Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	call_v	great_a	power_n	2,783	5	4.5526	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B01570	The great soul of man, or, The soul in its likeness to God, its nature, operations and everlasting state discoursed. / By Tho. Beverley.	Beverley, Thomas.	1675 (1675)	Wing B2188EA; ESTC R172737	123,818	332

upon Matter beyond all the Activity that Matter can be set into by any Material Agency is not without probability from the more than ordinary vigorous Action and great Strength of some Men as Samson and some others of unusual Force For I am much inclin'd under the Divine Efficacy concurring to ascribe such Might to the Soul either acting it self by extraordinary Organs and Instruments of Body prepar'd and fitted for that Might as in Gyants and such like or that God may have made use of some Good Men in a degree like the Angels letting out the Powers of their Souls through their Bodies into Actions above the generality of Mankind to which I am very subject to attribute those Famous Acts recorded by the Apostle Hebr. 11. 33 34. They subdued Kingdoms stopped the mouths of Lions quenched the violence of Fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong waxed valiant in Fight put to flight the Armies of the Aliens For though these are miraculous compar'd with the ordinary State of Mankind yet they may be natural to the unconfined State of the Soul in its Efficacies upon Matter even as working Righteousness obtaining Promises not accepting deliverance that they might be partakers of a better Resurrection require as supernatural an assistance of Mind in this degeneracy of Mankind and do as much exceed the Possibilities of the Soul so sunk and degraded as the other do the Powers of a Spirit shut up in Flesh and in this State of Humiliation And yet certainly all Acts of Goodness and Obedience to God are connatural to the true and unfallen Condition of Mankind Now what the Skill and Force of a Spirit not restrain'd and confin'd to work by just such Instruments of Body is in moving Matter with greatest advantage and most successful operation is to us hard to be defin'd for the Motion and Activity of it is Intellectual and as we ordinarily conceive that alone is a feeble thing yet when we come to observe what is attributed to Divine Understanding That by Wisdom the Lord Prov. 3. 19. founded the Earth and by Vnderstanding he established and garnished the Heavens and that he onely declared by his Word the Pleasure and Determination of his Understanding in the creating every thing we may be very ready to conceive Infinite Understanding is Infinite Power and when Wisdom says I am Vnderstanding Prov. 8. 14. I have Strength it gives us the Notion of Infinite Understanding as Infinite Strength and if we consider Wisdom and Power are one in God it still heightens the apprehension and further if we understand with many Divines the Son of God to be this Wisdom the Notion is yet rais'd higher and we understand the more by it the Omnipotency of Wisdom Creation then is the very Effect of Infinite Understanding and as all Conceptions Arguments Reasons of Discourse are the unquestionable Creatures of our Understanding so all things that are in the World are the Effects of Infinite Understanding the World is the Creature of Divine Understanding His very conceiving things with a pleasure they should be gave them Being He spake the word Psal 33. 9. and it was done he commanded and it stood fast He called to the Heavens and they stood up together There was no other Power us'd by God that we read of Thus Men of great Authority sit still and speak things into their Execution As for the mighty Acts of Angels recorded in Scripture they are veiled as to the manner of their being brought to pass and the Efficiency that did produce them onely we read in that Emblem of the Prophet Ezekiel wherein all Worldly things are presented as governed by God and administred by Angels that the various Rotations and Changes in this World shadowed by Wheels are full of Eyes that is of the Wisdom of God the Supreme Moderator of them and that they are mov'd on by the Motion of Angels For the Spirit of the Living Creatures Ezek. 1. 18 20. by which Angels are express'd was in the Wheels and when these went the Wheels went and when these stood still the Wheels stood still This Spirit of the Living Creatures managed all So that it looks to us as if the Angels did all by their Spirit or Essence and that we know is Intellectual Eyes in the Wheels and the Spirit in the Wheels turn'd all about The Angels are Understandings inferiour to God onely and their Efficacy is represented to us by Lightning or the most vehement Flame of Fire When we come down to Man we find the Creatures in great subjection to Adam and there is reason Genes 2. 20. to think it was to his Understanding they paid their Homage For as an Introduction to his Rule over them they were brought to him by God to receive their Names from him and according to his insight into their Natures he called them all by their Names and so entred into his Dominion over them by understanding them and declaring his understanding of them This was the solemn Act of his Inauguration into his Intellectual Government Even as God who governeth the Stars by his Infinite Understanding telleth the number Psal 147. 4. of the Stars and calleth them all by their names thus the known Wisdom of Men of great Understanding commands the Regard and Obedience of those whom they have impos'd Names of Office and Service upon In the generality of Mankind let us consider how immediately any or all the Members of the Body move upon the most silent intimations of the Understanding and follow its guidance twining every way even into the greatest Curiosities of Art stretching themselves to the most industrious and laborious Employments adventuring themselves upon the greatest Hazards We see that indeed all things that are done by Men in the World begin at the Counsel Design and Intendments of Understanding and that the Contrivance of one Mans Understanding dictating to the Understandings of those that are under hath been the Spring and given production to the mightiest Effects the wisest Polities the most excellent Laws huge Volumes the greatest Atchievements of Armies the most magnificent Buildings Establishments of Empire the most memorable Projects and Works of Art the Force of strange Engines or whatever is accounted of Grandeur in the World The Force of Understanding hath been given and conveyed from Hand to Hand insinuated into Matter and so pass'd from one Piece and Part of it to another till it hath reach'd unto and rested in the Effect All this put together may be an Essay concerning the Power of Understanding Now what ways Understanding hath to move Matter immediately by it self we are no competent Judges that have indeed Understandings but generally so restrain'd and imprison'd that they can find the way of doing little in comparison of what may be done by that uncontrovertible way of accomplishing Effects by the mediatory Services of Matter Onely this we know When there was neither

