Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	apostle_n	law_n	sin_n	5,562	5	5.3183	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63913	A phisico-theological discourse upon the Divine Being, or first cause of all things, providence of God, general and particular, separate existence of the human soul, certainty of reveal'd religion, fallacy of modern inspiration, and danger of enthusiasm to which is added An appendix concerning the corruption of humane nature, the force of habits, and the necessity of supernatural aid to the acquest of eternal happiness : with epistolary conferences between the deceased Dr. Anthony Horneck and the author, relating to these subjects : in several letters from a gentleman to his doubting friend.	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.; Horneck, Anthony, 1641-1697.	1698 (1698)	Wing T3313; ESTC R5343	198,836	236

actuating the nervous System after their wonted manner by the same Series produce local Motions by which the hungry Horse is carry'd from place to place till he has found out the imagin'd Pasture and indeed enjoys that good the Image whereof was painted in his Brain After this manner the sensible Species being intromitted by the benefit of the Exterior Organs in the more perfect Brutes for that they affix their Characters on the Brain and there leave them they constitute the Faculties of Phancy and Memory as it were Store-houses full of Notions farther stirring up the Appetite into local Motions agreeable to the Sensions frequently they produce an habit of acting so that some Beasts being taught or instructed for a long time by the assiduous Incursions of the Objects are able to know and remember many things and learn manifold Works i. e. to perform them by a complicated and continued Series and Succession of very many Actions Moreover this kind of acquir'd knowledge of the Brutes and the practick Habits introduced by the Acts of the Senses are sometimes promoted by other means to a greater degree of Perfection Living Brutes are taught by Example by the Imitation and Institution of others of the same or of a divers kind to perform certain more excellent Actions Hence it is that the Ape so plainly imitates Man that by some it is thought a more imperfect Species of him for this Animal being extreamly mimical as it is endow'd with a most caepactous and hot Brain it imitates to an hair almost all the Gestures that it happens to see presently with a ready and expeditious composing of its Members and is furnisht with a notable Memory and retains all its Tricks which it hath once acted very firmly afterwards being wont to repeat them at its pleasure Yet notwithstanding t is very clear and apparent that Brutes are directed to all things which belong to the Defence and Conservation of the Individuum and that are to be done for the Propagation of their Kinds by a natural Instinct as it were a Law or Rule fixed in their Hearts when as therefore we behold for these ends ordained by Divine Providence Brutes to order their Matters wisely and as it were by Counsel no Man esteems this the Work of Reason or any Liberal Faculty for they are led into these Enterprises by a certain Predestination rather than by any proper Vertue or Intention Having given you this Account of the Soul of Brutes prov'd the same a Corporeal Divisible Substance whose peculiar residence is in the Blood and Spirits and evinced their knowledge not to exceed the powers of Sensation and Imagination it is time that we return to discourse of the Rational Soul of Man and if it can be discover'd that there is a Principle of Action in him which proceeds from a different way of Operation than Sensation doth and that there are such Operations of this Soul which are not Imaginations it will be then as clear that there is a Principle in Man higher than Matter and Motion and impossible without a spiritual immaterial Being to solve those Appearances in him which thus transcend the Power of Imagination The renowned Philosopher Gassendus has given sufficient proof That the Sensitive Soul in Man is exactly the same with that of Brutes Corporeal Extended Native and Corruptible but that the Rational is a Substance purely Incorporeal and Immortal Dr. Hammond in his Notes upon Thessalonians v. 23. says Man consists of three Parts First the Body which denotes the Flesh and Members Secondly the Vital Soul which Animal and Sensitive Soul is common to Man and Brute Thirdly Spirit which is the Rational Soul This Division he confirms by the Testimony of Heathen Authors and ancient Fathers So that those who disregard the Scriptures may in these admirable Authors be furnisht with other Authorities but those who do may consider what the Apostle saith in the foremention'd Text viz. I pray God your whole Body Soul and Spirit be preserved to which we may add what he says in another place The Word is sharper then a two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the Joynts and Marrow The meaning whereof is Let things be never so closely united God can separate them but then they must be in their nature separable or else it implys a Contradiction So that if the Soul and Spirit are separable we have gain'd our Point if they are not the Apostle has told us that can