Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	holy_a	soul_n	16,669	5	5.2335	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52440	Two treatises concerning the divine light the first, being an answer to a letter of a learned Quaker, which he is pleased to call, A just reprehension to John Norris for his unjust reflections on the Quakers, in his book entituled, Reflections upon the conduct of human life, &c., the second, being a discourse concerning the grossness of the Quakers notion of the light within, with their confusion and inconsistency in explaining it / by John Norris ...	Norris, John, 1657-1711.; Norris, John, 1657-1711. Grossness of the Quaker's principle.	1692 (1692)	Wing N1276; ESTC R2996	64,661	150

Mind or the Purity of my Intention or the Cleanness of my Vessel Either this is very impertinently or very uncharitably suggested Either he means nothing by it or he means ill And that he does so he has taken Care to satisfie the Reader by explaining himself more fully in the very next Words For whoso says he undertakes to reprehend the Intelligible Conduct of Human Life ought first to purge himself from the Irregularities of his Moral Conduct which does Cloud and darken his Understanding What a scurvy malicious Insinuation is this For tho the Words abstractly consider'd be a Proposition of Universal Truth and may bear an innocent and inoffensive Sense yet consider'd with their Occasion and with their Application to me if they signifie any thing they must signifie ill there must be either an intolerable Impertinence in them or a great deal of Malice and Censoriousness For does he not by this plainly insinuate to the World that I am an ill Man and that there are such Irregularities in my Moral Conduct as make me unfit to reflect upon the Intellectual Conduct of Human Life And would not any one that knew nothing of me any otherwise than by this Paper of his and were to take his Measure of me from hence be tempted to conclude that I was a Man of a loose and debauch'd Conversation Now if I deserve this Character I have nothing to complain of but if I do not and I appeal even to Mr. Vickris himself nay even to the World whether I do or no then this is a very uncharitable and very unchristian Insinuation And yet as bad as it is he has more of the same and that notwithstanding what he says of himself in the Paragraph immediately following that he is far from a Spirit of Detraction Which Passage I think should either have been left out or set at a greater distance from the foregoing one wherein there seems to be so strong a Savour of that Spirit As there does in what follows when p. 4. He charges me with despising the Testimony of God through the Meanness of the Instruments Applying to me that of the Apostle to the Thessalonians chap. 4. v. 8. He therefore that despiseth despiseth not Man but God who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit Which Allegation I shall allow to be pertinent when he has proved those Instruments he talks of to be equally inspired with the Apostles But till then he must give me leave to think and call it a Blasphemous piece of Arrogance For it can be no less to make Despising the Quakers the same with despising God unless it be proved that the Quakers are Divinely inspired When I see this done I shall allow of the Expression In the mean while I must beg Mr. Vickris not to be angry if I tell him that it puts me in mind of a Story I have heard of a Quaker in Oxford who when some of the young Scholars for some Rudenesses and Disturbances he had been guilty of in the College had brought him to the Pump to pump him while he was doing his Penance impudently cried out Pump on Pump on you Pump not me but the Lord. I will not say Mr. Vickris his Expression is exactly of a piece with this but there is so much Resemblance between them that assoon as I read one I could not chuse but think of t'other But he goes on in his Censorious and Uncharitable Reflections for after he had quoted Page 6. that Passage out of the Book of Wisdom chap. 1. v. 4. Into a malicious Soul Wisdom will not enter nor dwell in the Body that is subject to Sin For the Holy Spirit of Discipline will fly Deceit and remove from Thoughts that are without Understanding and will not abide when Unrighteousness cometh in For Wisdom is a loving Spirit and will not acquit a Blasphemer of his Words for God is the Witness of his Reins and a true Beholder of his Heart and an Hearer of his Tongue Therefore he that speaketh unrighteous things can't be hid neither shall Vengeance when it punishes pass by him All which in the abundance of his Civility and Charity he has thought fit to apply to me He proceeds to add Now seeing these Sayings are true and righteous and that 't is possible to profess this Doctrin of the Divine Word Light Grace Spirit of Wisdom and Truth and the teachings of it and yet not possess it nor be learn'd of it nor led by it but whilst preaching of it to others to be a Cast-a-way I advise thee to consider in what Ground and Nature thou yet standest and livest in and what Spirit lives and rules in thee I thank him for his Advice but not for that spiteful and strangely censorious Insinuation that goes along with it which amounts to no less than that I am one of those malicious Souls into which Wisdom will not enter that I am deceitful without Understanding unrighteous and a Blasphemer