of it are presently heard and resented through the whole and the Soul so much it self under several names that what is in one Faculty of it is immediately in all if the impression be indeed to the life saving only that since the degeneracy of Mankind there remains as I have already shewn a single Light in the higher Understanding that may be refused in its dictates by the rest of the Soul Suppose then the Understanding beyond the possibility of Resistance convinced by such a manner of Demonstration that it cannot but receive of those things that are the true and perfect Reasons of Joy or Sorrow and in their perfection also the Soul must needs be in the same manner affected it is now when we plainly and undeniably find our selves within the embraces of any great good or the gripes of Evil but with this difference that so much as the perceptiveness of the Understanding surmounts at any time or the Good and Evil themselves surpass so much must the Joy or Grief surmount and surpass also Although therefore it be true that the multitude of Men and Women are but half perswaded of those Things wherein Heaven Hell consist yet this is only because God is not yet pleased to excite the Understanding after that powerful manner of Conviction he can use but still every man is at the Mercy of Divine Power and Pleasure when he will do it He may do it now but in Eternity he will do it and with such a clear representation as rises up into immediate Bliss or Woe 2. The next Faculty to be considered is the Great Will that is the Spring of all Affections and their Motions How endless are the Motions of this Will With what a great Covetousness doth it covet Good and how long What an immense aversation and abhorrence of Evil hath it Let then this Will be denyed Good or pressed upon with Evil or let it be gratified with Good and secured from Evil what either joy or pain will follow Yet further Let us weigh the Active part of both these Faculties and then the Enjoyment or Suffering will rise much higher 1. First then apprehend but Thought mightily set on work which is the Understanding in its natural Motion and if this be but earnestly moved though it be without tormenting matter yet how painful is it When there is not an Oyl a pleasantness and sweetness dropping down upon Thought it is like stretching the Joints and Sinews of the Body by immoderate motion which if moderate would have been refreshing or like a great blow that carries the whole force along with it and falls into the Air only upon which all the weight of the Body is ready to follow with a violence most ungrateful to Nature When a man hath a multitude of Thoughts he had need have the comforts of God to delight his Soul A Man had need have good bounds for his Thoughts else he loses himself in the Wild of them he had need of good matter to feed them with else they inflame like Millstones feeding on themselves make but this good a Man may think For Ever and it will easily appear he may be happy or miserable For Ever For let these thoughts be such as interest a Man in the Reasons of Torment Pain and Horrour and how grievous may be his state What experience may every one have of the trouble and turmoil of the anguish of Thoughts a Man may lye easier upon a Rack than upon some disquieting vexatious Thoughts On the other side how sweet and pleasant are Thoughts full of the Ravishment of Divine Consolations How delightful is the entertainment they give without tediousness or satiety 2. Imagination is something beyond Thought for Thought runs upon things nearer to what they are in themselves but Imagination makes them something beyond themselves or aggravates according to their true circumstances with greatest life Indeed Imagination cannot exceed in Divine or Everlasting Things yet it is of use to bring in and represent to and fill the Thoughts it reflects things with a multiplicity of Images like the Parelii of the Sun and stays those Images with great Effect and so it is of great use in Comfort or Discomfort 3. The Memory which doth revive and call things together and present them anew to the Thoughts and Imaginations summoning and congregating and staying Things their due time for consideration This is a great Instrument too of Happiness or Misery I will remember the Years of the Right Hand of the most High was the Relief of and Recovery of Davids Spirit Remembring my affliction and Lam. 3. 19 20. my misery the wormwood and the Gall my Soul hath them still in remembrance and is bowed in me Remembring this Vale of Tears exalts the lightsome state of the Holy Hill of God and Remembring the Good things of this Life an inflammation of misery 4. The Conscience is a high and most curious Engine fitted by God to these ends What Joy like the Testimony of Conscience good and serene The very office of which is to applaud the Soul and give it greatest Joy in its acceptance with God and likeness to him and on the other side to make acclamations to the Justice of God and condemn the guilty and impure Soul within it self to its greatest horrour and amazement Come we now to the Active part of the Will that is the Affections which are but the Will boiling up with great love to its Happiness or abhorrence of its Misery and according as the Affections are stirred with desire of Good and flight from Evil so are they either unexpressibly gratified in an union with that Good and the utmost distance of the Evil or enraged with the despair of the Good that is at an infinite remove from its enjoyment and detestation of the Evil so abhorred yet pressing and forcing on it self to be endured from which different Motion of the Affections spring plainly and sensibly those different conditions of Happiness or Misery Lastly When the Understanding hath been both the Theatre and Spectator of all these Motions it comes to examine over again whether there because for them and when upon strictest enquiry it finds the cause deserves the whole that hath passed and being by the Divine Power held close to this Observation it then passes it self into that grand Act of the Soul we call Judgment upon which all the powers of the Soul either everlastingly triumph and shout in loud praises to infinite Mercy or the Veins of Conscience open and bleed afresh and as by a most undoubted authority the Heart renews and continues its everlasting Plaints The fundamental capacities of the Soul for Happiness and Misery being now settled I come now to discourse the correspondent fundamental accounts of that Happiness or Misery as they are united with the Soul and its actuations of it self And these first in relation to its eternal condition 1. The first and most essential account of Happiness