A10663:986
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.
CHAP. XL. Of the Actions of the Understanding upon the Will, with respect to the End and Means. The Power of the Understanding over the Will, not Commanding, but directing the Objects of the Will to be good and convenient. Corrupt Will looks only at Good present. Two Acts of the Understanding, Knowledge and Consideration. It must also be possible, and with respect to happiness Immortal. Ignorance and Weakness in the Understanding, in proposing the right means to the last End.
CHAP. XL. Of the Actions of the Vnderstanding upon the Will, with respect to the End and Means. The Power of the Vnderstanding over the Will, not Commanding, but directing the Objects of the Will to bee good and convenient. Corrupt Will lookes only at Good present. Two Acts of the Vnderstanding, Knowledge and Consideration. It must also be possible, and with respect to happinesse Immortall. Ignorance and Weaknesse in the Understanding, in proposing the right means to the last End.
Hitherto of the Actions of the Understanding, Ad extra, in regard of an Object. Those Ad Intra, in regard of the Will: Wherein the Understanding is a Minister o• Counsellor to it, are either to furnish it with an End, whereon to fasten its desires: or to direct it in the means conducible to that end. For the Will alone is a blind Faculty; and therefore as it cannot see the right Good it ought to affect without the Assistance of an Informing Power. So neither can it see the right way it ought to take for procuring that Good without the direction ⟨p. 518⟩of a Conducting power. As it hath not Judgment to discover an End: So neither hath it Discourse to judge of the right Means, whereby that may be attained. So that all the Acts of the Will necessarily presuppose some precedent guiding Acts in the Understanding, whereby they are pro portioned to the Rules of right Reason. This Operation of the Understanding is usually by the School-men called Imperium, or Mandatum, a Mandate or Command; because it is a Precept, to which the will ought to be obedient. For the Rules of Living and Doing well, are the Statutes (as it were) and Dictates of right Reason. But yet it may not hence be concluded that the Understanding hath any Superiority, in regard of Dominion over the Will; though it have Priority in regard of Operation. The Power of the Understanding over the Will, is only a Regulating and Directing, it is no Constraining or Compulsive Power. For the Will always is Domina sorum actuum: The Mistress of her own Operation: For Intellectus non imperat, sed solummdò significat voluntatem imperantis. It doth only intimate unto the Will, the Pleasure and Law of God: some seeds whereof remain in the Nature of man. The Precepts then of right Reason are not therefore Commands, because they are proposed by way of Man date; but therefore they are in that manner proposed, because they are by Reason apprehended to be the Commands of a Divine Superior Power. And therefore in the breach of any such Dictates we are not said properly to offend our Understanding;