Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	according_a	act_v	action_n	159	3	6.2477	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30491	Third remarks upon An essay concerning humane understanding in a letter address'd to the author.	Burnet, Thomas, 1635?-1715.	1699 (1699)	Wing B5955; ESTC R20274	20,916	28

and tell us Every thing is possible to God 'T is true every thing that is possible is possible to God but we must also consider the Capacities or Incapacities of the Subject Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum Recipientis And what you suppose possible may be suppos'd actual Possibili posito in actu nihil sequitur absurdi Pardon these old Axioms by which you are oblig'd to vindicate the actual existence of such Powers and Properties as we are treating of from absurdity and to make them intelligible if you would have them receiv'd I formerly mentioned in the first Letter a general Consideration which might justly induce us to believe that Matter is not capable of the Powers of Cogitation For if it were the existence of Finite immaterial Spirits would be superfluous seeing Matter alone or certain parcels of Matter with this Power or Impress would be able to perform all their Operations But I leave that to your further Thoughts However I conceive such a Power acting in Matter or impress'd upon it could not be call'd the Power of Matter no more than Motion is the Power of Matter In Motion you know properly so call'd besides the change of Situation there is a Vis movens which is not the Power of Matter nor any Modification of it but the Power of a Superior Agent acting Matter In like manner If there was a Vis cogitans in the Body or in any other Matter it would not be a Power of Matter nor any Modification of it any more than the Vis movens is Suppose Light piercing and illuminating a transparent Body that Light is not the Power of the Body but of the Sun or some other Luminary The Body is only Passive whereas Power always signifies something Active We can distinctly conceive the Mechanical Properties of Matter and what results from them but as Cogitation cannot be any of those nor an effect of any of them so neither can I any more conceive the Power of Intellection or Ratiocination communicated to certain Systems of Matter than I can conceive Penetration of Dimensions communicated to certain Parts or Systems of Matter or a Power of being in several places at once Both which you know are by some made communicable to a Body If we grant such Arbitrary Powers whereof we have no Idea or Conception to be communicable to Matter there will be no end of imputing Powers to Matter according to every one's Fancy or Credulity Let us take another instance about Occult qualities suppose one say That certain Stones which he knows have an attractive or expulsive Power at a Thousand Miles distance without any contact or pressure mediate or immediate upon the Bodies they attract or expel we must take the liberty to disbelieve or dissent from this Vertuoso as asserting a thing unconceivable to our Faculties For if we do not bound our Philosophy by some Rules and give some Reason or Ground for what we affirm or deny we do but ramble in a Wilderness without Rule or Compass and what we call Science is nothing but Conceit and imaginary Suppositions As to the state of that Question How far Cogitation is communicable to Matter We allow that a Spirit may act and Cogitate in Matter and be so united to some Systems of it that there may be a reciprocation of Actions and Passions betwixt them according to the Laws of their Union But still all these Cogitations are the Powers of the Spirit not of the Matter Suppose in Voluntary Motion which proceeds from the Will If that Will may be the Power of Matter then it may have the Power of Motion or of the Determination of Motion And it seems to me an easier Supposition to make a Vis movens communicable to Matter which I think cannot be allow'd than a Vis cogitans If they both be the Powers of Matter Innate or Superadded God and Matter are the whole of the Universe without particular Spirits or Spiritual Substances permanent and distinct in their Individuation And this under favour I cannot but think is the Mystery aim'd at all along but conceal'd from us Nor do I find any easier Key to decypher this Philosophy and to make it consistent one part with another than to take that Supposition That God and Matter are the whole of the Vniverse as a general Ground of it And especially of those Parts that I have had occasion to reflect upon or such others as depend upon them If I have mistaken your sence in this 'T is owing either to my want of Discernment and Penetration or to your Reservedness and Ambiguity of Expression But however you may ease us in either case by declaring frankly what your Sentiments are as to this grand Point Which if you please to do as I know the Opinion is not new or unheard of before a known Sect of the Jews and another of the Arabians besides some Greeks and Romans having been noted for it So I shall not load it with Odium but only examine it fairly according to the best Light I have for a further Discovery or Confirmation of the Truth ' This Notion that One Infinite Mind and Matter make up the Universe feems to me I say the common Centre wherein the great Lines of your Discourse meet and terminate And this same Notion I take to be the Root of Philosophical Deism properly so call'd for I do not oppose it here to Christianity or Reveal'd Religion which as it springs up spreads it self into several Branches You disown and very well refute the Materialist who would have but one single Substance in the World namely Matter But as to the Philosophical Deists who are more considerable and moderate holding two Principles Matter and universal Mind I do not find that your Notions do at all disagree with that Hypothesis Nay if I be not mistaken this is the common source from whence they rise or the common Receptacle into which they run Let us compare them a little if you please to observe their Agreement or Disagreement The grand Principle of that Deism we speak of I conceive is this There 's one Infinite universal Spirit that actuates Matter always and according to the different dispositions and Systems of Matter it exercises different Operations Rational Sensitive or Vegetative So as these are not the Powers or Operations of particular and individual Spirits distinct from the Universal but the several Influences and Effects of the universal Spirit as the different Compositions and Modifications of Matter will permit This Doctrine Virgil is thought to have express'd and makes Anchises among the Dead to deliver it as an Arcanum to his Son Aeneas in these words Principio caelum ac terras camposque liquentes Aeneid 6. Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet Inde Hominum pecudumque genus Vitaeque volantûm Et quae marmoreo ●ert