That tho I profess the Doctrin of the Divine Light yet I do not possess it nor am led by it but while I preach it to others am my self a Cast-away which I think is as bad as one Man can well say of another and yet 't is what he plainly insinuates if there be any Connection or Pertinence in what he says But fearing he had not been yet plain enough and lest the too candid Reader should miss his Meaning he proceeds Hath not Unrighteousness entred in through Self-love and Esteem which blinds the Eye and causes the Tongue to speak Unrighteous things Here he charges me with Unrighteousness Ambition and Self-love which last he is pleased to beighten to such an extravagant pitch as to make me an Idolater and that of the worst sort as making my self to be my God For says he Is not Self exalted to sit in the Temple of God as God in thee What a Flight of Censoriousness and Uncharity is this For besides the Heinousness of the Charge it being as bad as can be said of the Devil himself that he makes Self his God there being nothing so opposite to Charity which refers all to God as Self-love which refers all to its self I say besides the Heinousness of the Charge 't is also of such a particular Nature as were I indeed guilty of it it would be impossible for any Man much more for Mr. Vickris who is a meer Stranger to me without a Divine Revelation ever to know For Self-love is a Vice of the Heart and one of the most latent and retired of all the Vices that are lodged there and consequently obnoxious to his Judgment only who is a Discerner of the Heart to whom all Hearts be open all Desires known and from whom no Secret is hid God alone can tell how far Self is exalted either in me or in any Man else And therefore Mr. Vickris had much better have left me to His Judgment than to sit in Judgment upon me himself and

Spiritual Truths but even to the Natural and Ordinary Acts of Understanding I do not therefore find Fault with the Quakers for holding such a thing as the Light within so far from that that I very much out-do them in the Latitude of the Principle as making it more necessary and more extensive than they I do not as some do disapprove of the Doctrin in general but have a very convincing Assurance of it and a very awful Regard and Veneration for it as a very Noble and Sacred Theory But that which I condemn in the Quakers as to this Point is their particular manner of stating and explaining the general Notion of the Light within which I think to be as Gross and Absurd as the Notion it self in general is fine and rational And that upon this double Account I. Because they make it to be a Creature II. Because they make it a Material Creature Upon which two Grounds I question not but that I shall be able so to demonstrate the Falsehood and Absurdity of this grand Article of Quakerism as to render it utterly uncapable of Defence even tho Mr. Barclay himself were now alive to be my Opposer But because this is to be the Ground and Bottom of the following Discourse and that I may not be thought to contend against a Supposititious Notion or Imaginary Absurdity I must take care in the first place that this which is to be the Foundation of all be well laid by proving plainly and undeniably that the Quakers do represent their Light within after the manner already intimated viz. As a Creature and as a Material Creature before I undertake to expose their Absurdity in so doing In order to which I must give an Account of this Light within and shew what it is according to the Quakers Wherein I believe so little have the Principles of Quakerism been enquired into even by those that nevertheless take the liberty to laugh at them I shall tell a great many even of the Learned World a considerable piece of News And here to reduce the matter to as narrow a Compass as may be there being nothing wherein I admire Brevity more than in Quotations I shall be content to take my Account from two of their most eminent and approved Writers Mr. Barclay and Mr. Keith and to prevent all suspicion of Misrepresentation shall deliver it in their own express Words Thus then Mr. Barclay speaking of the Universal and Saving-Light of Christ By this Seed Grace and Word of God and Light wherewith we say every Man is enlightned and hath a measure of it which strives with them in Order to save them and which may by the Stubbornness and Wickedness of Man's Will be quenched bruised wounded pressed down slain and crucified we understand not the proper Essence and Nature of God precisely taken which is not divisible into Parts and Measures as being a most pure simple Being void of all Composition or Division and therefore can neither be resisted hurt wounded crucified or slain by all the Efforts and Strength of Men. But we understand a Spiritual Heavenly and Invisible Principle in which God as Father Son and Spirit dwells A measure of which Divine and Glorious Life is in all Men as a Seed which of its own Nature draws invites and inclines to God And this we call Vehiculum Dei or the Spiritual Body of Christ the Flesh and Blood of Christ which came down from Heaven of which all the Saints do feed and are thereby nourish'd unto Eternal Life From which Account of Mr. Barclay it is plain 1. That they do not make their Light within to be God for he says they understand not by it the proper Essence and Nature of God and consequently must make it to be a Creature