Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	body_n	heaven_n	soul_n	16,244	5	5.2792	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47658	The characters, or, The manners of the age by Monsieur de la Bruyere ... made English by several hands ; with the characters of Theophrastus, translated from the Greek, and a prefatory discourse to them, by Monsieur de la Bruyere ; to which is added, a key to his Characters.; Caractères. English	La Bruyère, Jean de, 1645-1696.; Theophrastus. Characters. English.	1699 (1699)	Wing L104; ESTC R10537	259,067	532

thus describ'd is Matter then it must be an universal Matter that thinks or which is nobler and more perfect than that which does think I proceed further and I say that such an universal Matter if it be not a Chimerical but a real being may be perceiv'd by some of our sences and that if it cannot be discover'd in it self it may be known at least through the various order of its different parts which forms all Bodies and makes the difference betwixt them Matter then is it self all these different Bodies now since according to the supposition Matter is a being which thinks or is better than that which thinks it follows that it is such in some of these bodies at least and consequently in the Stones in Minerals in the Earth in the Sea in my self who am but a Body as well as in all its other parts I am then beholden for this something which thinks within me and which I call my Soul to all these gross earthy and bodily parts which being laid together make up this Universal Matter or this visible World Which is absur'd If on the contrary this Universal Nature let it be what it will is not all those Bodies it follows that it is not Matter and cannot be perceiv'd by any of our sences And if notwithstanding this it has the faculty of thinking or is more perfect than that which has the faculty of thinking I still conclude that it is a Spirit or something better and more perfect than a Spirit Now if that which thinks within me and which I call my Soul not finding its Principle in it self and much less in Matter as has been just now demonstrated is forced to acknowledge this universal Nature to be the first Cause and the only Spring from whence it derives its being I 'll not dispute about words But this original Spring of all its spiritual beings which is it self a Spirit or which is better than a Spirit is that which I call God In a word I think therefore there is a God For that which thinks within me is not a gift which I can pretend to have bestow'd on my self since it was no more in my power to be the Author of it at first than it is now to be the preserver of it for one minute And I receiv'd it not from a Being which is superior to me and which is not material since it 's impossible for Matter to be superior to that which thinks From whence it follows that I must have receiv'd it from a being which is superior to me and which is not material And that superior Being is God * From the inconsistence of an universal Nature which has the faculty of thinking with any thing that 's material must necessarily be inferr'd that any particular being which has the faculty of thinking is also and equally inconsistent with any thing that is material For though the Idea of an universal being which hath the faculty of thinking includes infinitely more Power Independance and Capacity than that of a particular being which hath the faculty of thinking yet it does not imply a greater inconsistance with Matter it being impossible for this inconsistance to be greatest in either because it is as it were infinite in both And it is as impossible that what thinks within me should be Matter as it is inconceivable that God should be Matter As God therefore is a Spirit so my Soul also is a Spirit * I cannot positively know whether a Dog is Master of memory love fear imagination or thought of the faculty of choosing c. When therefore I am told that those actions in a Dog which seem'd to be the effect of either passion or sentiment proceed naturally and without choice from the disposition of the material parts of its Body which like Clock-work put it under an absolute necessity of moving thus I may perhaps acquiesce in this Doctrine but as for me I think and I certainly know that I think Now if one considers this or that disposition of material parts which altogether make up what body you please that is an extent which wants no dimensions which has its length breadth and depth which may be divided in all these respects pray what proportion is there betwixt such an extent and that which thinks * If all things are Matter and if thinking in me as well as in all other men is an effect only of the disposition of the parts of Matter what brought into the world a notion absolutely foreign from the Idea of any thing that is material Can Matter produce so pure so simple so immaterial an Idea as that we have of a Spirit Can Matter be the principal of that which denies and excludes itself from its own Being How is it in man that which thinks that is that which is a conviction to man that he is not material * There are Beings which last not long because they are made up of things which differ much in their nature and are destructive to each other There are others more lasting because they are more simple but they