Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	divine_a	humane_a	suffering_n	3,220	5	9.4553	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36292	Biathanatos a declaration of that paradoxe or thesis, that selfe-homicide is not so naturally sinne, that it may never be otherwise : wherein the nature and the extent of all those lawes, which seeme to be violated by this act, are diligently surveyed / written by Iohn Donne ...	Donne, John, 1572-1631.; Donne, John, 1604-1662.	1644 (1644)	Wing D1858; ESTC R13744	139,147	240

by prayer and penance We must therefore seek another definition of sinne which I think is not so well delivered in those words of Aquinas Omnis defectus debiti actus habet rationem peccati as in his other Peccatum est actus devians ab ordine debiti finis contra regulam naturae rationis aut legis aeternae For here lex aeterna being put as a member and part of the definition it cannot admit that vast and large acceptation which it could not escape in the description of S. Augustine but must in this place be necessarily intended of lex divina Through this definition therefore we will trace this act of Self-homicide and see whether it offend any of those three sorts of Law SECT VI. Of all these three Laws of Nature of Reason and of God every precept which is permanent and binds alwayes is so compos'd and elemented and complexion'd that to distinguish and seperate them is a Chymick work And either it doth only seeme to be done or is done by the torture and vexation of schoole-limbicks which are exquisite and violent distinctions For that part of Gods Law which bindes alwayes bound before it was written and so it is but dictamen rectae rationis and that is the Law of nature And therefore Jsidore as it is related into the Canons dividing all Law into divine and humane addeth Divine consists of nature Humane of custome Yet though these three be almost all one yet because one thing may be commanded divers waies and by divers authorities as the common Law a Statute and a Decree of an arbitrary Court may bind me to do the same thing it is necessary that we weigh the obligation of every one of these Laws which are in the Definition But first I will only mollify and prepare their crude and undigested opinions and prejudice which may be contracted from the often iteration and specious but sophisticate inculcatings of Law and Nature and Reason and God with this Antidote that many things which are of Naturall and Humane and Divine Law may be broken Of which sort to conceale a secret delivered unto you is one And the Honour due to Parents is so strictly of all these Laws as none of the second Table more Yet in a iust warre a Parricide is not guilty yea by a law of Venice though Bodin say it were better the Towne were sunk then ever there should be any example or president therein A sonne shall redeeme himselfe from banishment by killing his Father being also banished And we read of another state and Laws of Civil Common-wealths may not easily be pronounced to be against Nature where when Fathers came to be of an unprofitable and uselesse age the sons must beat them to death with clubs And of another where all persons of above 70 years were dispatched SECT VII This terme the law of Nature is so variously and unconstantly deliver'd as I confesse I read it a hundred times before I understand it once or can conclude it to signifie that which the author should at that time meane Yet I never found it in any sence which might justifie their vociferations upon sinnes against nature For the transgressing of the Law of nature in any act doth not seeme to me to increase the hay nousnesse of that act as though nature were more obligatory than divine Law but only in this respect it aggravates it that in such a sin we are inexcusable by any pretence of ignorance since by the light of nature we might discern it Many things which we call sin and so evill have been done by the commandement of God by Abraham and the Jsraelites in their departing from Aegypt So that this evill is not in the nature of the thing nor in the nature of the whole harmony of the world and therefore in no Law of nature but in violating or omitting a Commandement All is obedience or disobedience Whereupon our Country-man Sayr confesseth that this SELF-HOMICIDE is not so intrinsecally ill as to Ly. Which is also evident by Cajetan where he affirmes that I may not to save my life accuse my self upon the