Selected quad for the lemma: mind_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A70079
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Golden remains of Sir George Freman, Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath being choice discourses on select subjects.
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Freeman, George, Sir.; Freeman, Sarah, Lady.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing F2167B; ESTC R21279
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41,541
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130
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promoted by our Essential consistency of Spirit and Body the material and bodily part always disposing us to the pursuance of Outward things contrary to the approbation of the Intellectual But since the depravation of Mans Will by the fall of Adam we are united to Errour and need not a Tempter to lead us out of the way for both the Principles of our Being do now dispose us to wrong Objects therefore to lay open this grand Fallacy it being in a matter of so great concernment as is the Eternal happiness or perdition of Men let us examine what is requisite to the constituting of true Pleasure To the making up then of true and real Pleasure I shall lay down these three Conditions as requisite First That the Object be suitable to the Soul Secondly That the Soul be put into Fruition of this suitable Object Thirdly That the perpetuity of this Fruition be ensur'd to it Now let us enquire whether External things considered simply in themselves and not relatively as they have respect to greater ends have these three Conditions in them or no. First then Is any External thing an Object suitable to the mind of Man I answer That no External thing is because they all want two Qualifications which are requisite to make an Object suitable to the mind the first of which is That it be congeneal and of the same nature with the Soul that is a substance immaterial or spiritual The second that it have in it a sufficiency to gratifie all the Appetites of the Soul First No outward thing is immaterial or spiritual for a spiritual substance comes not within the notice of our senses and though in Scripture we read of the appearing of Angels as three to Abraham two to Lot one to Cornelius another to S t Peter yet this must be suppos'd to have been by the assumption of bodies to which they were united not essentially but occasionally and pro tempore for in other places the Scripture tells us what their natures are calling them Spirits Psal. 104. vers 4. Heb. chap. 1. vers 14. and although I find no decisive Text for that Opinion of the Church of Rome that there is a Tutelary and a seducing Angel attending upon every Man and Woman and likewise Children which was indeed held amongst the Heathen under the terms of bonus and malus Genius yet it speaks indefinitely Heb. 1. 14. that they are all ministring Spirits for the Elect but notwithstanding their presence appears not to them when they come in their own Natures So likewise the Souls of Men are not within the notice of our senses being Spirits and incorporeal substances as Angels are for which we have the testimony of Scripture Man was made after the Image and Similitude of God But since the sense of these words Image and Similitude is much controverted in the Schools let us look into the twelfth of the Hebrews at the ninth verse Furthermore we had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live where Souls are called Spirits in opposition to flesh Besides the Testimony of Scripture we have a demonstration of their nature in the death of every Man for though the Soul be separated from the body yet the standers by see it not we hear nothing but the groans of the dying person caus'd by the motion of Parts we feel nothing but a coldness in the extremities of the body caused by the cessation of motion we smell nothing but a putrid savour caus'd by the corruption of humours neither do we tast any thing On the contrary all outward and corporeal things are obvious to some one of our senses for instance though we cannot hear the Light we can see it though we cannot see the Air we can feel it and though we taste not the white of an Egg yet we can see it or feel it and though we cannot smell a piece of Glass yet we can likewise see it or feel it and so of all material things that are at a due distance from the organs of our sense And here before we look into the second thing requisite let us examine why it is necessary that the Object be of the same nature with the Soul Thus then the Soul of Man being immaterial that which makes it happy by the fruition of it self must likewise be immaterial for as it is a fundamental in Physick that Nutrition is made by Similaries so likewise is this assertion true in the Metaphysical complacency between the Soul and the Object it cannot receive a proper supply from any thing that doth not bear an affinity with it in its substance and qualities This reciprocall delight between Parties is discoverable in every species of Created Beings and in every action in Natura naturata In Physicks flame and flame embrace one another but a furious conflict ariseth from the convention of fire and water in Morals goodness accords with goodness but vice will not be suffered to dwell with virtue and in the Metaphysical action of the contemplation of the Soul we see experimentally that she cannot content her self with inferiour Objects but is still seeking to her self some more excellent matter of delight which desires of the mind intelligent men may take notice of in themselves if they will be self-observers This appetite of the Soul is the reason why Solomon was not contented with all his clusters of delights though he turn'd over the whole world as it were yet he arrived not to the summ of his desires but still there remained in his spirit an appetite after something more than any exteriour thing could furnish him withall so that at last he openly proclaims them all to be excuse the catachresis but full of emptiness Seneca saith of Augustus Caesar that he delighted to talk of laying down the Scepter and of betaking himself to a recluse life And we read that the Emperour Charles the fifth resigned up the Low-Countries and Burgundy and afterward all the rest of his Dominions to his Son Philip in his life-time And of the Emperour Theodosius that he delivered up the charge of the Empire to his two Sons Arcadius and Honorius though with power to resume it which he never did and many other precedents of the same kind doth History present us withall of which it is reasonable to think that it was not only the troubles which usually attend Crowns caused this in them others being deputed to bear the greatest burdens in that kind but rather that all their enlargements could not present them with any thing agreeable to those secret appetites of their minds and this dissatisfaction there is in all the entertainments of sense by which it appears that the great capacities of the Soul can never be filled up with these lean and scanty Objects and whiles that Capacity is unsupplyed there will be a coveting of those things which are