perish at last being made up of several parts into which they may be divided That which thinks within me must needs last very long since it is a very pure being free from all mixture and composition There is no occasion why it shou'd perish for what can corrupt or divide a simple being which has no parts * The Soul sees colours through the Organ of the Eye and hears sounds thro the Organ of the Ear but it may cease either from seeing or hearing when those sences on those objects are remov'd and yet not cease from being because the Soul is not properly that which sees or hears it is only that which thinks Now how can it cease from being such Not through the want of Organs since it has been prov'd that it is not material Nor through the want of objects as long as there is a God and eternal Truths so fit for its contemplation It is then incorruptible * I can●t conceive that a Soul which God has filled with the Idea of his infinite and all-perfect Being must be annihilated * Observe Lucilius this spot of ground which for neatness and ornament exceeds the other Lands about it Here the finest Fountains and the most curious Water-works you ever saw there endless Walks shelter'd from all cold winds and lin'd with fruitful Palissadoes on this side a thick and shady Grove on the other an admirable prospect A little lower a Rivulet whose stream running amongst the Willows and Poplars was once hardly taken notice of is now become a famous Canal and its Banks supported with Free-stone And elsewhere long shady Visto's the ends of which no eyes can reach lead you to a noble Seat surrounded with water Will you say this is the effect of chance Will you suppose that all these things met together accidentally No certainly You 'll rather commend the order the disposition of them

it alter its course immediately And can you think that the Cristalline humour t●e retina and the optick nerve all which convey sight to this little animal are the product of chance One may observe in a drop of Water that a little Pepper which has been steep'd in it has excited the thirst of an infinite number of small Animals whose figure may be perceiv'd with the help of a Magnifying-glass and who are moving to and fro with an incredible swiftness like so many Monsters in the wide Ocean Each of these small Animals is a thousand times less than a Mite and yet is a body that lives which receives nourishment which grows which must not only have Muscles but such Vessels also as are equivalent to Veins Nerves and Arteries and a Brain to make a distribution of its Animal Spirits A bit of any thing that is mouldy tho it be no bigger than a grain of Sand appears thro a Microscope like a heap of many Plants of which some are plainly seen to bear Flowers and other Fruits some have buds only and others are wither'd How extreamly small must be the Roots and Fibers through which these little plants receive their nourishment And if one considers that these plants bear their own Seed as well as Oaks or Pines or that these small Animals are multiply'd by generation as well as Elephants and Whales whether will not such observations lead one Who could work all these things which are so fine so exceeding small that no eye can perceive 'em and that they ●s well as the Heavens border upon infinity it self tho in the other extream Would not one think it was the same Being who made and who moves with so much ease the Heavens and the Stars those vast Bodies which are so wonderful in their bigness their elevation the swiftness and the prodigious extent of their Courses * Man enjoys the Sun the Stars the Heavens and their influences as much as he does the Air he breathes and the Earth on which he treads and by which he is supported This is Matter of Fact and if besides the fact I were to prove the probability of the thing and that it is fitting he should do so I might easily make it out since the Heavens and all that is contain'd in them are not to be compar'd in nobleness and dignity with one of the meanest men on Earth And since there can be no other porportion betwixt them than what there is betwixt Matter which is destitute of Sentiment and is only an extent according to three dimensions and a spiritual a reasonable or an intelligent Being And if any one says that all these things might have serv'd for the preservation of Man I answer that less could not have serv'd for the Glory of God and for the magnifying of his power his goodness and his magnificence since let his works be never so great and wonderful they might still have been infinitely greater The whole universe if it be made for man is in a literal sense the least thing that God has done for man the proof of which may be drawn from Religion Man is therefore neither presumptuous nor vain when submitting to the evidence of Truth he owns the advantages he has receiv'd and might be tax'd with blindness and stupidity did he refuse to yield himself convinc'd thro the multitude of proofs which Religion lays before him to shew him the greatness of his prerogatives the certainty of his refuge the reasonableness of his hopes and to teach him what he is and what he may be Ay but the Moon is inhabited at least we don't know but it may What and to how little purpose is it you talk of the Moon Lucilius If you own there is a God nothing