Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	day_n	earth_n	light_n	7,461	5	6.5502	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53058	Philosophical letters, or, Modest reflections upon some opinions in natural philosophy maintained by several famous and learned authors of this age, expressed by way of letters / by the thrice noble, illustrious, and excellent princess the Lady Marchioness of Newcastle.	Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of, 1624?-1674.	1664 (1664)	Wing N866; ESTC R19740	305,809	570

as to be before for if we will do this we must not allow that the Eternal Son of God is Coeternal with the Father because nature requires a Father to exist before the Son but in God is no time but all Eternity and if you allow that God hath made some Creatures as Supernatural Spirits to live Eternally why should he not as well have made a Creature from all Eternity for Gods making is not our making he needs no Priority of Time But you may say the Comparison of the Eternal Generation of the Son of God is Mystical and Divine and not to be applied to natural things I answer The action by which God created the World or made Nature was it natural of supernatural surely you will say it was a Supernatural and God-like action why then will you apply Natural Rules to a God-like and Supernatural Action for what Man knows how and when God created Nature You will say the Scripture doth teach us that for it is not Six thousand years when God created this World I answer the holy Scripture informs us onely of the Creation of this Visible World but not of Nature and natural Matter for I firmly believe according to the Word of God that this World has been Created as is described by Moses but what is that to natural Matter There may have been worlds before as many are of the opinion that there have been men before Adam and many amongst Divines do believe that after the destruction of this World God will Create a new World again as a new Heaven and a new Earth and if this be probable or at least may be believed without any prejudice to the holy Scripture why may it not be probably believed that there have been other worlds before this visible World for nothing is impossible with God and all this doth derogate nothing from the Honour and Glory of God but rather increases his Divine Power But as for the Creation of this present World it is related that there was first a rude and indigested Heap or Chaos without form void and dark and God said Let it be light Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered together and let the dry Land appear Let the Earth bring forth Grass the Herb yielding seed and the Fruit-tree yielding Fruit after its own kind and let there be Lights in the Firmament the one to rule the Day and the other the Night and let the Waters bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath life and let the Earth bring forth living Creatures after its kinde and at last God said Let us make Man and all what was made God saw it was good Thus all was made by Gods Command and who executed his Command but the Material servant of God Nature which ordered her self-moving matter into such several Figures as God commanded and God approved of them And thus Madam I verily believe the Creation of the World and that God is the Sole and omnipotent Creator of Heaven and Earth and of all Creatures therein nay although I believe Nature to have been from Eternity yet I believe also that God is the God and Author of Nature and has made Nature and natural Matter in a way and manner proper to his Omnipotency and Incomprehensible by us I will pass by natural Arguments and Proofs as not belonging to such an Omnipotent Action as for example how the nature of relative terms requires that they must both exist at one point of Time viz. a Master and his Servant and a King and his Subjects for one bearing relation to the other can in no ways be considered as different from one another in formiliness or laterness of Time but as I said these being meerly natural things I will nor cannot apply them to Supernatural and Divine Actions But if you ask me how it is possible that Nature the Effect and Creature of God can be Eternal without beginning I will desire you to answer me first how a Creature can be Eternal without end as for example Supernatural Spirits are and then I will answer you how a Creature can be Eternal without beginning For Eternity consists herein that it has neither beginning nor end and if it be easie for God to make a Being without end it is not difficult for Him to make a Being without beginning One thing more I will add which is That if Nature has not been made by God from all Eternity then the Title of God as being a Creator which is a Title and action upon which our Faith is grounded for it is the first Article in our Creed has been accessory to God as I said not full Six thousand years ago but there is not anything accessory to God he being the Perfection himself But Madam all what I speak is under the liberty of Natural Philosophy and by the Light of Reason onely not of Revelation and my Reason being not infallible I will not declare my Opinions for an infallible Truth Neither do I think that they are offensive either to Church or State for I submit to the Laws of One and believe the Doctrine of the Other so much that if it were for the advantage of either