Racke And though Cajetan extend no farther her●…in then that I may not bely my sel●… Yet 〈◊〉 evicts that Cajetans reasons with as much force forbid any accusation of my self though it be true So much easier may I dep●…rt with life then with truth or with fame by Cajetan And yet we find that of their fame many holy men have been very negligent For not onely Augustine Anselm and Hier●… betray themselves by unurged confessi ns but St Ambrose procur'd certain prostitute women to come into his chamber that by that he might be defamed and the People thereby abstaine from making him Bishop This intrinsique and naturall evill therefore will hardly be found For God who can command a murder cannot command an evill or a sinne because the whole frame and government of the world b●…ing his he may vse it as he will As though he can doe a miracle he can do nothing against nature because That is the nature of every thing which he works in it Hereupon upon that other true rule whatsoever is wrought by a superior Agent upon a patient who is naturally subject to that Agent is naturall we may safely infer that nothing which we call si●…ne is so against nature but that it may be sometimes agreeable to nature On the other side nature is often taken so widely and so extensively as all sinne is very truely said to be against nature Yea before it come to be sinne For S. Augustine sayes Every vice as it is vice is against nature And vice is but habite which being produced to act is then sinne Yea the parent of all sinne which is hereditary originall sin which Aquinas calls a languor and faintnesse in our nature and an indisposition proceeding from the dissolution of the harmony of originall Justice is by him said to be in us quasi naturale And is as he saith in another place so naturall that though it is propagated with our nature in generation though it be not caused by the principles of nature So as if God would now miraculously frame a man as he did the first woman of another's flesh and bone and not by way of generation into that creature all infirmities of our flesh would be derived but not originall Sin So that originall sinne is traduced by nature onely and all actuall sinne issuing from thence all sinne is naturall SECT VIII But to make our approaches neerer Let us leave the consideration of the Law of nature as it is Providence and Gods decree for his government of the great world and contract it only to the law of nature in the lesse world our selves There is then in us a double law of

Husbands Masters Magistrates must consist with this place 3 This place must be interpreted as the other places of Scripture which have the same words And from them being three no such sence can be extorted Sect. 4. 1 Of the place Iob 7. 1. vita militia 2 Why they cite this place according to the vulgate copy 3 Of Soldiers priviledges of absence by Law 4 Iobs scope is That as warre works to peace so heere we labour to death 5 Of Christs letter to King Abgarus Sect. 5. 1 Of another place in Iob 7. 15. Anima elegit suspendium 2 Why it was not lawfull to Iob to kill himself 3 His words seeme to shew some steps toward a purpose of Self-homicide 4 Of Sextus S●…nensis and of Gregories exposition therof 5 How I differ from the Anabaptists who say that Iob despaired 6 S. Hierome and the Trent Councell incurre this errour of condemning all which a condemned man says 7 Uery holy and learned men impute a more dangerous despaire to Christ then I doe to Iob. Sect. 6. 1 Of the place Io. 2. 4. Skin for Skin c. Sect. 7. 1 Of the place Eccles. 30. 16. There is no riches above a sound body 2 This place is not of safety but of health Sect. 8. 1 Of the place Exod. 20. Thou shalt not kill 2 S. Augustine thinks this Law to concerne ones self more directly then another 3 This Law hath many exceptions 4 Laws of the first table are strictioris vinculi then of the second 5 A case wherein it is probable that a man must kill himself if the person be exemplar 6 As Laws against Day-theeves may be deduced from the Law of God authorizing Princes So may this from the commandement of preferring Gods glory 7 Whatsoever might have been done before this Law this Law forbids not Sect. 9. 1 Of the place Wisd. 1. 12. Seek not death Distinct. 3. Sect. 1. 1 Of the place Mat. 4. 6. Cast thy self downe 2 That Christ when it conduced to his owne onds did as much as the devill tempted him to in this place Sect. 2. 1. Of the place Acts 16. 