there being no Medium between God and the Creature 2. That they do also make it to be a Material Creature since he supposes it divisible into Measures and Portions calls it Vehiculum Dei and the Spiritual Body of Christ and that Flesh and Blood of his which came down from Heaven and which is both Food and Nourishment to the Saints None of which Affections can with any tolerable Congruity agree to a Spiritual Substance strictly so call'd Again says Mr. Barclay discoursing of the Communion or Participation of the Body and Blood of Christ The Body then of Christ which Believers partake of is Spiritual and not Carnal and his Blood which they drink of is pure and Heavenly and not Human or Elementary If it be asked what that Body what that Flesh and Blood is I answer it is that Heavenly Seed that Divine Spiritual Celestial Substance of which we spake before in the 5th and 6th Propositions the place just before quoted This is that Vehiculum Dei or Spiritual Body of Christ whereby and wherethrough he communicateth Life to Men and Salvation to as many as believe in him and receive him and whereby also Man comes to have Fellowship and Communion with God Again says he That this Body and Spiritual Flesh and Blood of Christ is to be understood of that Divine and Heavenly Seed before spoken of by us appears both by the Nature and Fruits of it And again That Christ understands the same thing here by his Body Flesh and Blood which is understood John 1. By the Light enlightning every Man appears c. Again As Jesus Christ did by the Eternal Spirit offer up that Body meaning his Carnal Body for a Propitiation for the Remission of Sins so hath he likewise poured forth into the Hearts of all Men a measure of that Divine Light and Seed wherewith he is cloathed c. I shall quote but one Passage more from Mr. Barclay to this purpose and 't is in his last Discourse concerning the Possibility and Necessity of inward Immediate Revelation where having distinguish'd between Natural and Supernatural Ideas he says As the Natural Ideas are stir'd up in us by outward and natural Bodies so those Divine and Supernatural Ideas are stirr'd up in us by a certain Principle which is a Body in Naturals in relation to the Spiritual World and therefore may be call'd a Divine Body Not as if it were a part of God who is a most pure Spirit but the Organ or Instrument of God by which he worketh in us and stirreth up in us these Ideas of Divine things This is that Flesh and Blood of Christ by which the Saints are nourish'd which is a Mystery to all unregenerated and meer natural men c. Here we meet with a Continuation of the same Notion For as in the former Instances he made the Light to be all one with the Spiritual Body of Christ and again reciprocally the Spiritual Body of Christ to be the self-same thing with the Light so now supposing our Spiritual Ideas to be raised by a Divine Body he makes this Divine Body to be no other than that Flesh and Blood of Christ by which

his Distribution might have been divided into Two only by making his Supposition run first in general that the Mind be united to some Being or other and then by distinguishing that general into Created or Increated This I say he might easily have done and in point of exact order and Method perhaps should have done but not dreaming that any would ever be so extravagantly gross as to resolve the Illumination of the Mind into its union with any Creature and not in the least questioning but that if Men were once come so far into the right path as to make the Illumination of the Mind to depend upon its Union with some Being or other they would have no further scruple upon them whether this Being were God or no he chose rather to pass over all union with the Creature in Silence and to make this his last and only further supposable way of inlightning the Mind that it be united to some absolutely perfect Being that includes in himself all the Perfections of Created Beings Which no doubt is the only Basis upon which an Intelligible Hypothesis of Human Understanding can ever be raised And I cannot but greatly wonder that those who come up so very near it should yet upon a suddain turn off and pass it by The Quakers seem with M. Malebranche to disclaim and renounce the Four First of the ways proposed and they agree with him so far in the Fifth and last as to resolve the Illumination of the Soul into its Union with some Being or other But herein they divide and take several ways in that M. Malebranche makes this Being to be God who is absolutely Perfect and all-comprehensive eminently and vertually all and the Quakers will needs have it to be a Created Being Which Hypothesis I think to be very Absurd 1. As needless 2. As impossible 1. It is a needless Hypothesis For if the Soul of Man be not sufficient to be a Light to it self but its Illumination must be resolv'd into its union with some other Being which these Men implicitly grant when they resolve it into its Union with a Created Being then what Being so fit and proper for this purpose as God who by reason of the Immensity and Spirituality of his Nature must needs be intimately present to all Minds and by reason of the Infinity of his Essential Perfection must needs have in himself after an eminent and intelligible manner all the Degrees of Being and consequently the Ideas of all things If there be a Being so qualined certainly our