Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	heart_n	spirit_n	word_n	12,735	5	4.2755	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49314	A discourse concerning the nature of man both in his natural and political capacity, both as he is a rational creature and member of a civil society : with an examination of Mr. Hobbs's opinions relating hereunto / by Ja. Lowde ...	Lowde, James.	1694 (1694)	Wing L3299; ESTC R36487	110,040	272

Opinion of a God there would be no Idolatry nor Superstition But this Argument as it is deficient in other respects so also is it in respect of time for the Church on Earth might have been the Kingdom of Christ for the first four or five hundred Years after his Appearance in the World notwithstanding the force of this Argument For it then only began to be an Argument when the Pope began to arrogate so much Power to himself And indeed Mr. Hobs had great reason to thank the Church of Rome for affording him so much Sophistical matter to stuff his Kingdom of Darkness withal Another Artifice by which Mr. Hobs would disparage a truth that he has a mind to oppose is with a Philosophical Gravity to feign an idle and ridiculous original to which judiciously to ascribe it thus he fancies that Aristotle from the consideration of this or such like Propositions Homo est animal from the Copula in this Proposition he took occasion first to assert separate Essences Celestial Intelligences and humane Souls Leviat Latin p. 320. Another instance he gives of the false interpretation of Scripture is the asserting the immortality of the Soul and its being really distinct from the Body but now one would scarce desire a better Argument for the proof thereof than the very Answers he gives to those places of Scripture which are commonly alledg'd for it so weak and frivolous many times are they Eccles. 12. 7. The Spirit returns to God that gave it which words says he may suffer this interpretation but then they must undergo a great deal of pain and have a great deal of Patience if they suffer it One great defect which seems to run through all Mr. Hobs his Interpretations of Scripture is this that he supposes himsels on the defensive part and that all that he had to do was only to invent some frivolous Evasion or put some forc'd Interpretation upon the place and then all was done whereas he ought positively to prove that that of his was the only true and genuine sense and meaning of the place both from the generally approv'd concurrent Testimonies of the best and purest Ages from the just and proper acceptation of the words by the best and most approved Authors from the general scope and design of the Context and from the natural tendency that his Sense and Interpretation has to promote those noble ends of Vertue and Piety in the World which God and Christ design'd to carry on by the Scriptures None of which things Mr. Hobs hath as much as attempted to do The Spirit returns to God that gave it that is says he God only knows whence it comes and whither it goes And I could wish that he had been true to his own Interpretation But then how comes he so positively to assert its Mortality at present and at what Periods it must return again to Life c. Another place he says which seems to make for the immortality of the Soul is Matt. 22. 32. Where our Saviour affirms Abraham Isaac and Iacob to be alive to which he answers That they were indeed alive but not actually but as by the promise of God they were sure of Eternal Life but he also tells us That the wicked are sure of eternal Death and thus why may not the wicked be as properly said to be dead even whiles they are alive by vertue of the threatning as the Righteous can be said to be alive by vertue of the promise even then when they are suppos'd not to be at all The sum of Mr. Hobbs his Opinion herein is this he supposes the Soul not to be any thing really distinct from the Body but that it is compos'd of the purer parts of the Spirits and by consequence it dies with the Body not that it is annihilated for matter in this sense is immortal that is not naturally capable of annihilation but that upon such grand indispositions of Body which is called Death the Soul is render'd uncapable of such agitations and such reactions in which the nature of a living Creature doth consist So that according to this Opinion a Man can no more properly be said either to be alive or dead than Quicksilver may for though it be not so Organized as Mans Body is though it hath neither heart nor brain to transmit Spirits to each other and though it has not the use of Speech yet may it have a Soul as really intelligent as that of ours The greatest part of the rest of this Chapter is employ'd in confuting or exposing some Opinions of the Church of Rome yet we may observe that notwithstanding his severe handling that Church in some respects yet her Authority is then valued by him when she seems any ways to favour his Opinions thus he cites her Authority to confirm his assertion That Spirits are mere Phantasms because she in her Exorcisms calls 'em so I shall here only further observe how he hath transform'd all the Subjects of Satan into Phantasms in the beginning of his Kingdom of Darkness and in the latter end thereof has allegoriz'd all the Officers and Ministers of the Pope into mere Hobgoblins That which gave the first occasion of employing my thoughts this way was those false Opinions concerning God those various modes of Theism which now prevail in the World which seem to be nothing but Epicurism and Hobbianism transform'd into other I know not whether I may say into better shapes Now if what I here write may but give occasion to some abler Pen more fully to examine and confute those fatal Principles and I hope it will rather than a good Cause should suffer by my ill management If these Papers I say have this good effect I shall not then need to make any other Apology but think my Pains very well bestow'd FINIS AN APPENDIX TO THE Seventh Chapter I Would not there be thought in the least to favour that false and foolish that dangerous and destructive opinion of Theism an Opinion which grants indeed the Being of God and natural Religion but denies all Divine Revelation made to Mankind afterward and thus it seems a composition of the worst ingredients incident to humane Nature Pride Ignorance and Ingratitude of Pride as not duly acknowledging the frailties of humane nature of Ignorance as not fully understanding the true state and condition of laps'd Mankind of Ingratitude as not thankfully acknowledging the benefits of Divine Grace But Secondly besides these there are others who granting a Divine Revelation made to Man do yet so melt it down as it were below it self till it come to an equal temper with or very little exceed mere natural Religion 3. Others who in words acknowledge a God but denying the common Principles of all Religion the immortality of the Soul and a future State seem perfectly to entertain the Doctrine of Epicurus As for the light of Nature which these Men so much Idolize I shall grant to it as much