of Vertue and Honesty And if those Rules be neglected more or less by Men or appear little amongst some People this is no good Proof that there are no such Principles As it is no sufficient Argument that there is no Sun in the Firmament because his Light is obscured in Cloudy Days or does not appear in Foggy Regions 'T is enough to prove there is such a Luminary if he shine clearer in other Climates or by fits though he be subject to Clouds and Eclipses as well as the Light of Nature So I do not see any necessity of Universal Consent or Universal Uniformity to declare a Principle to be Natural How many are there amongst all sorts of Men who say they can make no distinction of Musical Sounds or of Concords and Discords They say all Compositions for Voices or Instruments are equal to them as to Pleasantness or Unpleasantness only some are more Noisie than others or of quicker or slower Time Yet I think no Man will deny the Sense of Musick to be Natural to Mankind without Ratiocination So also for Beauty I do not mean that of Faces only or Colour but of Order Proportion Uniformity or Regularity in general This is very different in different Persons and some scarce appear at all affected with it Yet who does not think that some Notion or Idea of Order and Regularity and of their Difference from Confusion or Disorder is Natural to us Even the Power of Reason several Passions a propension to Laugh at ridiculous Objects or Actions are more and less and appear sooner in some than others And this may be observ'd in Children of whose Weakness you make great use and frequent mention If you allow these other Principles to be Natural and born with us I know not why you should make so much a-do about the word Innate I should be glad to know if you allow any Powers or Principles to be Innate in your sense of the word If you allow none at all not these last mention'd nor so much as willing or nilling this or that the Controversie will be chang'd and I desire to know what Idea you can form of a Soul or of a Spirit without any Powers or any Action I wish that may not be the Supposition that lies at the bottom of your Philosophy That the Soul of Man is no distinct Substance from God or the Body but either a Divine Influence or the Power of the Body This hypothesis I confess may lead you to deny both innate Idea's and practical Principles To proceed a little further you have an odd Exception in your 12th Paragraph to show that the Dictates of natural Conscience are not Truths because they are not form'd into Propositions And to make them capable of being assented to as Truths they must have the word Duty join'd to them But say you what duty is cannot be understood without a Law nor a Law be known or supposed without a Law-maker or without Rewards and Punishments This to me is but Chicanry about words But let us see how far these things make for you or against you Do we not preserve our selves Do we not make use of Reason without the formality of a Law telling us 'T is our Duty to do these things Or in the case of natural Conscience have we not the Marks and Sense of our Duty and of the Will of our Maker from an inward Testimony approving or disapproving our Actions according as we obey or disobey that Principle in the distinction of Moral Good and Evil On the one hand Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum On the other Hic murus aheneus esto Nil conscire sibi These were both the Sayings of Heathens that had no other Law than the Law of natural Conscience And so their Apostle says They were a Law to themselves by help of that Principle When you offer a Child Bitter instead of Sweet he turns away his Head and makes grimaces when he has no Law or Duty prescrib'd to him nor any other Logick than what was born with him or what he suck't from the Breasts of his Mother Then as to Punishments and Rewards there is a Presage of them from natural Conscience and they are furthermore deducible from the Nature of God if you allow him Moral Attributes as we do Indeed in your way upon your Idea of God and your uncertainty of the Immortality of the Soul I do not see how possibly you can prove future Rewards and Punishments without a Revelation nor consequently give us a Foundation for Morality and natural Religion I must tell you again that you bring such Arguments against Natural Conscience as you might bring against Christian Religion In your next Paragraph put but Christianity in th● room of innate Principles and your Argument will be as good §. 13. or as bad against either of them The sum of your Argument is taken from the Topick of Universal Practice as conformable or not conformable to the Rule You say it is impossible that Men should without shame or fear confidently break a Rule which they could not but evidently know that God had set up and would certainly punish the breach of Which they must if it were innate Put in this place Which they must if they were Christians to a degree to make it a very ill Bargain to the Transgressor Does not this hit the Christians as well and as manifestly as those that abuse natural Conscience Then you say again But let any one see the Ibid. fault and the Rod by it and with the Transgression a Fire ready to punish it A Pleasure tempting and the Hand of the Almighty visibly held up and prepared to take vengeance For this must be the case where any Duty is imprinted upon the Mind Put here For this must be the case where our Duty as Christians is manifestly known and acknowledged and then tell me whether it be possible for People with such a prospect such a certain knowledge as this wantonly and without scruple to offend againct a Law which they carry about with them in indelible Characters and that stares them in the face whilst they are breaking it Might not this to our sorrow be urg'd against Christians Or to prove that the Law of Christianity is not known to them or believed Neither ought you to be offended that we transfer your Argument to Christians seeing you your self to prove that there is no Natural Conscience in our sence have argued before from the Practice of Christians as well as Heathens You alledge the Practice of the Mengrelians You instance in Duels and bloody Wars c. amongst Christians You might have applied all these things particularly to Christians but still we should have thought it no good Proof that there is no Christian Law no more than it is that there is no Natural Conscience Do we not see Men every day in spite of Laws External or Internal Divine or Humane pursue their Lusts