Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	account_n	act_v	action_n	22	3	5.7248	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52424	Letters concerning the love of God between the author of the Proposal to the ladies and Mr. John Norris, wherein his late discourse, shewing that it ought to be intire and exclusive of all other loves, is further cleared and justified / published by J. Norris.	Norris, John, 1657-1711.; Astell, Mary, 1668-1731.	1695 (1695)	Wing N1254; ESTC R17696	100,744	365

utterly impracticable For after all if I were not to take away my Hand from the Fire till I had entered into the Philosophy of it examined the Figure and Motion of its little Particles and considered the several Relations they had to the Configuration of my Body I should be burnt before I had a quarter ended my Speculation It is necessary therefore that there should be a quicker and a shorter Way of advertizing the Soul of the several Relations that other Bodies bear to her own and of the Conveniency or Disconveniency of their Impressions Which can be only by a suitable Sentiment either of Pleasure or Pain according as the Impression happens to be But this is an Advertisement I must in vain expect from Bodies They can give me no Intelligence of what even themselves do to me They can indeed change the Situation of the Parts of my Body but they cannot give any Sentiment to my Mind or new modifie my Soul GOD only is able to do this and accordingly being willing that I should know the Relations that other Bodies bear to mine with as little Trouble as may be it being not fit that a Soul made for the Contemplation of an infinite Good should be occupied and taken up with anxious Disquisitions about Bodies he leaves it not to my Reason to explore and sift out the Congruities or Discongruities of other Bodies with mine which would not only be a laborious but after all a very fallacious and uncertain Way but in Wisdom thinks fit to go another way to work and to give me due Information of these things by the short incontestable Proof of Sentiment And because Pleasure and Pain are the natural Marks of Physical good and evil and withal the strongest and most quickning Motives to incline me to seek or shun the Use of Bodies accordingly these are the two general Sensations he raises in my Soul according as the Impressions are which are made upon my Body Thus for Instance when the Motion of the Fire is moderate and temperate upon my Body and serves only to open and supple its Parts to quicken my Blood and to cherish and recreate my Spirits I feel a Sentiment of Pleasure But when it comes to be intemperate so as to indanger the Rupture of any of its Fibres I feel a contrary sentiment of Pain which admonishes me of the imminent Evil and in a Language that even Children and Idiots understand bids me remove my self at a greater Distance And all this with a great deal of Reason For though there be nothing in the Motions themselves resembling those sensations which attend them and though the Motion which occasions Pleasure differ only in Degree from that which occasions Pain which by the way is a plain Argument that those Motions do not properly cause or produce those sensations yet since as far as they respect the Preservation of the Machine and the good of the Bodily Life or State they differ essentially or in their whole Kind it is fit they should be attended with sensations essentially different such as Pleasure and Pain which therefore GOD raises in the soul in Consequence of those general Laws of Union which he has established between it and the Body touching it as it ought to be touched in relation to the Difference of sensible Objects The Wisdom and Goodness of which Conduct we can never sufficiently meditate upon or admire And now Madam I can no sooner suppose you to have gone over in your Thoughts this account concerning the Manner of sensation than to have formed within your self a satisfactory solution of the Difficulties you propose For though these sensible Objects are not the true Causes of those Sensations which we feel in our Souls upon the Impressions they make in our Bodies but only Conditions determining the Agency of the true Cause yet it does by no means follow from hence that therefore they serve for nothing and are wholly unnecessary No the contrary appears from the Account before given For though these Objects do not act upon our spirits or truly and properly speaking produce any sensation there yet they do really make an Impression upon our Bodies and according to the different Measure or Manner of that Impression minister to GOD the true efficient an apt and proper Occasion to act upon our spirits and so in this respect are not merely positive and arbitrary Conditions 'T is true indeed if by positive and arbitrary Conditions you mean that there is no real Analogy or necessary Connexion abstracting from all Will or Constitution of GOD about it between such Impressions and such sensations so they are mere positive and arbitrary Conditions For most assuredly there is nothing in those Motions that either answers the following sensations or naturally and necessarily infers them But if by positive and arbitrary Conditions you mean that there is no greater Reason why GOD in Consideration of the Welfare of the Body should give the Soul such a Sentiment rather than another upon such an Impression so they are not mere positive and arbitrary Conditions For though that Motion which is followed with Pleasure has no Physical Analogy with Pleasure as differing only in Degree from that which is followed with Pain whereas Pleasure and Pain differ essentially and so though GOD might if he pleased exchange sensations giving me suppose a sentiment of Pain when the Motion of the Fire is temperate and according to the present Order of things ought to be followed with a sentiment of Pleasure and so likewise giving me a sentiment of Pleasure when the Motion of the Fire is intemperate and so according to the present Establishment ought to be followed with a sentiment of Pain I say though he might thus transpose cur sensations for any Physical Proportion or Connexion that is between them and their respective Motions yet in regard to the good State of the Body it is not so fit and reasonable that he should as is obvious to conceive And this is all the Sensible Congruity I can allow you For in short if by sensible Congruity you mean only that considering the Good or Evil that arrives to the State of the Body from such an Impression there is an antecedent Aptness or Reason in the thing why GOD should touch the Soul with such or such a Sentiment rather than with its contrary I readilly acknowledge that there is such a sensible Congruity But if by sensible Congruity you mean as you seem to do that there is any natural similitude or Proportion between such an Impression and such a sentiment as to the things themselves or that by virtue of this Analogy such an Impression has any natural Efficacy to produce or in your Language to draw forth such a sentiment in this sense I deny that there is any such thing as a sensible Congruity that is I deny that sensible Objects have any such Congruity with our sensations as to be able to contribute any thing by way