indeed is impossible But do you design to ask whether it is on us alone that God has bestow'd such great blessings Whe●her there are not other Men or other Creatures in the Moon whom also he has mad● the objects of his Bounty To so vain a curiosity to so frivolous a question let me answer Lucilius that the Earth is inhabited we are the Inhabitants of it and we know that we are so we have proofs demonstrations and convictions for all that we are to believe of God and of our selves Let the Nations who inhabit the Celestial Globes whatever those Nations are be mindful of their own concerns They have their cares and we have ours You have observ'd the Moon Lucilius you have found its spots its deeps its ruggedness its elevation its extent its course and its eclipses no Astronomer has yet done more Now contrive some new and more exact Instruments observe it again and see whether it is inhabited what are its Inhabitants whether they are like men or whether they are really men let me look after you and let us both be convinc'd that there are men who inhabit ●he Moon and then Lucilius we 'll consider whether those men are Christians or no and whether God has made 'em to share his favours with us * Many millions of years nay many thousand millions of years in a word as many as can be comprehended within the limits of time are but an instant being compar'd with the duration of God who is Eternal The spaces of the whole universe are but a point of an Atome being compar'd with his Immensity If it be so as I affirm it is for what proportion can there be between what is finite and what is infinite I ask what is a man's life or the extent of a grain of Sand which is call●d the Earth nay of a small part of that Earth which man inhabits and enjoys The wicked are prosperous while they live Yes some of them are I own Virtue is opprest and Vice remains unpunish'd It happens so sometimes 't is true This is then an injustice No not at all You should have prov'd to draw this conclusion the wicked absolutely happy the virtuous absolutely depriv'd of happiness and vice absolutely and always remaining unpunish'd That short time in which the good are opprest and the wicked are prosperous should at least have a duration What we call prosperity and good fortune should be something more than a false appearance or a vain shadow which vanishes away This Atome the Earth in which Virtue and Vice so seldom meet with their deserts should be the only stage on which they are to receive their pu●ishments or their rewards I can't infer more clearly from my thinking that I am a Spirit than I conclude from what I do or do not according as I please that I am free Now freedom is the power of choosing or of taking a voluntary determination towards good or evil so that the doing of good or evil is what is call'd Virtue or Vice● For Vice to remain absolutely unpunish'd would be an injustice 't is true For Vice to remain unpunish'd on Earth is a mystery only yet let us with the Atheist suppose that an injustice

performance before he has begun the Sermon time they sleep and only wake to applaud him There are none who so warmly engage in behalf of an Author His works are Read ●ither in the leisure of a retirement or in the silence of a Closet There are not publick meetings to cry him up no party zealous to prefer him to all his Rivals and to advance him to the Prelacy His Book how excellent soever it may be is read but with an intention to find it indifferent Every leaf is folded down and convast 'T is not like sounds lost in the Air and forgotten what is printed remains so Sometimes 't is expected a month or two before it comes out with an impatience to damn it The greatest pleasure that some find in it is to Criticize on it 'T is a Vexation to 'em to meet with passages in every Page which ought to please nay often they are afraid of being diverted and quit a Book only because 't is good Every body do's not pretend to be a Preacher The Phrases Figures Memory and Gown of a Divine are things all people are not fond of appropriating to themselves whereas every one imagines that he thinks well and that he can express himself still better than he thinks which makes him less favourable to one that thinks and writes as well as himself In a word the Parson is advanc'd to a Bishoprick sooner than the most judicious Writer is to a small Priory New Favours still are heap'd on him while the more deserving Author is content to take up with his refuse * If it happens that the wicked hate and persecute you good men advise you to humble your self before God and to watch against the Vanity which may arise in you from having displeas'd people of that Character so when some certain men subject to exclaim against all things as indifferent disapprove your works or your discourse whether spoken at the Bar or in the Pulpit humble your self for you can't be expos'd to a greater temptation to pride * A Preacher methinks ought in every one of his Sermons to make choice of one principal truth whether it be to move terror or to yield instruction and to handle that alone largely and fully omitting all those foreign divisions and subdivisions which are so intricate and perplext I wou'd not have him presuppose a thing that 's really fal●e which is that great Men understand the Religion they