If you 'l say that Adams soule obtained not her first being by the course of nature I grant it nor was it possible she should but by what course soever you imagine the soule to have her being shee may bring perfect knowledge with her and yet not cease to be a soule But when you say That no false judgements can remaine in a Pag. 442. miserable soule after her departure you make the damned soules in hell in farre better condition then wee are here upon earth who are subject to false judgements and erroneous opinions even the best of us but I am not of your mind for doubtlesse false judgements are a part of that punishment which the wicked soules suffer in hell But if there be no falshood or errour of judgement in them they must be in this point as happy as Adam was in Paradise If nothing be wanting but the effect and yet the effect Sect. 23. doth not immediately follow it must needs be that it cannot follow at all This inference will not follow at all for wee see many effects doe not immediately follow upon the working of the efficient and yet follow at last The fire melts not the metall presently nor the Carpenter builds the house nor the Sun produces corne grasse and fruits immediately nor doth the Physician presently cure diseases and yet all these are efficient causes and actually work the effects follow at leasure and at last though not immediately You should doe well to distinguish between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the working or operation and the work it selfe When the efficient is not only in its act of entity but of causality too there followes immediately operation but not opus the working not the work the effect in fieri not in esse Againe you must discriminate between voluntary and naturall agents the one operate freely the other of necessity The soule is doubtlesse a voluntary not a naturall agent so that the effect may follow though not immediately And if in naturall causes the effect followes still immediately it is where the effect is an essentiall property of the subject flowing immediately from the forme as heat from the fire which notwithstanding produceth not heat immediately in water or other subjects Lastly if your argument be good they are not to blame who held the eternity of the world for they reasoned as you doe that the cause being eternall the effect must immediately or eternally follow or else not follow at all But they should have knowne that God was no naturall but a voluntary agent and though from eternity hee did actually exist yet he did not from eternitie actually create The act of entity in him was eternall but not the act of causality In the conclusion of your discourse you make nature Sect 24. play the Smith for you say If the dull percussion which by natures institution hammereth out a spirituall soule from grosse flesh and bloud can atchieve so wondrous an effect by such blunt instruments as are used in the contriving of a man fifty or an hundred yeares time must forge out in such a soule an excellency above the forme of an abortive embryon You may with your Rhetorick as soon perswade me that Minerva was hammered out of Iupiters braine by the percussion of Vulcans hatchet as that the spirituall soule can by natures institution or any dull percussion of hers be hammered out from grosse flesh and bloud It is not nature but the God of nature that is the efficient cause of the soule It 's not natures dull percussion but Gods active inspiration that is the instrument It is not flesh and bloud out of which it is educed but into which the immateriall soule is introduced The soule is not framed either in or of the bodie by the work of nature but is inspired by the breath of the Almighty who in the beginning breathed into Adam the breath of life and so became a living soule Nature cannot hammer out such a piece as the soule is though shee had the help of Vulcans Cyclopes Brontesque Steropesque nudus membra Pyracmon She is of too pure a quintessence and of too sublimated an alloy to be extracted out of such grosse materialls as flesh and bloud are After the bodie is articulated the new created soule is infused accompanied with her perfections which she receives not from but communicates to the bodie and so that rude masse of flesh in the matrix becomes a man And the same soule which makes him a man makes him lord over all the workes of Gods hands by this he subdues the wilde beasts commands the earth masters the ocean measures the heaven searcheth into the nature of herbs trees metalls mineralls stones c. fore-tells celestiall changes inventeth arts and sciences and becomes the lively character and expresse image of the Almighty Can nature then hammer such a divine essence out of grosse flesh and bloud It is questioned whether God himselfe can doe it without implying a contradiction which is so repugnant to him Nature