love GOD bears Date from the first Moment of our Existence and is therefore the first Duty that we owe him as thus immediately resulting from our having a Being And thus is the Love of GOD the first Commandment and has the Precedency in the Scale of Morality The other Character that our Saviour gives of it is that 't is also the Great Commandment And the Scripture speaks of its Dimensions adding one more than we attribute to Bodies telling us of its Breadth and Length and Depth and Height but not how broad nor how long nor how deep nor how high And indeed with what Line could the Apostle measure such an immense Vastness How could he Paint Light and Flame or put that into Words which passes not only all Description but even all Knowledg and indeed every thing but Sense and Experience Well might our Saviour call it the Great Commandment It is great in the Matter of it being of the most weighty and concerning importance to the final Happiness of Man Great in the Obligation of it which is absolutely indispensable it being not possible that GOD should Create any one Spirit without obliging him to Love him or that he should ever discharge him from that Obligation Great in the Equity and Reason of it it being highly reasonable that we should Love GOD who is so infinitely amiable so altogether lovely Great in the Power and Virtue of it as being the most Fruitful and Prolifick Principle the Root and Seed of all Excellency and Perfection such as draws on with it the Observation of all the Commandments and is therefore the shortest Line the most compendious way to GOD and the enjoyment of him The Love of GOD is indeed the general seisin the universal ingredient of all a good Man's Actions 'T is that precious Tincture that Chymical Spirit that runs through all and that Noble Divine Elixir which gives Worth and Value to all and converts even our meanest and most indifferent actions into Religion and Devotion Great lastly in the Pleasure and Duration of it As Love is the most pleasant Passion so the Love of GOD is the most pleasing Love A Love that rewards it self a Fire that is its own Fuel He that Loves GOD as he ought as he cannot so he need not Love any thing else so great delight and entertainment will he find in the Love of GOD. Which will also go along with him into the other Life and be the Life of that Life Then all the instrumental and ministerial Virtues shall expire and be of no further Use. Whether they be Prophecies they shall fail c. Even the Fear of GOD which is now so highly magnified as the Beginning of Wisdom shall then cease for perfect Love shall cast it out Faith shall vanish Hope shall be swallowed up and Prayer it self shall be silent only Love and Praise shall endure and vie with each other to all Eternity Thus much of the Love of GOD in general concerning which all I have said seems little when I compare it with the Greatness of the Subject and your most exalted and seraphick Strains upon it I intend in my next to add something to the Reason of our loving GOD so intirely as I state it in my Sermon In the mean time I deliver up this noble Subject to a better Hand desiring you to communicate what further thoughts you have upon it and to believe him that writes this to be in all Sincerity Madam Your most humble Servant J. NORRIS Bemerton Jan. 11. 1693. LETTER VII To Mr. Norris SIR I Am glad we are come to so good an issue in the matter of our Debate and shall therefore immediately apply my self to that most necessary and delightful Theme which is the noblest entertainment of our Thoughts the best improvement of our Minds at present and will be the inexhaustible Spring of our Joy hereafter the Love of GOD. I cannot but admire the sottishness of those dull Epicureans who make it their Business to hunt after Pleasures as vain and unsatisfactory as their admirers are Childish and Unwise and in the mean time turn their Backs on this vast Repository of solid and substantial Joy A Joy whose perpetual Current always affords a fresh Delight and yet every Drop of it so entertaining that we might live upon it to all Eternity Whilst our Souls are inebriated with its Pleasures our very Bodies partake of its Sweetness For it excites a grateful and easie Motion in the animal Spirits and causes such an agreeble Movement of the Passions as comprehends all that Delight abstracted from the Uneasiness which other Objects are apt to occasion Our Passions although they have both their Use and Pleasure yet as we usually feel them are blended with so much Pain that 't is hard to determine whether the good or evil they do us be the greater and a Man sometimes over-pays for his Mirth by that Sting of Sorrow which attends it However I am not for a Stoical Apathy I would not have my Hands and Feet cut off lest they should sometimes incommode me The Fault is not in our Passions considered in themselves but in our voluntary Misapplication and unsuitable Management of them And if Love which is the leading and Master Passion were but once wisely regulated our Passions would be so far from rebelling against and disquieting us that on the contrary they would mightily facilitate the great Work we have to do give Wings to this Earthly Body that presses down the Soul and in a good Measure remove those Impediments that hinder her from mounting to the Original and End of her Being What is it that makes our Joys tumultuous and flitting our Fears tormenting our Hopes disquieting c. but the Irregularity of our Desire If we love amiss we shall both fear and hope grieve and Rejoyce without Reason and in a wrong Measure we shall lash out into a thousand Extravagancies and be as unhappy as we are unwise and unreasonable Whereas if we tune our Love to the right Key we need not be apprehensive of Discord among the rest of our Passions all their Motions will be natural and regular and all Concert in a becoming Harmony The Divine Nature is a Field in which our grateful Passions may freely take their Range If we make GOD the Object of our Desire our Hopes will neither delude nor our Joys forsake us there is no Serpent lurks in this Grass all is calm and placid secure and entertaining And yet unwise that we are How hard is it to drive us to our Felicity how difficult to convince us of our Happiness How many Evasions do we find to with-hold our Love from him who requires it not for his own but our Advantage When shall we be I need not say so just to GOD but so kind to our selves as totally to withdraw every straggling Desire from the Creature the very best of which is not able to satisfie the Longings and fill the