far as for the sake thereof to reward the Men. So that if Epicurus was vertuous beyond these degrees that we must impute to the Man rather than to the Philosopher rather to his vertuous temper than to his principles So that whatever he was as to his own person yet I believe his followers made but right consequences from his false principles when they inserr'd Let us eat and drink for to morrow we dye Nor can the particular excellencies of some of that Sect be any just vindication of any false principle or wicked practice in the first Founder of it any more than Alexander's great Courage and Conduct in War can be made use of as an argument to prove the truth of his Master Aristotle's opinion concerning the Eternity of the World Marcus Antoninus was as great an example of all natural and moral excellencies in the Sect of the Stoicks as any other could possibly be in the Sect of the Epicureans and yet in respect of any ones particular endowments being able to vindicate an error in his Founder we may say here as it was proverbially said of a desperate and ruin'd state Ne Marcus quidem And whereas 't is said That Epicurus took great satisfaction at his Death by reflecting upon his Life and his I suppose Physiological Inventions the greatest invention that he seem'd remarkable for was his solving the liberty of the Will meerly by the motion of senseless Atoms declining uncertainly from the Perpendicular now this seems no such pious invention as to take such solid comfort in at his Death I shall here only add these two general Observations First That Vertue according to his principles must be founded on very weak and uncertain grounds and reasons especially as to the more difficult duties of an holy Life they being at present both unpleasant and afterwards unrewardable So that if the Epicureans did give themselves to the practice of such Vertues out of an absolute sense of Duty or from the consideration of the excellency of the thing it self then were they the most Heroickly Vertuous not only of any sort of Philosophers but also of any other People in the world for then were they vertuous without either hopes of reward or fear of punishment Besides I know not what motions such men can have according to those principles to return to the Practice of an holy Life who by a constant and habitual course in á well regulated extravagance have made such a degree of Vice easy and pleasant to ' em Secondly Happiness according to Epicurus is impossible for he founds it in an impossible condition in rooting out all fear of Death and all doubtful suspicions that may succeed it Now the hopes and fears of future good and evil are anticipations so implanted in us that the rooting them out is a thing absolutely impossible now he tells us that we cannot attain sincere pleasure without Physiology that is I suppose such an Hypothesis of Natural Philosophy as his own which excludes all Divine Providence out of the World and takes away the immortality of the Soul Neque prodesset aliquid humanam sibi parare securitatem cum superna quae sub terrâ sunt suspecta essent Diog. Laert. Now what the Stoicks were among the Heathens that in some resemblance are the Enthusiasts among Christians and then as for the Epicureans we have a sort of Men amongst us who cannot be said so properly to resemble 'em as really to be the same Now whereas the great design of the Gospel was to root out sin and plant the most exemplary Vertue and Piety in the World the Enthusiasts instead of this make the design thereof to consist in something pretendedly above it As First In a Pompous sett of high flown Notions and speculative Truths as if the Sun of Righteousness came only to enlighten the understanding but not either to regulate the Will or warm the Affections as if it was enough to be seraphical in our understandings tho' in the mean time our Wills be vicious and irregular Though this is not so to be understood as if it was indifferent for us what we believe provided that we be careful and conscientious in the way we are in For it is impossible for us to lead a truly good and holy Life without a firm belief of the Christian Articles but then we must not rest in a bare belief of Truth for Truth without Practice becomes not only useless but of bad consequence to us Secondly The Enthusiasts place a great deal of Considence in vain pretences to Divine Revelation as if their Souls were the only Seats of the Deity and as if they were the only Ministers of State here below and Heavens great Privy Councellors As if God's written Word were only a dead Letter unless enlivened by their Interpretations all which tho' different Comments must be of greater Authority than the Text it self not only when they contradict that but also one another Thirdly The Enthusiasts entertain such an imaginary Opinion of Perfection as states 'em not only above all Humane but Divine Laws as if their Wills and Actions were the only Rules of Right and Wrong and that what ever they did was therefore good because done by them Thus are they grown such Giants in Religion as that they have baffled all checks of Conscience and Obedience to Laws which they look upon as mean and low dispensations quite to be laid aside when once Men arrive at this State of Perfection Fourthly Enthusiasm consists in an ill-guided Zeal prodigiously Partial and Indulgent to those of its own perswasion but Furious and Cruel to those who differ from ' em Now as the Stoicks pretended by their false Opinions of Humane Nature to be more than Men So the Enthusiasts by the like mistakes concerning true Religion pretend to be more than Christians tho' indeed they both come short of what they severally pretended to Having thus briefly stated the Question betwixt the Stoicks and Epicureans I shall here further enquire how far God makes use of the lower faculties of the Soul in the communications of himself to Mankind I shall not here go about to explain the manner how God now under the Gospel works upon the minds of Men by the gracious influences of his Holy Spirit for these may be more happily experienc'd than successfully explain'd however I conceive it would be a very preposterous method to do it by beginning at the lower faculties of the Soul for these are not immediately and in the first place wrought upon but by the mediation of an enlightned Understanding and a rectifi'd Will and from those Fountains is Grace and Goodness deriv'd into the Soul Thus our Remedy is apply'd in a way answerable to our Disease the Corruption and Depravation of our Nature Now this consists more especially in these two things in ignorance of the Understanding and impotence and irregularity of the Will answerably hereunto in the Restitution of Man God first