The Female Physician: Containing All The Diseases Incident To That Sex, In Virgins, Wives, And Widows Together With Their Causes And Symptoms
9781465654014
400 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
REASON, and the mere Contemplation of Nature (abstracted from the Light and Assistance of Revelation or Faith) afford us sufficient convincing Arguments, for the Existence of this great and incomprehensible Being; as Heathens themselves do testify. ACCORDING to Plato (that most excellent Heathenish Divine) Philosophical Demonstrations are the only Catharticks (i. e.Purgers) of the Soul; being the most proper means to cleanse it from Error, and give us an exact Relish of Sacred Truths. Wherefore I shall strictly confine myself to These, in proving the Being of this Existence, from the Maxims of all the four principal Sects of Heathen Philosophers; which I shall discuss in the briefest Terms, by only touching upon a few of their respective Proofs; viz. THE Naturalist insists chiefly upon three Heads; That of Motion, the Final, and the Efficient Cause. UPON the Axiom of Motion, that Sect could not exceed, or go beyond the Primum Mobile among created Beings; and therefore allows, that there is something above it, which moves itself and is not moved by Another. UPON that of the Final Cause, they could find no created Being capable of directing that Nature, which directs and appoints allCreatures to aim at some peculiar End; and thence conclude, that this Nature is directed by something superior to itself. UPON that of the Efficient Cause, they confess, from the many Vicissitudes of created Beings, that they’ve all had a Beginning: and (because no Beginning can be without an Efficient) acknowledge, that something more excellent than all created Beings, hath created them. THE Metaphysician useth a vast Variety of sublime Arguments; whereof I shall only give a few Instances: viz. I. THAT every finite Being must needs proceed from something else, limiting it in that Finiteness, in which its Nature conflicts. II. THAT all Multitude must proceed from Unity, as the Motions of the lower Orbs proceed from that of the one highest; or as the many particular distinct Actions and different Motions of the Man, proceed from (their Superior) the Soul. III. THAT the Subordination of the Creatures, one serving another, and all concurring to the Common Good, must needs proceed from the Disposal of some most wise Governour. IV. THAT the wonderful and incomparable Art, observable in the Make and Form of every the minutest Part of the least and most despicable Creature, must necessarily proceed from some very great and omnipotent Artificer. V. THIS Sect acknowledges also the Immortality of the Soul, as Cicero witnesses; because it is an immaterial Substance, and independent of the Body: And consequently they allow it to proceed from an immortal Author, and to return to the same, after aDissolution from the Body.