in its owne kind so that there is no imperfect bodie in the world but how one soule is more imperfect then another you must tell us if you will have us be your disciples The essence of every thing is indivisible but the soule is the essence of the living creature and the essence of the thing is the perfection of it A negative imperfection there is in the creature compared to the Creator so in mens soules compared to Angels because they have not these perfections nor are they capable of them in that estate they are now in except their species be altered and yet the soules are perfect in their owne kind for perfectum est cui nihil deest Thus a Diamond is a perfect stone though it hath not the perfections of man But a privative imperfection is not in any soule because there is nothing wanting that ought to be in the soule I speak here of naturall faculties not of supernaturall grace if there be some failing or defect in the organs by which the soule worketh that imperfection to no more to be imputed to the soule then want of skill to an expert Musician because his Lute is out of tune Secondly when you call the soule a knowledge an art a rule you make the soule an accident or a collection of accidents and so you are more injurious to the soule then Hippocrates and Galen who beleeved it to be nothing else but a celestiall heat Thirdly what you meane by an imperfect soule which you say is the participation of an Idea I know not Fourthly neither can I tell how some part of our thoughts are corporeall and some spirituall seeing they are actions and accidents of the soule Fifthly if there be no accidents in the soule then there be no habits nor actions nor intelligible species in her for these are meere accidents but such are in every soule or else you must deny that there is either knowledge or wisdome goodnesse or evill in the soule 'T is true there are not materiall accidents in her because she is free from materiality yet in that she is not a pure act as God is there is in her a potentiality whence arise these spirituall and immateriall accidents which be in her To be in a place is nothing else but to be in a circumstant Sect. 13. Pag. 424. c. 10. body It is absurd to say it is therefore it is somewhere it is an eminent property of a separated soule to be no where and yet she is every where Place is not a bodie for then two bodies must be in one place which nature abhors Neither is place any part of a bodie not the matter because the matter doth not containe as the place doth but is contained nor is it the forme for the bodie may be separated from the place containing without any hurt to the bodie contained so cannot a bodie be separated from its forme without its destruction And if place were either matter or forme there would be no motion to a place for bodies move to their place because they are not in it they move to enjoy that they want but bodies having and enjoying already their matter and form cannot move to have or enjoy them therefore place is not a bodie but the superficies of an ambient bodie or rather the concavity of that superficies Secondly it is no absurditie from the existence of a thing to prove the ubiety of it for whatsoever is must necessarily be somewhere except God whose centre is every-where his circumference no-where And though spirits are not in a place by way of circumscription as bodies are whose extremities fill the vacuity of the containing superficies yet they are in their ubi by way of definition or designation that is whilst they are here they are not there whilst the Angel Gabriel is with the Virgin in her chamber hee is not the same time in heaven and whilst our soules are here present in their bodies they are absent from the Lord saith the Apostle And though Angels and our soules are in bodies as in their ubi yet they are not there as in a place for neither is there any dilatation nor condensation of the bodies upon their entering in no more then there is of the aire in your chamber upon the shining of the Sun beams in it Or if they be in a place they are not there by any quantitative but by a virtuall contact Thirdly you make it the eminent property of a soule to be no-where and yet every-where But if the soule be no-where it is nothing and if every-where it is God whose property it is indeed to be every-where by his essence power and providence but how the soule can be every-where and yet no-where is one of your riddles I think you have read that passage in Seneca Nusquam est qui ubique est But indeed neither are the soules nowhere nor are they every-where not no-where for ubietie is so necessary to created entities that like Hippoer ates twins they live and die together Tolle spatia corporibus nusquam erunt qui a nusquam erant omnino non erant What S. Austin speaks there of bodies must be also understood Epist. 57. of spirits for no reason can be given why spirits should have more priviledge to exist without their Ubi then bodies have to exist without their place And how can wee imagine that a spirit can work or produce any effect except the cause and the effect the work and the worker have a locall co-existence Therefore Plato In Timae● part 3. said well that what is not contained within the compasse of heaven and earth cannot be at all And so saith Aristotle that which is no-where is not If Sphinx be 4. Phys. t. 1. no-where there is no such creature And to say that soules are every-where is to oppose both Divinity and Philosophy for the one teacheth us that ubiquity is Gods property the other that Intelligences which are of a more eminent essence or nature then our soules are not in every part of their orbe but in that onely which moveth most swiftly As their essence is finite so is their existence and so is their Ubi As they cannot work every-where so they cannot be every-where The soules departed then are in their Ubi which excludes ubiquitie You say you have explicated how time is the motion of Sect. 14. Pag. 424. c. 10. the heavens You had need explicate this well for how the measure can be the same thing with that which it measureth I know not Now time is the measure of motion but not of celestiall motion for time being the affection of that motion must needs be after it but a measure is naturally before the thing measured and the cause is the measure rather of the effect then the effect can be of the cause saith Scaliger Therefore as the Exerc. 352. 2. first bodie is the measure of other bodies so is the