profess and so be afraid to instruct persons of their Wit and Breeding in their Catechism let him employ the long time he 's a composing a set formal discourse in making himself master of his subject that so the turn and expression may of course flow easily from him Let him after some necessary preparation yield himself up to his own Genius and to the emotions with which a great subject will inspire him Let him spare that prodigious expence of memory which looks more like reciting for a Wager that any thing else and which destroys all graceful action Let him on the contrary by a noble Enthusiasm dart conviction into their Souls and alarm their Consciences Let him in fine touch the Hearts of his hearers with another fear than that of seeing him make some blunder or mistake in his Sermon * Let not him who is not yet arriv'd to that perfection as to forget himself in the dispensation of the holy word Let him not I say be discourag'd by the austere rules that are prescrib'd him as if they robb'd him of the means of shewing his Wit and of attaining to the Honours to which he aspires What greater or more noble Talent can there be than to preach like an Apostle or which deserves a Bishoprick better Was Feneton unworthy of that Dignity or was it possible he shou'd have avoided his Princes choice if it had not been for another choice of his own OF The Wits of the Age. HAve they who value themselves so much upon the title of Wits have they I say wit enough to perceive that they are only call'd so by Irony What greater want of wisdom can there be than to be doubtful of the principle of ones own being life sence knowledge and of what will be the end of them What can more lessen any man than his questioning whither his Soul is not material like a Stone or a Worm or subject to corruption like the vilest Creatures And is it not a much more real and a nobler sort of wit that raises our minds to the Idea of a being superiour to all others by whom and for whom all things were made who is perfect and pure who never had a beginning nor will never have an end of whom our Soul is the image nay of whom if I may so speak it makes a part being Spiritual and Immortal * A tractable and a foolish Mind are both susceptible of impressions but good impressions are the lot of the one and ill ones of the other That is the first suffers himself to be persuaded and then sticks to his persuasion the other is conceited and corrupted So that the tractable mind admits of true Religion the foolish of a false one or of none at all Now the modish Wit either has no Religion at all or has one of his own invention Therefore a Wit and a Fool are mu●h the same th●ng * By a worldly earthly or brutish man I mean one whose heart and mind is wholly fix'd on this small part of the Universe he is plac'd in the Earth One who sets a value upon nothing nor loves any thing beyond it Whose narrow soul is as much confin'd as that spot of ground he calls his Estate The extent of which is easily measur'd the acres are all number'd and the utmost bounds are limited 'T is no wonder that such one who leans as it were on an Atome should stumble at the first step in his search after Truth That with so short a sight he should not reach beyond the Heavens and the Stars to behold God himself That not being able to perceive the excellence of what is Spiritual or the dignity of the Soul he should feel as little how difficult it is to satisfie its appetites How much the whole world is insufficient for it How indispencably this makes it want an all perfect being which is God And how absolutely it needs a Religion to find out that God and to be assur'd of his reality And any one on the contrary may soon be perswaded that incredulity and indifferency is but natural to such a man That he will make use of God and Religion as a piece of Policy only that is as far as it may give a fair outside or keep in some order the things relating to his worldly concerns which alone in his opinion deserve to have any thoughts bestow'd on them * Some men by travelling give the last stroke to the corrupting of their Judgment and their Manners and extinguish wholly that spark of Religion they had

of the Stars this Sun this Earth and the ninety millions of miles that are betwixt ●em would seem to him but as one point There are demonstrations given for it 'T is for this reason that the distance there is betwixt any two Stars tho they appear never so near one another is not to be measur'd You would think if you judg'd by your eye the Plyades almost touch'd one another There is a Star seems to be plac'd on one of those which make the Tail of the Great Bear your sight can hardly perceive that part of the Heavens which divides 'em they make together as it were but one double Star Yet if the most skilful Astronomers cannot with all their Art find out their distance from each other how far asunder must two Stars be which appear remote from one another And how much farther yet the two Polar Stars How prodigious the length of that line which reaches from one to the other How immense the Circle which this line is the Diameter of How unfathomable the solidity of the Globe which this Circle is but a Section of Shall we still wonder that these Stars though so exceeding great seem no larger to us than so many Sparks Shall we