17. Do thy self no harme 2 S. Paul knew Gods purpose of baptizing the Iaylour 3 For else saith Calvin he had frustrated Gods way of giving him an escape by the faylours death Sect. 3. 1 Of the place Rom. 3. 8. Do not evill for good 2 In what sence Paul forbids this 3 God always inflicts malum poenae by instruments 4 Induration it selfe is sometimes medicinall 5 We may inflict upon our selves one disease to remove another 6. In things evill in that sense as S. Paul takes the word bere Popes daily dispence 7 So doe the Civill Lawes 8 So doe the Cannons 9 So doth God occasion lesse sint to avoid greater 10 What any other may dispence withall in us in cases of extremity we may dispence with it our selves 11 Yet no dispensation changes the nature of the thing and therefore that particular thing was never evill 12 The Law it self which measures actions is neither good nor evill 13 Which Picus notes well comparing it to the firmament 14 What evill S. Paul forbids here and why 15 Nothing which is once evil can ever recover of that 16 These Acts were in Gods decree preserved from those stains of circumstances which make things evill So as Miracles were written in his book of Nature though not in our copy thereof and so as our Lady is said to be preserved from Originall sinne 17 Of that kind was Moses killing of the Egyptian 18 If this place of Paul be understood of all evill 19 Yet it must admit exceptions as well as the Decalogue it selfe 20 Otherwise that application which Bellarmine and others doe make of it will be intollerable Sect. 4. 1. Of divers places which call us Temples of God 2 The dead are still his Temples and Images 3 Heath●… Temples might be demolished yet the Soyle remained Sacred 4 S. Pauls reason holds in cases where we avile our bodies here we advance them 5 How we must understand that our body is not our own Sect. 5. 1. Of the place Eph. 4. 15. One body with Christ. 2 This place gives Arguments to all which spare not themselves for releif of others and therefore cannot serve the contrary purpose Sect. 6. 1. Of the place Eph. 5. No man hates his own f●…esh 2 How Marlorate expounds this Hate Distinct. 4. Sect. 1. 1 Of the places of scripture on the other part 2 We may but our Adversaries may not make use of Examples To which the answer of Martyr and Lavat●…r is weake 3 The Nature Degrees and Effects of Charity 4 S. Augustines description of Her Of her highest perfection beyond that which Lombard observed out of Aug. 5 He wholoves God with all his heart may love him more 6 Any suffering in Charity hath infallibly the grace of God by Aquin. Sect. 2. 1. Of the place 1 Cor. 13. 4. Though I give my Body 2. By this it was in common reputation a high degree of perfection to die so and Charity made it acceptable 3 S. Paul speaks of a thing which might lawfully be done for such are all his gradations in this Argument 4 Tongues of Angels in what sense in this place 5 Speech in the Asse understandings of prophesies in Iudas or miraculous faith make not the possessour the better 6 How I differ from the Donatists arguing from this place that in charity there Self-Homicides were alwayes lawfull 7 To give my body is more then to let it be taken 8 How Niccphorus the Martyr gave his Body in Sapritius his roome who recanted 9 There may be some case that a man who is bound to give his body cannot doe it otherwise then by self-homicide Sect. 3. 1. Of the place Joh. 10. 11. Joh. 15. 13. The good Shepheard 2 That a man is not bound to purge himself if anothers crime be imputed to him Sect. 4. 1 Of the place Ioh. 13. 37. I will lay down my life 2 Peters readines was naturall Pauls deliborate Sect. 5. 1. Of the place Ioh. 10. 15. Of Christs example 2 Why Christ spoke this in the present time 3 Of the abundant charity of Christ. 4 Of his speech going to Emmaus 5 Of his Apparition to S. Charles 6 Of the Revelation to S. Brigid 7 Of his mothers charity 8 That none could take away Christs soule 9 His owne will the onely cause of his dying so soon by S. Augustine 10 And by Aquinas because he had still all his strength 11 And by Marlorate because he bowed his head and it fell not as ours do in death 12 In what sense it is true that the Iewes put him to Death 13 Of Aquinas opinion and of Silvesters opinion of Aquinas 14 Christ was so the cause of his death as he is of his wetting which might and doth not shut the window when it rains 15 Who imitated Christ in this actuall emission of the soul.