be which cannot be But further This Truth that there is two distinct Souls in Man is by the Apostle demonstrated from the dictates of Internal Sense I find saith he a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me for I delight in the Law of God after the inward Man But I see another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members So then with my Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the Flesh the Law of Sin Now what can be more expressive of two several perceptive Souls in Man whose Natures and whose Laws are contrary to each other But perhaps you 'l say These contrary Laws do indeed arise because Man is a Compound of contrary Natures yet there is but one perceptive Nature in him but that Nature having the several Faculties of Reason and Sensation and being united to Flesh whereby the Sensitive Faculty may be gratify'd hence arises the War between Sense and Reason To which I answer Thus far then we are agreed that Sense is the Source of all Carnal Delights Pains and Aversions therefore Sense is no Faculty of the Spirit or all Carnal Delights Lusts and Passions spring from the Spirit and what excellent sence would this make the Apostle speak I find a Law in my Mind warring against the Law of my Mind so then with the Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the Mind the Law of Sin for if Sense be a Faculty of the Mind the Laws of Sense are are as much the Laws of the Mind as the Laws of Reason The Soul and Spirit by reason of their close unaccountable Union have also unaccountable mutual Influences upon each other but for all that their contrary Natures are very discernable and to make Sense and Reason Faculties of the Spirit is to make the Spirit as the Man a Compound of contrary Natures for that Sense and Reason are of contrary Natures is discernable from the natural and constant strugglings and contentions between them Secondly From the natural Fruit they bring forth which is certainly contrary if Good and Evil are so wherefore we may with all imaginable certainty affirm the Souls of all meer Animals and the Sensitive Soul of Man to be Corporeal but the Rational Soul of Man to be truly a Spiritual Immaterial Substance if there were not such a Substance in

to let the Hair alone and to stay till the Juices of the Body have resolv'd or consum'd it or some other favourable Accident have remov'd it than like a passionate and transported thing oppose it like a Fury with such a blind violence as instead of ejecting the Hair expels the Life of him who was troubled with it How the care and wisdom of Nature will be reconciled to so improper and disorderly a proceeding I leave her Admirers to consider but it will appear very reconcileable to Providence if we reflect upon the lately given Advertisement for in regard of the use and necessity of deglutition and in many cases of coughing and vomiting 't was in the general most convenient that the part ministring to those Motions shou'd be irritated by the sudden sense of things that are unusual tho' perhaps they wou'd not be otherwise dangerous or offensive because as we formerly noted 't was fit that the Providence of God shou'd in making provision for the welfare of Animals have more regard to that which usually and regularly befalls them then to extraordinary Cases or unfrequent Accidents 2. Now the difficulty we find to conceive how so great a Fabrick as the World can be preserved in order and kept from running again to a Chaos seems to arise from hence That Men do not sufficiently consider the unsearchable Wisdom of the Divine Architect or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Scripture stiles Him of the World whose piercing Eyes were able to look at once quite through the Universe and to take into his prospect both the beginning and the end of time so that perfectly foreknowing what wou'd be the consequence of all the possible Conjectures of Circumstances into which Matter divided and moved according to such Laws cou'd in an Automaton so constituted as the present World is happen to be put there can nothing fall out unless when a Miracle is wrought that shall be able to alter the course of things or prejudice the Constitution of them any farther than He did from the Beginning foresee and think fit to allow And truly it more sets off the Wisdom of God in the Fabric of the Universe that He can make so vast a Machine as the Macrocosm perform all those many things which he design'd it shou'd by the meer contrivance of brute Matter manag'd by certain Laws of local Motion and upheld by his ordinary and general concourse than if He imploy'd from time to time an intelligent Overseer such as Nature is fancy'd to be to regulate assist and controul the Motion of its parts For as Aristotle by introducing the Opinion of the Worlds Eternity did at least in almost all Mens Opinions openly deny God the Production of the World so by ascribing those admirable Works of God to what he calls Nature he tacitly denys him the Government of the World Now those things continues he which the School Philosophers ascribe to the Agency of Nature interposing according to Emergencies I ascribe to the Wisdom of God in the Fabric of the Universe which He so admirably contriv'd that if He but