not rather admire that from so vast a heighth they should p●eserve the least appearance of bodies and that they should be seen at all And indeed the quantity of them that is unseen is innumerable 'T is true we limit the number of the Stars but that is only of such Stars as are visible to us for how should we number those we cannot see Those for example which make up the Via Lactea that trace of light which on a clear night you may observe from North to South in the Sky Those I say which being by their extraordinary heighth so far out of the reach of our eyes that we cannot distinguish every individual Star amongst 'em give a white cast only to that part of the Heavens they are plac'd in Behold then the Earth on which we tread it hangs loose like a grain of Sand in the air A multitude of fiery Globes the vastness of whose bulk confounds my imagination and whose heighth exceeds the reach of my conceptions all perpetually rowling round this grain of Sand has been for above these six thousand years and are still daily crossing the wide the immense spaces of the Heavens Or if you desire an other and yet as wonderful a system the Earth itself is turning round the Sun which is the center of the Universe with a swiftness that surpasses my imagination Methinks I see the motion of all these Globes the orderly march of these prodigious bodies they never disorder never hit never touch one another should but the least of them happen to start aside and to run against the Earth what must become of the Earth But on the contrary● all keep their respective stations remain in the order prescrib'd to them follow the tracts which are laid before them And this at least with respect to us is done with so little noise that the vulgar knows not that there are such Bodies What a strange and wonderful effect of chance Could intelligence itself have done any thing beyond this One only thing I cannot understand Lucilius These vast bodies are so exact and so constant in thei● courses in their revolutions and their relations to each other that a little Animal being confin'd in a corner of that wide space which is call'd the world having made their observations on them has contriv'd an exact and an infallible method of foretelling in what degree of their respective Courses every one of these Stars will be two thousand four thousand nay twenty thousand years hence Here lyes my scruple Lucilius If it be by chance that they observe such constant rules what is order and what are rules Nay I 'll ask you what is chance is it a Body is it a Spirit is it a Being which you distinguish from all other Beings which has a particular existence or which resides in any place Or rather is it not a mode or a fashion of Being When a Bowl runs against a Stone we are apt to say it is a chance but is it any thing more than the accidental hitting of these bodies one against the other If by this chance or this hitting the Bowl it changes its strait course into an oblique one if its direct motion becomes more contracted if ceasing from rowling on its Axis i● winds and whirls like a top shall I from thence infer that motion in general proceeds in this Bowl from the same chance Shall I not rather suspect that the Bowl owe it to itself or to the impulse of the arm that threw it Or because the circular motions of the wheels of a Clock are limited the one by the other in their degrees of swiftness shall I be less curious in examining what may be the cause of all these motions Whether it lyes in the wheels themselves or is derived from the moving faculty of a weight that gives 'em the swing But neither these Wheels nor this Bowl could produce this motion in themselves And it does not lye in their own nature if they can be depriv'd of it without changing this nature It is therefor● likely that they are mov'd some other way and through a foreign power And as for the Coelestial Bodies if they should be depriv'd of their motion should therefore their nature be alter'd Should they cease from being bodies I can't believe they should Yet they move and since they move not of themselves nor by their own nature one would examine Lucilius whether there is not some principle without 'em that causes this motion Whatever you find it I call it God Shou'd we suppose these great bodies to be without motion indeed I could not ask who moves ' em But I should still be allow'd to inquire who made them as I may examine who made these Wheels or this Bowl And though each of these Bodies was suppo●'d to be but a heap of Atomes which have accidentally knit themselves together through the figure and conformity of their parts I should take one of those Atomes and should say who created this Atome is it Matter is it a Spirit had it any Idea of itself before it made itself If so then it existed a minute before it did exist It was and it was not at the same time And if it be the Author of its own being and of its manner of being why made it itself a Body rather than a Spirit Or else had this Atome no beginning Is it Eternal Is it Infinite Will you make a God of this Atome * The mite has eyes and turns away if it meets with such objects as may be hurtful to it place it on any thing that is black for the help of your observation and if while it is walking you lay but the least bit of Straw in its way you 'll see