Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	able_a	account_n	act_n	15	3	4.7734	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49903	Parrhasiana, or, Thoughts upon several subjects, as criticism, history, morality, and politics by Monsieur Le Clerk ... ; done into English by ****; Parrhasiana. English	Le Clerc, Jean, 1657-1736.	1700 (1700)	Wing L823; ESTC R16664	192,374	324

damns no Body meerly for having sinned but for having not repented If he has made 'em frail he only requires of 'em what the frailty of their Nature is capable of Besides it was not necessary that God should prevent or stop Moral and Physical Evils which are the Effects or Punishments of Men's Vices to be accounted a benign Being and a Lover of Virtue That we may be convinced of it let us examine 'em singly But we must raise ourselves above the Notions of the Vulgar concerning the Duration and Greatness of the Evils which happen either during the whole Life of each particular Man or all the time God will be pleased that this Earth shall continue To give an acount of the Conduct of an infinite Being as much as it is possible for us to do we must as it were forget that we are limited and place ourselves if I may be allowed to say so in the room of him who is Infinite Or else we shall not be able to defend his Cause or give any good account of what he does God does not act by the limited and weak Notions of Men which are the Rules of their Conduct which made him say by a Prophet That his Ways are not our Ways nor his Thoughts our Thoughts The physical Evils we suffer seem to us to be intolerably long if they last as long as we live or only some Years We complain and impatiently cry out that God delays too long to help us especially if those Evils are very violent But if we put together all the Evils which have happen'd and shall happen to Mankind whilst this Earth subsists our weak Imagination is troubled and terrified and we are apt to think that he who governs the World has scarce any care of us and is nothing less than a bountiful Being But if the Almighty should all of a sudden raise our Minds to a State of Perfection whereby we might have a clear view of the Duration of the Earth such as it is when compared with Eternity and see the moment it begun and the moment it will cease to be that length of time which frightens us would disappear and we would say that there is an infinitely less proportion between It and Eternity than there is between one Minute and a Hundred Millions of Years Then the Evils which now extort so bitter Complaints from us and seem to us to be so dreadful would not move us in the least because of their short duration Among Men if a Child be sick they who have him under Cure do but laugh at him when he complains of the Bitterness of a Remedy which they give him because they know that in a very short time he will be cured by it There is an infinite greater disproportion between God and the most understanding Men than there is between 'em and the most simple Children So that we cannot reasonably wonder that God should look upon the Miseries we suffer as almost nothing since he only has a compleat Idea of a Eternity and looks upon the beginning and end of our Sufferings as being infinitely nearer than the beginning and end of one Minute We ought to reason after the same manner a concerning Vices and vicious Actions which last not long with respect to God If a Clock-maker should make a Pendulum which being once wound up would go right for a Year together abating two or three Seconds which would not be equal when it begins to go would any one say that such a Clock-maker is no exact and skilful Artist In like manner if one Day rectifies for all Eternity the Disorders which the ill use of Mens Liberty has been the cause of will any Body wonder that God made 'em not to cease during the moment Men lived on the Earth Our Origenist would go on still and say But I perceive that the Manichees will object to me the everlasting Punishments with which God threatens impenitent Sinners in the Scripture that is to say the greatest part of Men. I don't deny but that Christ threatens the Wicked with an Eternal Fire and I will not insist on the Ambiguity of those words but how do the Manichees know that the supreme Law-giver of the World has not the Right of remitting the Punishments where-with he threatens the Wicked when he shall think fit When a Sovereign Prince condemns any one to a perpetual Imprisonment he always expresses himself after an absolute manner but he does not tie his hands so as not to be able to remit Punishment of those whom he has condemned When God promises something to his Creatures his Supreme Goodness and Faithfulness oblige him to make it good and notwithstanding the infinite Distance there is between him and us we might justly complain that we were deceived if he did not perform his Promise But if after he has threatned free Creatures to keep 'em in awe and begun to punish them without giving 'em any Hopes of seeing an end of their Punishments he thinks they have suffered enough and makes 'em afterwards eternally Happy who can complain of him Is there any thing in it that is unworthy of the Divine Goodness and is not such a Notion very agreeable to the Idea we have of an infinite Mercy which consequently is not to end with the short duration of Mens Lives to give way to an eternal Severity There is no need our Origenist should speak any longer on this Subject What he has said is sufficient to stop the Mouth of the Manichees and I do not design to shew that his Opinion is a plausible one by enlarging upon it and confirming it with such Arguments as in all likelihood Origen used to confirm his Opinion I have had no other Design than to shew that the Manichees would have no cause to triumph over Humane Reason if they should have to do with such Men as could but defend themselves as well as Origen whose Opinion is notwithstanding rejected by every Body After all there is no Comparison to be made between the Opinions of the Origenists as I have fairly represented 'em and Manicheism or the Doctrine of the Two Principles The latter is altogether inconsistent with the Christian Religion one Essential Article whereof is to acknowledge but one God Creator of all Men whereas Origen's Opinion may be consistent with the Belief of all the Essential Articles of Religion That Great Man was never call'd a Heretick for it whilst he lived and it would be very hard to declare him Damned after his Death meerly because of that single Opinion Besides since the Manichees must be confuted by Reason rather than Revelation the greatest part whereof they rejected it must be confest that Origen's Method being not contrary to Reason may be made used of in such a Case as this If any one at this day could not be reclaimed any other way as it might happen it would not be amiss to argue with him according to this Method since it