I should be willing to sacrifice my Life especially for the Church yea had I millions of Lives and every Life was either to suffer torment or to live in ease I would prefer torment for the benefit of the Church and therefore if I knew that my Opinions should give any offence to the Church I should be ready every minute to alter them And as much as I am bound in all duty to the obedience of the Church as much am I particularly bound to your Ladiship for your entire love and sincere affection towards me for which I shall live and die MADAM Your most faithful Friend and humble Servant IV. MADAM I Have chosen in the first place the Work of that famous Philosopher Hobbs called Leviathan wherein I find he sayes That the cause of sense or sensitive perception is the external body or Object which presses the Organ proper to each Sense To which I answer according to the ground of my own Philosophical Opinions That all things and therefore outward objects as well as sensitive organs have both Sense and Reason yet neither the objects nor the organs are the cause of them for Perception is but the effect of the Sensitive and rational Motions and not the Motions of the Perception neither doth the pressure of parts upon parts make Perception for although Matter by the power of self-motion is as much composeable as divideable and parts do joyn to parts yet that doth not make perception nay the several parts betwixt which the Perception is made may be at such a distance as not capable to press As for example Two men may see or hear each other at a distance and yet there may be other bodies between them

have an Idea of God yet your Author is pleased to say That he will not stick to affirm that the Idea or notion of God is as easie as any notion else whatsoever and that we may know as much of him as of any thing else in the world To which I answer That in my opinion God is not so easily to be known by any creature as man may know himself nor his attributes so well as man can know his own natural proprieties for Gods Infinite attributes are not conceivable and cannot be comprehended by a finite knowledg and understanding as a finite part of nature for though nature's parts may be Infinite in number and as they have a relation to the Infinite whole if I may call it so which is Infinite nature yet no part is infinite in it self and therefore it cannot know so much as whole nature and God being an Infinite Deity there is required an Infinite capacity to conceive him nay Nature her self although Infinite yet cannot posibly have an exact notion of God by reason of the disparity between God and her self and therefore it is not probable if the Infinite servant of God is not able to conceive him that a finite part or creature of nature of what kind or sort soever whether Spiritual as your Author is pleased to name it or Corporeal should comprehend God Concerning my belief of God I submit wholly to the Church and believe as I have bin informed out of the Athanasian Creed that the Father is Incomprehensible the Sonne Incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible and that there are not three but one Incomprehensible God Wherefore if any man can prove as I do verily believe he cannot that God is not Incomprehensible he must of necessity be more knowing then the whole Church however he must needs dissent from the Church But perchance your Author may say I raise new and prejudicial opinions in saying that matter is eternal I answer The Holy Writ doth not mention Matter to be created but onely Particular Creatures as this Visible World with all its Parts as the history or description of the Creation of the World in Genesis plainly shews For God said Let it it be Light and there was Light Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and let it divide the Waters from the Waters and Let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the dry Land appear and let the Earth bring forth Grass the Herb yielding Seed and the Fruit-tree yielding Fruit after his kind and let there be Lights in the Firmament of the Heaven to divide the Day from the Night c. Which proves that all creatures and figures were made and produced out of that rude and desolate heap or chaos which the Scripture mentions which is nothing else but matter by the powerful Word and Command of God executed by his Eternal Servant Nature as I have heretofore declared it in a Letter I sent you in the beginning concerning Infinite Nature But least I seem to encroach too much upon Divinity I submit this Interpretation to the Church However I think it not against the ground of our Faith for I am so far from maintaining any thing either against Church or State as I am submitting to both in all duty and shall do so as long as I live and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant IV. MADAM SInce your Worthy and Learned Author is pleased to mention That an ample experience both of Men and Things doth enlarge our Understanding I have taken occasion hence to enquire how a mans Understanding may be encreased or inlarged The Understanding must either be in Parts or it must be Individable as one if in Parts then there must be so many Understandings as there are things understood but if Individable and but one Understanding then it must dilate it self upon so many several objects I for my part assent to the first That Understanding