Illumination must be resolv'd into our Union with that Being And if there be a God then there must be a Being so qualified And therefore it must be from our Union with him that all our Light and Knowledge is derived who would of himself sufficiently inlighten Man not only without the Conjunction but even without the Coexistence of any other Creature For I would demand of these Men that contend for a Created Light an Answer to this one Question Suppose God should annihilate all the whole Creation except one Intelligent Spirit so that there should be nothing in being but that single Spirit and Himself would this Spirit upon the removal of all his Fellow Creatures out of being cease to understand or no I know upon their Principle they must say that he would as supposing his capacity of Knowledge to depend upon his Union with a certain Created Being viz. the Spiritual Body of Christ But setting aside their Principle which is the thing under Question and therefore must not be used as a Medium to prove another thing by I see no reason in the nature of the thing it self why they should say that such a Spirit would in such a Supposition cease to understand and I think there is all the reason in the World to suppose he would not as being still notwithstanding this great and Universal Emptiness united most intimately to a Being of Absolute and Infinite Perfection and that contains in himself the Ideas of all things Certainly this great and Universal Representative would be a sufficient Light to that Solitary Spirit who would not want Thoughts or Ideas tho he might want a Companion to Communicate them to And therefore tho the Notion were otherwise never so possible and consistent yet it is altogether needless to seek out for Union with any Creature in order to that Illumination which considering the Omnipresence and All-perfection of God must needs be supposed tho there were no other Creature besides one Intelligent Spirit in being But as this is needless so 2. It is also an impossible Hypothesis It is absolutely impossible that a Creature should be a Light to Man or that one Creature should be a Light to another God is the great Luminary of the whole Intellectual World and 't is he only that can be a Light either to the Soul of Man or to any other Intelligent Being No Creature tho never so glorious and excellent not even the Human Soul of Jesus Christ much less his Spiritual Body can ever be a Light to the Mind of Man For to be a Light to the Mind is to be to it the Principle of Understanding to furnish it with Ideas and to be the formal and immediate Object of its Conception And for this there are Two Conditions necessarily required First That it be intimately present and united to the Mind Secondly That it have the whole Perfection of Being so as to have the Ideas of all things and to be an Universal Representative Which Conditions especially the last no Creature either has or can possibly have And therefore no Creature is able to be a Light to the Soul of Man Were a Creature never so excellent yet it would be of a finite Perfection and consequently of such a certain determinate order rank kind or species that is it would be such a particular degree of Being It would not be all Being or Being at large for then it would be God but only such a definite and determinate degree of it And consequently were it never so intimately united to my Mind it could be able to represent only it self and such degrees of being as were in it self That is it might represent it self and all that is of the same kind with it self but it could not represent any thing else for it could not represent more degrees of Being than it had It could not therefore represent any Creature of another Order from it self as a Sun suppose could not represent a Tree nor a Triangle a Circle since each of these have degrees of Being that are not in the other and consequently cannot be represented by the other For this is a most undoubted Principle that nothing can represent any more degrees of Being than it has Suppose your Creature therefore of never so raised and excellent an Order it would be able to represent only it self and those of the same Species And what a poor account would this turn

to What a dim Wooing Light would this be for a Rational Soul to see by And as such a Created Light would represent but little of the Creation so it would not be able to represent God at all whom we are chiefly concern'd to know if 't were only that we might be ascertain'd of the Truth of other things the certainty of which as Descartes has well observ'd and proved depends upon our knowledge of God But now it is impossible that God should be represented to our Minds by a Created Light for as there must be at least as much Reality in the Object either formally or eminently as there is of Objective Reality in the Idea which is one of the Principles upon which M. Descartes grounds the existence of God So 't is as true on the other Hand that there must be as much Reality in the Idea as there is formally or eminently in the Object or else that Idea will never be able to represent that Object and that by vertue of the Principle before laid down That nothing can represent any more degrees of Being than it has But now God does infinitely surpass the whole Order of the Creatures exceeding the highest degrees of them by a whole Infinity and therefore cannot possibly be