continue his ordinary and general Concourse there will be no necessity of extraordinary Ineterpositions which may reduce Him to seem as it were to play after-games all those Exegencies upon whose account Philosophers and Physicians have devised what they call Nature being foreseen and provided for in the first Fabric of the World So that meer Matter thus order'd shall in such and such Conjunctures of Circumstances do all that Philosophers ascribe on such occasions to their almost Omniscient Nature without any knowledge what it does or acting otherwise than according to the Catholick Laws of Motion For when it pleaseth God to over-rule or controul the establisht Course of Things in the World by his own Omnipotent Hand what is thus perform'd may be much easier discern'd and acknowledg'd to be miraculous by them that admit in the ordinary Course of Corporeal things nothing but Matter and Motion whose powers Men may well judge of than by those who think there is besides a certain Semi-Deity which they call Nature whose skill and power they acknowledge to be exceeding great and yet have no sure way of estimating how great they are and how far they may extend And give me leave to to take notice to you on this occasion that I observe the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles pleaded by Christians on behalf of their Religion to have been very differently look't upon by Epicurean and other Corpuscularian Infidels and by those other Unbelievers who admit of a Soul of the World or Spirits in the Stars or in a word think the Universe to be govern'd by Intellectual Beings distinct from the Supreme Being we call GOD For this latter sort of Infidels have often admitted those Matters of Fact which we Christians call Miracles and yet have endeavour'd to solve them by Astral Operations and other ways whereas the Epicurean Enemies of Christianity have thought themselves obliged resolutely to deny the Matters of Fact themselves as well discerning that the Things said to be perform'd exceeded the Mechanical Powers of Matter and Motion as they were managed by those who wrought the Miracles and consequently must either be deny'd to have been done or be confest to have been truly miraculous Thus far Mr. Boyle I must confess my self extreamly taken with the Thoughts of this great Man which are every where so weighty and withal so modest that I know of no Author I have as yet consulted who hath so pertinently handled in a few words this noble Theme or afforded me so much Content and Satisfaction I have been formerly like your self very familiar with Fate and Fortune Time and Chance with Destiny and other empty Notions and which was the farthest of my Flight when I knew how to talk of Real Qualities and Substantial Forms when I conceiv'd the Archaeus or Plastic Power as a kind of Agent or Intelligent Being disposing and ordering the Seminal Principles choosing or selecting fit Materials designing and drawing out as it were the first Rudiments of Life and delivering to each Part a Capacity to discarge its Office or proper Function Lastly When I could resolve all with much ease into the ambiguous term of Nature I thought my self arriv'd at a Ne plus ultra till the Result of a more serious Consideration which I was put upon by a Converse with the Writings of this Divine Philosopher obliged me to conclude thus and to take for granted That however all the Phaenomena or each several Event we have or ever shall see come to pass may be accounted the immediate Off-spring of Matter as variously modify'd by local Motion Yet notwithstanding this Concession we must mediately recur to the Divine Providence not only for some Author of this Motion who did in the beginning establish its Laws or prescribe those general Rules 't is govern'd by but also for a Power by whose Co-operating Influence the same

Infirmities Poverty Loss of Parents Husbands Children and Friends She must maintain Charity and Humility in the Rich and Wise command Visits to the Sick Assistance to the Prisoner Fatherless and Widows but in the State of Innocence there were no Objects for the Exercise of these and many more Vertues nor no Provocations to the contrary Vices all these are the Natural Consequences of Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return and of that Curse which was the Consequence of Man's Transgression It is here that we see the Reason why the first Covenant was peremptory The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye because Man was blessed with an ability to keep his Covenant with God but through the greatness of Mercy in the Second we are promis'd the assistance of the Holy Spirit and when we fall as the best of us must with our utmost care God is pleased to accept of our Repentance knowing it impossible for Man under his present Circumstances and the manner of his Multiplication to keep himself free from Sin To be short in the State of Innocence Constitutions were regular and therefore Reason was strong and uninterrupted in her Operations and her Work was short and easie but by the Apostacy they became irregular the strength of Reason was impaired her Operations interrupted and variety of hard Works which were not in the primitive State are now become our Reasonable