no other home to rest in but a cold and stinking grave and no other companions but wormes better is the condition of beasts then of Christians Surely the place of our future rest should not be called the Land of the living if our soules there must die And why should the Angels be so carefull of us here if they must be debarred of our company hereafter In vaine are our soules fed here with the Bread that came downe from Heaven if they must not enjoy that same bread againe in heaven Our condition will be far worse then that of the Prodigals if we shall be fed with husks here and not have accesse when we returne by death to eat bread in our Fathers house where is such exuberant plenty Can Christ the Bridegroome of our soules suffer himselfe to be perpetually separated from his Bride whom he hath bought with so high a price as his owne blood Our life is a warfare what encouragement have we to fight the good fight if we enjoy not the Crowne of righteousnesse Hath Christ no other reward for his souldiers but a crowne of thornes then indeed we fight as one that beateth the aire and we were better with Caligula's souldiers spend our time in gathering of shels and pebble-stones then fight under the standard of such a Generall But indeed we need not feare for he that permitted the soule of the penitent thiefe into Paradise and by the ministery of his Angels conveyed the soule of Lazarus into Abrahams bosome and when himselfe gave up the Ghost recommended his soule into the hands of his Father will not leave our soules in hell nor will he suffer his holy ones to see corruption Though the shell of our bodies be broken the precious kernell of our soules shall not be lost these earthen pots may crack but the jewels in them shall be preserved There lieth a hid Mannah within not our golden but our earthen pots which is not capable of wormes and corruption Let that proud insulting Conquerour who rides upon the pale horse bruise the satchels of our bodies as the Tyrant did that of Anacharsis unto dust yet over our soules which are our selves he hath no power Be not dismaid though our mistresse Nature strip us of the garment of our body as Potiphars wife did Ioseph yet of our soules she cannot rob us she gave us the garment it is her owne she may challenge it but the soule was no gift of hers she hath no title to it she cannot claime it Diseases infirmities and injuries like so many Sodomites may beset these houses of our bodies but they cannot injure our soules which are the Angels lodged within us The celestiall fire of our soules shall never be extinguished though the temples of our bodies in which they burne shall be destroyed That fire which consumed the Temple of Peace at Rome did no hurt to the Palladium that was in it neither shall the conflagration of our bodies in a Calenture or Burning-feaver prejudice or hurt our soules The Vestall Virgins were not more carefull to rescue the Palladium from the flame then the good Angels our ministring spirits shall be to convey our soules out of these flames unto a place of refreshing Therefore my soule shall not be dismaid though she be carried in this weake and leaking ship of an infirme body on the waves of the Red sea of persecution for even from hence she smels by faith the sweet odours of her heavenly Arabia though as yet with her bodily eyes she cannot see it The hot firy furnace of affliction shall no more consume and annoy her then the flame did consume the firie bush or the firie furnace of Babylon did the three Children The Presteres live in the fire and are not burned fresh waters spring out of the salt Sea and yet are not thereby infected nor are the fishes salt which live in salt water neither shall our Soule either suffer by sicknesse in the body or die with the body but after she hath fought the good fight like a Conquerour or Emperour she shall be carried out of this campus Martius upon the shoulders not of Senators but of Angels And as an Eagle flew out of the funerall pile when it was set on fire leaving the body of the Emperour to be consumed so shall our soules flye up unto their Maker leaving their bodies to be wasted by time and corruption For as it is impossible for the body to die till the soule forsake it which is the life of it so much more impossible is it for the soule to die untill God who is her life forsake her and that will never be till God himselfe cease to be for he hath promised never to forsake us his love like himselfe is unchangeable A mother may forget the fruit of her wombe fathers and mothers may and will forsake us but the Lord will never forget or forsake us but when friends and all leave us he will then receive us therefore let our soules magnifie the LORD and let our spirits rejoyce in God our SAVIOUR FINIS