Saint Augustines example as it prevailes very much and very justly for the most part hath drawne many others since to the like interpretation of the like acts For when the kingdome of Naples came to bee devided betweene Ferdinand the fifth and Lewis the twelfth the French Army being admitted into Capua upon condition to do no violence amongst many outrages a virgin not able to escap the fury of a licentious Souldier offered for ransome to lead him to treasure and so tooke advantage of a place in the wall to fling her selfe into the River Which act sayes Pedraça we must beleeve to be done by Divine inspiration because God loves chastity now as well as ever he did Which escape every side may finde easie if being pressed with reason they may say as Peter Martyr doth of the Egyptian Midwives and of Rahab and such If they did lye they did it impulsu Dei But as our custome hitherto hath been let us depart from Examples to Rules though concurrence of Examples and either an expresse or interpretative approbation of them much more such a dignifying of them as this of the whole Church and of Catholike Authors approved by that Church bee equivalent to a Rule And to ease the Reader and to continue my first resolution of not descending into many particulars I will onely present one Rule but so pregnant that from it many may be derived by which not onely a man may but must doe the whole and intire action of killing himselfe which is to preserve the scale of Confession For though the Rule in generall bee That if a Spider fall into the Chalice the Wine may be changed because Nihil abominabile debet sumi occasione hujus Sacramenti And so it may if the Priest after Consecration come to the knowledge that the Wine is poysoned Ne calix vitae vertatur in mortem Yet if hee know this by Confession from his assistant or any other and cannot by any diversion nor disguise escape the discovering that this was confessed to him without drinking it if it bee poyson he m●…st drinke it But because men of more abundant reading active discourse and conclusive judgement will easily provide themselves of more Reasons and Examples to this purpose it shall satisfie me to have awakened them thus much and shewed them a marke to direct their Meditations upon And so I may proceed to the third Part which is of the Law of God The Third Part. OF THE LAW OF GOD. Distinction I. SECT I. THat light which issues from the Moone doth best represent and expresse that which in our selves we call the light of Nature for as that in the Moone is permanent and ever there and yet it is unequall various pale and languishing So is our light of Nature changeable For being at the first kindling at full it wayned presently and by dedeparting further and further from God declined by generall sinne to almost a totall Eclipse till God comming neerer to us first by the Law and then by Grace enlightned and repayred it againe conveniently to his ends for further exercise of his Mercy and Justice And then those Artificiall Lights which our selves make for our use and service here as Fires Tapers and such resemble the light of Reason as wee have in our Second part accepted that Word For though the light of these Fires and Tapers be not so naturall as the Moone yet because they are more domestique and obedient to us wee distinguish particular objects better by them then by the Moone So by the Arguments and Deductions and Conclusions which our selves beget and produce as being more serviceable and under us because they are our creatures particular cases are made more cleare and evident to us for these we can be bold withall and put them to any office and examine and prove their truth or likeliehood and make them answere as long as wee will aske whereas the light of Nature with a solemne and supercilious Majestie will speake but once and give no Reason nor endure Examination But because of these two kindes of light the first is to weake and the other false for onely colour is the object of sight and we not trust candlelight to discerne Colours we have therefore the Sunne which is the Fountaine and Treasure of all created light for an Embleme of that third best light of our understanding which is the Word of God Mandatum lucerna Lex lux sayes Solomon But yet as weake credulous men thinke sometimes they see two or three Sunnes when they see none but M●…teors or other apparance so are many t●…ansported with like facilitie or dazeling that for some opinions which they maintaine they think they have the light and authority of Scripture when God knowes truth which is the light of Scriptures is Divine truely under them and removed in the farthest distance that can bee I●… any small place of Scripture mis-appeare to them to bee of use for justifying any opinion of theirs then as the Word of God hath that precious nature of gold that a little q●…antity thereof by reason of a faithfull tenacity and ductilenesse will be brought to cover 10000. times as much of any other Mertall they extend it so farre and labour and beat it to such a thinnesse as it is scarce any longer the Word of God only to give their other reasons a little tincture and colour of gold though they have lost all the waight and estimation But since the Scripture it self teaches That no Proph●…cie in the Scripture is of private interpretation the whole Church may not be bound and concluded by the fancie of one or of a few who being content to enslumber themselves in an opinion and lazy prejudice dreame arguments to establish and authorize that A professed interpreter of Dreames tells us That no Dreame of a privat●… man may be interpreted to signifie a publike businesse This I say because of those places of 〈◊〉 which are aledged for the Doctrin which we now examine scarce any one except the Precept Thou shalt not kill is offered by any two Authors But to one one place to another another seemes directly to governe in the point and to me to allow Truth her naturall and comely boldnesse no place but that seemes to looke towards it And therefore in going over all those sentences which I have gathered from many Authors and presenting convenient answers and interpretations thereof I will forbeare the names of those Authors who produced them so impertinently least I should seeme to discover their nakednesse or insimulat them even of prevarication If any Divine shall thinke the cause or persons injured herein and esteeme me so much worth the reducing to the other opinion as to apply an answer hereunto with the same Charitie which provoked me and which I thanke God ha●…h accompanied me from the beginning I beseech him to take thus much advantage