Service I must confess my self better pleas'd with this account than many others I have met with and chiefly for its placing the Corruption of our Nature in the sensitive or inferiour Soul for notwithstanding Cartes and his Followers have disallow'd the Division and will by no means comply that there should be any more than one and the same Soul and that those Intestine Conflicts between the Flesh and Spirit which we do all at sometimes experience do arise only from a determination of the Spirits by the Will one way and from another determination of them by the Corporeal Appetite yet the Explanation elsewhere given as it is more consistent with holy Writ so it is likewise with the Belief of the greater number of Learned Men who have solidly establisht this Doctrine of a Duality of Souls in every individual Man But leaving this we must all grant him to be a Creature endow'd with Reason and supposing him to be such it will be now worth the Enquiry how it comes to pass that he shou'd be so very incident to Failings and to act even against the clearest and most demonstrative Reason There have been several Attempts made to explain this Matter by several Men some of which will have the Cause to proceed from certain Errors or Mistakes in Judgment for say they since it is impossible that Man as he is endow'd with Reason shou'd appetere Malum qua Malum whatever he makes choice of tho' in it self never so great an Evil must be offer'd to his Appetite under the Disguise of some certain good of which he believes himself to stand in need and thus through the want of due Consideration or Errors of our Understanding the Bonum apparens takes place of the Bonum reale and thus likewise it happens that the Bonum vicinum puts in before the Bonum remotum The Understanding Mr. Lock on the other side is of opinion that it is neither an appearing Good nor yet the greatest positive Good but always some pressing and preva●●●ng Uneasiness that Influences our Action● It seems saith he so stablisht and setled a Maxim by the general Consent of Mankind that Good or the greater Good determines our Wills that I do not at all wonder that when I first publisht my Thoughts upon this Subject I took it for granted and I imagine that by a great many I shall be thought more excusable for having then done so than that now I have ventur'd to recede from so receiv'd an Opinion but yet upon a stricter Enquiry I am forced to conclude that Good even the greatest Good tho' apprehended and acknowledg'd to be so does not determine the Will until our desire proportionally raised to it makes us uneasie in the want of it Convince a Man never so much that Plenty has its Advantages above Poverty make him see and own that the handsome Conveniencies of Life are better than nasty Penury yet as long as he is content with the latter and finds no uneasiness in it he moves not his Will is never determined to any Action that shall bring him out of it Let a Man be never so well perswaded of the Advantages of Vertue that it is as necessary to him who has any great aims in this World or Hopes in the next as Food to Life yet till he hungers and thirsts after Righteousness till he feels an uneasiness in the want of it his Will is not determin'd to any Action in pursuit of this confessed greater Good but any other uneasiness he feels in himself shall take place and carry his Will to other Actions Let the Drunkard see that his Health decays his Estate wasts Discredit and Diseases and the want of all things even of his beloved Drink attends him in the Course he follows yet the Returns of Uneasiness to miss his Companions the habitual thirst after his Cups at the usual time drives him to the Tavern tho' he hath in his view the loss of Health and Plenty and perhaps of the Joys of another Life the least of which is no inconsiderable Good but such as he confesses is far greater than the tickling his Palate with a Glass of Wine or the idle Chat of a soaking Club. 'T is not for want of viewing the greater Good for he sees and acknowledges it and in the Intervals of his drinking Hours will take Resolutions to pursue the greater Good but when the Uneasiness to miss his accustomed Delight returns the greater acknowledg'd Good loseth its hold and the present Uneasiness determines the Will to the accustom'd Action which thereby gets stronger footing to prevail again the next occasion tho' he at the same time make secret Promises to himself that he will do so no more this is the last time he will act against the attainment of these greater Goods And thus be it from time to time in the state of that unhappy Complainer Video Meliora proboque Deteriora sequor which Sentence allowed true and made good by constant Experience may this and possibly no other way be made easily intelligible If we enquire now into the Reason of what Experience makes so evident in fact and examine why 't is Uneasiness alone operates on the Will and determines it in its Choice we shall find that we being capable but of one determination of the Will to one action at once the present uneasiness that we are under does naturally determine the Will in order to that Happiness we all aim at in all our actions forasmuch as whilst we are under any Uneasiness we cannot apprehend