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soul_n matter_n physical_a privation_n 64 3 15.9121 5 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A28672 The arraignment and conviction of atheism, or, An exact and clear demonstration by natural arguments that there is a God presented to the view of all, but especially the learned / by Joshua Bonhome. Bonhome, Joshua. 1679 (1679) Wing B3593; ESTC R24212 68,915 170

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ought always to be before the privation For Example The Sight before Blindness Life before Death and that consequently the Light was before Darkness But I answer first That all Philosophers agree that all Physical Privations are before the Forms whereof they are privations because they are privations of future forms as logical privations are privations of forms past And thus the seminal matter hath the privation of the Soul before it hath the Soul it self and every physical matter hath the privation of the essential form before it hath such a form and in the Example alleadged above it may happen that Blindness is before the Sight Deafness before Hearing and the privation of Life before Life So the Born Blind and Deaf Man that Jesus Christ healed were Blind and Deaf before they received either Sight or Hearing And the Embryo that is to say the Infant in the Mothers Womb before it hath got perfect shape hath the privation of rational Life before ever he receives the said rational Life Secondly It is must true that when a Subject is equally susceptible of the Form and the privation of it if the Agent may produce the Subject and the Form it is then in the power of the Agent if it be a free Agent to produce the Subject with the Form or with the Privation thereof But the Earth and the Waters are Bodies equally susceptible of Light and Darkness Therefore God who is a most free Agent and who hath created the Earth the Waters and the Light may have produced the Earth and the Waters with or without Light So then seeing that by the Text it appears that Darkness was before Light we must conclude that the Earth and the Waters were produced tenebrous Finally It is most true that the Light God created is a most bright and shining Body and not an accident as I might make it appear were not the Digression too long already Now who seeth not that God may have created the Earth and the Waters before this bright and shining Body seeing he can create one Body before another By the consideration of these things it is clear that in the two alleadged verses Moses doth not set down a general Proposition of all those things God was to create afterwards but that he describes particularly the creation of Heaven of the Earth and of the Waters which were produced the Evening of the first Day Moreover It is evident that in the said verses Moses speaks not one word of a Chaos containing all Creatures pell-melled and confused together seeing there is no mention made of the Firmament nor of the Element of Fire nor of the Stars nor Plants nor Living Creatures but onely of the Imperial Heaven of the Earth and of the Waters and yet there is never a word of the Heaven and the Earth being mixed together and in the whole History of the Creation there is no mention made of the separation of Heaven from the Earth as there is of the separation of the Earth from the Waters that covered it But enough of this matter it is time to come to the Consutation of other Objections and Answers of Atheists CHAP. VI. 1. The Fifth Answer of Atheists saying That there has been from all Eternity a Matter without Form 2. The proof that there hath not been from all Eternity a Matter without Form and that the Matter could not produce the Forms 3. That the Eternal Atomes by a casual concourse have not made and disposed the World 4. That the Forms cannot have been produced but by God 1. THe Fifth Answer of Atheists is That indeed the World has not been from all Eternity in the case and state it is now and that from all Eternity there hath been no Chaos but that there hath been from all Eternity a Matter without Form and that afterwards out of this Matter all Forms have been produced which being joyned with the Matter have framed all Corporal Creatures and made the World in the case and state it is now The Epicures following the Opinion of their Masters Democritus and Epicurus have specified and determined what that Matter was to wit the Atomes which in time by a casual and accidental concourse have made up the World in the state it is now The Reply 2. Against this Answer I say That if there had been from all Eternity a Matter without Form it would follow that the pretended Forms of Heaven the Stars and the Elements as well as the Forms of Plants and Living Creatures should have been after the Matter and consequently would have had a beginning and having not had beginning of themselves seeing that nothing produces it self they would have been necessarily produced in time by another and that other would be necessarily either the the Matter or some other thing differing from the Matter Now these Forms cannot have been produced in time neither by the Matter nor by any other thing differing from the Matter unless it be by God himself which I prove thus If any Eternal Matter had produced these Forms in time it would follow necessarily that before the product●● of the same a time either finite or in●●nite should have passed not a 〈◊〉 time because betwixt that which is from all Eternity as the Matter is supposed by them to be and that which is not from all Eternity as these Forms or the Productions of the same the difference is greater than of a finite time And Moreover It would follow that a finite time such as that which should have passed since the productions of these Forms added to a finite time such as that which should have passed before the production of these Forms would make up an infinite time or an infinite duration such as the Eternity of the Matter would be which is impossible Neither did an infinite time pass before the production of these Forms for how should it come to pass that the Matter having been an infinite time all alone without acting would produce them afterwards Is it not a constant and true Maxime that Idem qua Idem semper facit Idem when it is not a free and intellectual Agent when there is no impedement and the subjects which it works about are not different Now Matter being not a free and intellectual Agent and finding no impediment nor different subjects seeing it is supposed to be all alone before the productions of these Forms it follows necessarily it hath always done the same thing and consequently that it hath not remained a time either finite or infinite to produce these Forms if it may have produced them Moreover All Men know that Causa naturaliis agit a dextremum suae potentiae that is to say Natural Causes act and work as much as they can For Example The Sun shines as much as it can the Fire heats with all its strength and 't is most true that Causa necessaria positis omnibus requisitis ad agendum sublatis impedimentis necessario agit That