Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	contain_v	law_n	moral_a	2,485	5	9.8922	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34735	The counter-plot, or, The close conspiracy of atheism and schism opened and so defeated and the doctrine and duty of evangelical obedience or Christian loyalty thereby asserted / by a real member of this most envy'd as most admired, because, best reformed Protestant Church of England.	Real member of this most envy'd, as, most admired, because, best reformed Protestant Church of England.	1680 (1680)	Wing C6522; ESTC R10658	41,680	44

no incorporeal substance for that it would be a contradiction and so impossible there should be any as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were nothing akin to Entity Leviathan p. 214. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which we all know 't is nearer allied than to matter or corporeity but as we also know they are some kind of deformities in our bodies which make us most asham'd of being stript so it must be some such cause that makes us so afraid of a separate existence If I should say as I need not the disciple of the Leviathan is mad the Reader knows what I mean and I speak intelligibly or if I say he is besides himself I am allowed to speak pertinently and he could he come to himself again would grant me to speak as truly that he was not himself and that he was when he was not so how then can he confess the lesser Separation which is in Lunacy whilst he cannot so much as conceive that greater Divorce which is in Ecstacy whenas it is manifestly repugnant to know any thing in kind which we cannot also apprehend in degree to know any thing to be actually at a lesser which we cannot imagine to be possibly at a greater distance So then 't is not any contradiction in the terms of incorporeal substance that can be the cause why there is none such What then why truly this or nothing and this less and worse than nothing because if there were such a substance then there must be a Spirit and that would put the hook into this Leviathan for then there will be a God whereas otherwise the Monster were free to take his pleasure and pass time for there could be no God and so no Religion and then no good or evil but as forc't and made such by our selves For that supposing God is or may be he must be infinite and indivisible and therefore also must be incorporeal because otherwise he must have parts and so be divisible and so finite Diogenes Laertius reports of Pyrrho In vita ejus that he denyed any difference between good and evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other than what Positive law or custom had made and I think Seneca tells as much of Epicurus Besides these two I am not presently aware of any third till Mr. Hobbs will needs be teaching ubi nulla respublica p. 72. de Cive c. 12. c. nullum injustum c. nihil absolute bonum aut malum c. Natura est ad mandatum relativa omnis actio suâ naturâ adiaphora c. that there 's nothing good or evil in it self or naturally just or unjust but all so or so in reference to the Magistrate being otherwise and in themselves indifferent c. But this Gentleman hath forgot what yet he must needs have learnt from one of his great Masters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there is an Eternal Law every way inclining us to that which is just and equal Aristot de mundo c. 16. and that as the Being of God must needs be infinite as we have shewn already so must it by the like necessity of his Nature be infinitely holy because the perfections of God are not Adjuncts but Essential to his Nature wherefore he cannot act but agreeably to them he cannot approve or disapprove any thing but suitably to these so that to imagine one thing to be as congruous to him as another good as evil must needs be Blasphemy and contradiction to boot and make God both to be and cease to be what he is because that God abhors evil is rather from the Sanctity of his Nature and Essence than from the determination of his Will and therefore whatever is properly and essentially good must rather be so by its resultanco from this Holy Being than by any positive Sanction or precept of Law and therefore also 't is in respect of its Sanctity rather than Soveraignty that the Will of God becomes the measure of good and evil which is not such because his Will is Arbitrary but because it must be agreeable to his Holiness Though we are not born with congenit Notions of good and evil yet we are born with such Faculties as duely exercised between acts and objects will make us necessarily apprehensive of congruity or incongruity in this or that whilst yet this apprehension ows it self not only to the moral but to the connate and essential rectitude of those Faculties which shew us by consideration such a manifest proportion between some and disproportion between other acts and their objects that without repugnancy and doing violence to those powers we cannot judge otherwise of them than that they are right or wrong equal or unequal from that proportion or disproportion we thus perceive in them and have thereby as certain rational Principles of Moral practice as any we can have of Science and know as well that we are to give every one their due as that two and two make four and therefore two taken from four leave two still and those certain determinations which the Soul makes in this rational exercise of comparing acts and objects are those very issues which Philosophers call common Notions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Rudimental innate or ingrafted Principles of Rational nature whereby we find our Intellectual Faculties to be as much affected with moral evil as our Sensatories are by the most incongruous or ingrateful Objects Rhet. l. 1. c. 14. Rom. 12.17 Thus we find some things as Aristotle observes right or wrong by nature or in St. Pauls language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just or honest in the sight or esteem of all men q. d. no rational creature can possibly esteem them other than such because the faculties wherewith he judgeth are created by God who hath made man with such Faculties as make him necessarily judge so and so and therefore this judgment of his must be Gods too and so must be a Law from God given to man which man as rational cannot depart from it being the Law written in his heart or wrought into the essential frame or composition of his reasonable nature What imaginable account can there be given how the Gentiles who had not the Law could be a Law unto themselves or do by nature the things contained in the Law c. if there were not a Law in and to that nature abstracted from and antecedent to all other Sanctions and Precepts whatsoever They had not the Law written or revealed to them what Law had they then but this in their nature which was born with them They could have nothing but that Natural light or the dictates of right reason by whose conduct notwithstanding they did those things which were also commanded in the Law of God or as the Poet words it sponte suâ sine lege fidem rectumque colebant This was that Lex scripta in cordibus hominum quam