represented by any or all of them God indeed may represent a Creature to my Mind as having all the degrees of Being in that Creature and infinitely more but a Creature can never represent God as having no manner of Proportion to his Excellency For if as it has been shewn one Creature cannot represent another that has but one degree of Being beyond it or which the other has not as a Triangle cannot represent a Quadrangle as having one Angle more than it self much less can a Creature be a Representative of God of whom it falls short by no less a measure than a whole Infinity Take an Extract of all Created Perfection and you will never be able to raise an Idea of God out of it for to add Creature to Creature is but to add finite to finite and as that will never make so neither will it be ever able to represent an Infinite So much impossibility is there in the notion of a Created Light which can represent but little of the Creature and God not at all And so very Absurd are those that stand for it since the end for which they mainly design it and suppose it to be afforded to Man is to conduct him to God of whom it seems it cannot give him so much as an Idea And now if it be so Absurd to make the Light within to be a Creature then how much more Absurd is it to suppose it a Material Creature Aquinas I remember proposes it as a Question Whether one Angel may not Illuminate another But among the many trifling and frivolous Questions which he puts I think he never thought it worth his while to inquire whether a Clod of Earth or a Sun-Beam if you please could illuminate an Angel He that thought an Inferior Angel could not illuminate an Angel of a Superior Order to be sure did not imagin that it could ever enter into any considering Head that Matter should be able to illuminate Spirit And I cannot but stand amazed at the Extravagancy of their Imagination who think it can Sure the wild disorders of a Fever can hardly produce a more odd phantastical conceit than this It has been thought a strange adventure in Speculation to suppose that Matter by the advantage of a finer Mechanism should be made capable of Thought and be able to reason and understand and the truth is I would give a great deal to see the Mould in which those Mens Heads were cast who could entertain such a Notion But alas what is this in comparison of making Matter the Principle of Illumination 'T is gross enough of any sense to suppose Matter capable of thinking it self but to suppose it to be an Intellectual Light to be a Principle of thinking to make it a Master and Instructor a Furnisher of Thoughts and Ideas what an Extravagance must this be What Matter illuminate Spirit How harshly it sounds How it grates upon a Philosophical Ear For besides that such a Supposition as this would invert and confound the whole Order of things by exalting Matter above Spirit which according to this must depend upon Matter for the noblest of its Operations that very Operation whereby it is distinguish'd from 〈◊〉 and supposed to be placed above it I say besides this how is it possible that Matter should be a Principle of Illumination to the Soul For in the first place how shall we suppose it capable of being intimately united and present to it Or if we could conceive this to be possible yet what would it be able to represent It would be able to represent nothing but what is Material and but a little of that neither even no more than those few degrees of Material Perfection it self is supposed to have it could represent nothing Immaterial or Intellectual For its Ideas could be no other than certain Material Images or Figurations and a Material Idea can never represent an Immaterial Object A Principle so very clear and certain that even those who derive our Ideas from Sensible Objects supposing them to be Corporeal Emanations do yet find it necessary to look out for an Expedient whereby they may be refined and Spiritualized after their admission into the common Sensory namely by the help of what they call Intellectus Agens whose Office they say is to purifie and refine these Material Phantasms and to render them Immaterial that so they may become Intelligible A very hard Task task for poor Intellectus Agens and were he not a Creature of their own Brain it would move any ones Pity to think what a piece of Drudgery he is Condemn'd to But that puts an end to our concern for so he that reads the many severe toils and hardships of a poor Romantick Adventurer feels a secret warmth about his Heart and is apt ever now and then out of a tenderness of Spirit to dissolve into a passion for the Noble Sufferer till as he is just about to drop a Tear he remembers that 't is but a Romance and then all is well again But by the way this is a most miserable Device and such as sufficiently betrays the absurdity and nullity of their Hypothesis For hereby they plainly acknowledge the truth of this Principle that a Material Idea cannot represent an Immaterial Object for otherwise what necessity of having it Spiritualized and if so then since their Ideas are Material the whole weight of their Hypothesis rests upon this single Bottom The Transmutability of Material into Immaterial Ideas which if found to be impossible their Hypothesis can no longer stand Now I must needs confess it does as much surpass my Understanding how a Material Idea can be transform'd into an Immaterial one as how a