increases by Parts and not by Dilation which Dilation must needs follow if the Mind or Understanding of man be Indivisible and without parts but if the Mind or Soul be Individable then I would fain know how Understanding Imagination Conception Memory Remembrance and the like can be in the mind You will say perhaps they are so many faculties or properties of the Incorporeal Mind but I hope you do not intend to make the Mind or Soul a Deity with so many attributes Wherefore in my opinion it is safer to say That the Mind is composed of several active Parts but of these Parts I have treated in my Philosophy where you will find that all the several Parts of Nature are Living and Knowing and that there is no part that has not Life and Knowledg being all composed of rational and sensitive matter which is the life and soul of Nature and that Nature being Material is composable and dividable which is the cause of so many several Creatures where every Creature is a part of Nature and these Infinite parts or creatures are Nature her self for though Nature is a self-moving substance and by self-motion divides and composes her self several manners or ways into several forms and figures yet being a knowing as well as a living substance she knows how to order her parts and actions wisely for as she hath an Infinite body or substance so she has an Infinite life and knowledg and as she hath an Infinite life and knowledg so she hath an infinite wisdom But mistake me not Madam I do not mean an Infinite Divine Wisdom but an Infinite Natural Wisdom given her by the Infinite bounty of the Omnipotent God but yet this Infinite Wisdom Life and Knowledg in Nature make but one Infinite And as Nature hath degrees of matter so she has also degrees and variety of corporeal motions for some parts of matter are self-moving and some are moved by these self-moving parts of matter and all these parts both the moving and moved are so intermixed that none is without the other no not in any the least Creature or part of Nature we can conceive for there is no Creature or part of Nature but has a comixture of those mentioned parts of animate and inanimate matter and all the motions are so ordered by Natures wisdom as not any thing in Nature can be otherwise unless by a Supernatural Command and Power of God for no part of corporeal matter and motion can either perish or but rest one part may cause another part to alter its motions but not to quit motion no more then one part of matter can annihilate or destroy another and therefore matter is not meerly Passive but always Active by reason of the thorow mixture of animate and inanimate matter for although the animate matter is onely active in its nature and the inanimate passive yet because they are so closely united and mixed together that they make but one body the parts of the animate

Power as in the Purity And the disparity between the Natural and Divine Infinite is such as they cannot joyn mix and work together unless you do believe that Divine Actions can have allay But you may say Purity belongs onely to natural things and none but natural bodies can be said purified but God exceeds all Purity 'T is true But if there were infinite degrees of Purity in Matter Matter might at last become Immaterial and so from an Infinite Material turn to an Infinite Immaterial and from Natrue to be God A great but an impossible Change For I do verily believe that there can be but one Omnipotent God and he cannot admit of addition or diminution and that which is Material cannot be Immaterial and what is Immaterial cannot become Material I mean so as to change their natures for Nature is what God was pleased she should be and will be what she was until God be pleased to make her otherwise Wherefore there can be no new Creation of matter motion or figure nor any annihilation of any matter motion or figure in Nature unless God do create a new Nature For the changing of Matter into several particular Figures doth not prove an annihilation of particular Figures nor the cessation of particular Motions an annihilation of them Neither doth the variation of the Onely Matter produce an annihilation of any part of Matter nor the variation of figures and motions of Matter cause an alteration in the nature of Onely Matter Wherefore there cannot be new Lives Souls or Bodies in Nature for could there be any thing new in Nature or any thing annihilated there would not be any stability in Nature as a continuance of every kind and sort of Creatures but there would be a confusion between the new and old matter motions and figures as between old and new Nature In truth it would be like new Wine in old Vessels by which all would break into disorder Neither can supernatural and natural effects be mixt together no more then material and immaterial things or beings Therefore it is probable God has ordained Nature to work in herself by his Leave Will and Free Gift But there have been and are still strange and erroneous Opinions and great differences amongst Natural Philosophers concerning the Principles of Natural things some will have them Atoms others will have the first Principles to be Salt Sulphur and Mercury some will have them to be the four Elements as Fire Air Water and Earth and others will have but one of these Elements also some will have Gas and Blas Ferments Idea's and the like but what they believe