object of thy infinite mercy and as thy Apostle S t Peter in his diffidence was supported by thy graciously extended Arm from being drowned in the sea of waters so was my soul secured by thy stupendous compassion from being overwhelmed by the consequences of my sin Most dear Jesus inflame my soul I beseech thee so with thy love that being set on fire with thee it may like unto these elementary flames which thou hast made be still tending upwards in heavenly aspirations till its desire shall arrive to a most happy fruition Sweet Jesus my Redeemer pardon thy Creature who dare thus to expostulate with thee the enquiries into Men and Books return upon us with a retinue of errours unless we come to Thee who art the Oracle of Divine Truth It is most true Lord that we must use those means to attain Knowledge which thou hast laid before us and not dream for infusions of truth to drop from thy treasures of wisdom into the gaping idleness of our life such Enthusiastick Spirits must know their ignorance of the value of truth that it should be so poorly attainable before they can be in a capacity of further information A Prayer O Eternal and most merciful Lord God whose eyes are alwayes upon the Children of men look down I humbly beseech thee upon me who in great distress of mind and anguish of spirit do here prostrate my self both soul and body before thy Divine Majesty beseeching thee who art the God of all consolation to assist and comfort me thy poor Servant though exceeding sinfull with refreshments from thy self and let thy heavenly support be alwayes ready to hold me up that I may not sink under the burthen of sad and melancholy apprehensions which so incessantly oppress my soul Lord let thy holy spirit from above so raise my dejected spirit from the depth of sorrow and frightfull imaginations which do continually assault me Dear Father I confess that my life hath been a continual reiteration of sin and daily repetition of all wickedness and impiety that time which should have been measured out in praising and magnifying thy holy Name hath been spent in the service of Satan that grand enemy of thy Truth and our Salvation I have made a profession of godliness in outward appearance but have denied the power thereof as if I had favoured Religion for no other end but to preserve my Name from scandal and reproach and so O Lord have preferred my own temporary credit before the honour of thy holy Name and my own eternal safety all the sins that in thy decalogue for a Christians life thou hast forbidden to be done do I stand guilty of O Lord and all the duties thou hast commanded thy people to perform O Lord I have neglected and therefore all the judgments thou hast denounced against sinners O Lord I have most justly deserved so that most righteous God when I look upon thy Justice recorded in thy sacred Word and then behold my own sinfulness which I cannot see but in the same glass I find such a disproportion that nothing is then left to me but the expectation of thy everlasting displeasure But dear Father if thou whose most pure eyes cannot behold the least sin with approbation should'st strictly enquire into the Lives of men even the best men and be extream to mark what they have done amiss none were sufficient to stand before thee and endure thy touch for there is none that doth good no not one But thou Lord hast another look wherein Mercy reigns in abundant measure and casts so sweet regards towards the souls of repenting sinners as can in one moment raise them from death to life for which we bless thee for which we praise thee O sweet Jesus the author and finisher of our salvation who hast satisfied thy Fathers wrath and hast given us access by Grace through thy infinite merits and here O Lord I am emboldened to renew my petition first for the pardon of all my sins past in his blood and then dear Father for all spiritual blessings and temporal which thou seest conducible for me but especially O Lord in this Prayer I beg for a chearfull heart without which I cannot serve thee as I ought being indisposed to those holy Duties which thou requirest from me by the incumbency of sadness and a disturbed phantasie strange fears and deep imaginations do take hold upon me but remove them I beseech thee and establish in me the fear of thy Name and no other fear sorrow or sadness for having sinned against thee that I may be alwayes merry in Jesus Christ and may run with chearfulness the race which thou hast set before me Lord hear me for the sake of thy beloved Son and my sweet Saviour let my prayers and daily cryings come before thee but let my sins be never heard O Lord I will ever be lifting up my voice unto thee Lord send me comfort from thy Holy Place that while I live in this world I may be a comfort and a delight unto my self and not a burthen but above all things a persevering Christian through Jesus Christ. Amen FINIS PHYSIOLOGIA OR The Nature of EXTERNALS briefly discuss't SHEWING That no true Pleasure can be deriv'd from SENSIBLE OBJECTS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. contra Chrysip LONDON Printed by J. M. for Henry Bonwicke at the Red Lyon in S. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXI TO THE Highly Honourable GEORGE DUKE of BUCKINGHAM His GRACE My Lord I Am encouraged from Your Graces former Respects to me and the honour of being related to Your Person to dedicate to Your Grace this Enchiridion The matter of the discourse in it out of my Duty to Virtue I dare not but call good though not the management of it since by the Rule of Morals Good doth Constare ex Integris and will not admit of the least Evil or smallest Errour into its composition The simplicity of my intentions will only endure this touchstone which I may safely say are to promote Truth and no wayes to obtrude Falsities I humbly offer to Your Graces Patronage only that part of it which hath escap't misprisions as for the other it will be enough that it be defended from the rude attacques of the world under the Authority of Your Graces Protection though not of Your Approbation Your Graces most humble and firmly devoted servant George Freman PHYSIOLOGIA Or the Nature of EXTERNALS briefly discuss't BElzebub the Lord of Flies as his Name signifies in the Hebrew is with his swarms of revolted spirits continually buzzing about the Souls of Men and suggesting to our minds falsities for truths perswading us that not Internal but External things are the matter of true Pleasure that so causing us to erect our hopes upon a rotten foundation at the time of our death when that shall fail the structure may fall to the ground nay much lower even into the Abyss of despair The sad issues of this suggestion are much