A10663:875
A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soul of man With the…A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soule of man With the…
A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soul of man With the several dignities and corruptions thereunto belonging. By Edward Reynolds, late preacher to the honourable society of Lincoln's Inn: and now rector of the Church of Braunston in Northamptonshire.A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soule of man With the severall dignities and corruptions thereunto belonging. By Edvvard Reynoldes, late preacher to the honorable society of Lincoln's Inne: and now rector of the Church of Braunston in Northamptonshire.
London: printed by R. Hearne and John Norton for Robert Bostock, 1640
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Another Reason may be taken from the Nature of Mans reasonable Faculties. To every Power in Man, as God hath assigned a peculiar operation, so likewise hath he given it Objects of equal extent thereunto, which are therefore able to accomplish its natural desires, whereby ⟨p. 415⟩it fasteneth on them. And for this cause from the Nature of the Objects, we easily rise to know the Nature both of the Faculties and Essence; for from the Essence flows naturally the Faculty, from the Faculty is naturally educed the Operation, which requires naturally Objects proportional, convenient, satisfactory, and of equal extent. Where therefore no mortal object bears full convenience, nor is able to satiate and quiet the Faculty, there it and the Essence, from which it flows, are both immortal. Now we see sensitive Powers find in this life full satisfaction, as the Sight from all the Variety of Colours, the Ear of sounds, and the like: only the Reasonable Parts, the Understanding, and the Will can never be replenished in this estate of Mortality. Have they as great and wide contentments,1 as the whole frame of Nature can here afford them; still their pursuits are restless, still they find an absence and want of something, which they cannot find. Orbis Alexandro angustus; In this case every man is like Alexander. This world wherein we now converse, is too straight and empty to fill the vastness, and limit the desires of the Soul of Man. Only the sight and possession of God, the most infinite good, can satisfy our Understandings and our Wills. For both these Faculties (as all others in suo Ge•re) aim at summum. The Understanding is carried ad summam Causam to the first of Truths; the Will ad summum Bonum to the last of Ends; and therefore he only which is the First and the Last, ⟨p. 416⟩can satisfy these two searching and unquiet faculties. Hi motus Animorum a• que haec certa•ina.
Another Reason may be taken from the Nature of Mans reasonable Faculties. To every Power in Man, as God hath assigned a peculiar operation, so likewise hath hee given it Objects of equall extent thereunto, which are therefore able to accomplish its naturall desires, whereby