to be Principles and Causes of natural things are onely Effects for in all Probability it appears to humane sense and reason that the cause of every particular material Creature is the onely and Infinite Matter which has Motions and Figures inseparably united for Matter Motion and Figure are but one thing individable in its Nature And as for Immaterial Spirits there is surely no such thing in Infinite Nature to wit so as to be Parts of Nature for Nature is altogether Material but this opinion proceeds from the separation or abstraction of Motion form Matter viz. that man thinks matter and motion to be dividable from each other and believes motion to be a thing by its self naming it an Imaterial thing which has a being but not a bodily substance But various and different effects do not prove a different Matter or Cause neither do they prove an unsetled Cause onely the variety of Effects hath obscured the Cause from the several parts which makes Particular Creatures partly Ignorant and partly knowing But in my opinion Nature is material and not any thing in Nature what belongs to her is immaterial but whatsoever is Immaterial is Supernatural Therefore Motions Forms Thoughts Ideas Conceptions Sympathies Antipathies Accidents Qualities as also Natural Life and Soul are all Material And as for Colours Sents Light Sound Heat Cold and the like those that believe them not to be substances or material things surely their brain or heart take what place you will for the forming of Conceptions moves very Irregularly and they might as well say Our sensitive Organs are not material for what Objects soever that are subject to our senses cannot in sense be denied to be Corporeal when as those things that are not subject to our senses can be conceived in reason to be Immaterial But some Philosophers striving to express their wit obstruct reason and drawing Divinity to prove Sense and Reason weaken Faith so as their mixed Divine Philosophy becomes meer Poetical Fictions and Romancical expressions making material Bodies immaterial Spirits and immaterial Spirits material Bodies and some have conceived some things neither to be Material nor Immaterial but between both Truly Madam I wish their Wits had been less and their Judgments more as not to jumble Natural and Supernatural things together but to distinguish either clearly for such Mixtures are neither Natural nor Divine But as I said the Confufion comes from their too nice abstractions and from the separation of Figure and Motion from Matter as not conceiving them individable but if God and his servant Nature were as Intricate and Confuse in their Works as Men in their Understandings and Words the Universe and Production of all Creatures would soon be without Order and Government so as there would be a horrid and Eternal War both in Heaven and in the World and so pittying their troubled Brains and wishing them the Light of Reason that they may clearly perceive the Truth I rest MADAM Your real Friend and faithful Servant III. MADAM IT seems you are offended at my Opinion that Nature is Eternal without beginning which you say is to make her God or at least coeqnal with God But if you apprehend my meaning rightly you will say I do not For first God is an Immaterial and Spiritual Infinite Being which Propriety God cannot give away to any Creature nor make another God in Essence like to him for Gods Attributes are not communicable to any Creature Yet this doth not hinder that God should not make Infinite and Eternal Matter for that is as easie to him as to make a Finite Creature Infinite Matter being quite of another Nature then God is to wit Corporeal when God is Incorporeal the difference whereof I have declared in my former Letter But as for Nature that it cannot be Eternal without beginning because God is the Creator and Cause of it and that the Creator must be before the Creature as the Cause before the Effect so that it is impossible for Nature to be without a beginning if you will speak naturally as human reason guides you and bring an Argument concluding from the Priority of the Cause before the Effect give me leave to tell you that God is not tied to Natural Rules but that he can do beyond our Understanding and therefore he is neither bound up to time

extend nor can the Idea it self dilate and contract being immaterial for contraction and dilation belong onely to bodies or material beings Wherefore the comparisons betwixt Nature and a particular Creature and between God and Nature are improper much more betwixt God and Natures particular motions and figures which are various and changeable although methodical The same I may ask of the Mind of Man as I do of the Idea in the Mind Also I might ask them what they conceive the natural mind of man to be whether material or immaterial If material their opinion is rational and so the mind is dividable and composable if immaterial then it is a Spirit and if a Spirit it cannot possibly dilate nor contract having no dimension nor divisibility of parts although your Author proves it by the example of Light but I have exprest my meaning heretofore that light is divisible and if it have no dimension how can it be confined in a material body Wherefore when your Author says the mind is a substance it is to my reason very probable but not when he says it is an immaterial substance which will never agree with my sense and reason for it must be either something or nothing there being no medium between in Nature But pray mistake me not Madam when I say Immaterial is nothing for I mean nothing Natural or so as to be a part of Nature for God forbid I should deny that God is a Spiritual Immaterial substance or Being neither do I deny that we can have an Idea notion conception or thought of the Existence of God for I am of your Authors opinion That there is no Man under the cope of Heaven that doth not by the light of Nature know and believe there is a God but that we should have such a perfect Idea of God as of any thing else in the World or as of our selves as your Author says I cannot in sense and reason conceive to be true or possible Neither am I against those Spirits which the holy Scripture mentions as Angels and Devils and the divine Soul of Man but I say onely that no Immaterial Spirit belongs to Nature so as to be a part thereof for Nature is Material or Corporeal and whatsoever is not composed of matter or body belongs not to Nature nevertheless Immaterial Spirits may be in Nature although not parts of Nature But there can neither be an Immaterial Nature nor a Natural Immaterial Nay our very thoughts and conceptions of Immaterial are Material as made of self-moving Matter Wherefore to conclude these opinions in Men proceed from a Vain-glory as to have found out something that is not in Nature to which I leave them and their natural Immaterial Substances like so many Hobgoblins to fright Children withal resting in the mean time MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XIX MADAM THere are various opinions concerning the seat of Common Sense as your Author rehearseth them in his Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul But my opinion is That common sense hath also a common place for as there is not any part of the body that hath not sense and reason so sense and reason is in all parts of the body as it is observable by this that every part is subject to pain and pleasure and all parts are moveable moving and moved also appetites are in every part of the body As for example if any part itches it hath an appetite to be scratched and every part can pattern out several objects and so several touches and though the rational part of matter is mixt in all parts of the body yet it hath more liberty to make variety of Motions in the head heart liver spleen stomack bowels and the like then in the other parts of the body nevertheless it is in every part together with the sensitive but they do not move in every part alike but differ in each part more or less as it may be observed and although every part hath some difference of knowledg yet all have life and knowledg sense and reason some more some less and the whole body moves according to each part and so do all the bodily Faculties and Proprieties and not according to one single part the rational Soul being in all parts of the body for if one part of the body should have a dead Palsie it is not that the Soul is gone from that part but that the sensitive and rational matter has altered its motion and figure from animal to some other kind for certainly the rational Soul and so life is in every part as well in the Pores of the skin as in the ventricles of the brain and as well in the heel as in the head and every part of the body knows its own office what it ought to do from whence follows an agreement of all the parts And since there is difference of knowledg in every part of one body well may there be difference between several kinds and sorts and yet there is knowledg in all for difference of knowledg is no argument to prove they have no knowledg at all Wherefore I am not of the opinion that that which moves the whole body is as a Point or some such thing in a little kernel or Glandula of the Brain as an Ostrich-egge is hung up to the roof of a Chamber or that it is in the stomack like a single penny in a great Purse neither is it in the midst of the heart like a Lady in a Lobster nor in the bloud like as a Menow or Sprat in the Sea nor in the fourth Ventricle of the Brain as a lousie Souldier in a Watch-tower But you may say it is like a farthing Candle in a great Church I answer That Light will not enlighten the by Chappels of the Church nor the Quest-house nor the Belfrey neither doth the Light move the Church though it enlightens it Wherefore the Soul after this manner doth not move the corporeal body no more then the Candle moves the Church or the Lady moves the Lobster or the Sprat the Sea as to make it ebb and flow But this I desire you to observe Madam that though all the body of man or any other Creature hath sense and reason which is life and knowledg in all parts yet these parts being all corporeal and having their certain proportions can have no more then what is belonging or proportionable to each figure As for example if a Man should feed and not evacuate some ways or other he could not live and if he should evacuate and not feed he could not subsist wherefore in all Natures parts there is ingress and egress although not always perceived by one creature as Man but all exterior objects do not enter into Man or any other Creature but are figured by the rational and some by the sensitive parts or motions in the body wherefore it is not rational to believe that exterior objects take up any more room then if