Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	according_a	create_v	great_a	74	3	2.1091	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55818	A discourse for the vindicating of Christianity from the charge of imposture Offer'd, by way of letter, to the consideration of the deists of the present age. By Humphrey Prideaux, D.D. and arch-deacon of Suffolk.	Prideaux, Humphrey, 1648-1724.	1697 (1697)	Wing P3412A; ESTC R219515	81,417	183

will but consider these following Particulars 1. Miracles are works done which are strange and amazing to us as being brought to pass out of the ordinary road and in a manner which we cannot comprehend and these are of two sorts 1. Such as exceed only the Power of Man to effect them and these we call signs or wonders And 2. Such as exceed the Power of any created Being whatsoever and these only are properly Miracles 2. Where-ever such Miracles are wrought as are of this last sort God alone must be the Author of them and therefore where-ever such are found they manifestly prove the Power of God co-operating with the Persons at whose word they are done and with whomsoever it doth thus cooperate it necessarily demonstrates their Mission from him and puts such an Authentick Seal to the Truth of the Doctrines which they teach as cannot be denied 3. Where-ever a creating Power is necessary to the effect produced or the stated Laws of Nature are altered there it is certain none but God himself can be the Author of the Work done For he alone is able to create and he having created all things according to his infinite Wisdom and given to each their proper Essence and Operations he allows none but himself to alter the Natures of them or change that Course which he hath put them into 4. But within the Laws and Powers of Nature there are abundance of things which exceed the Power of Man to effect and therefore seem as Miracles to us which may be produced by other created Beings and these are evil spirits as well as good 5. To the producing of these effects evil spirits as well as good are enabled two manner of Ways 1. By their greater Knowledge of the Powers of Nature And 2. By the greater Agency which they have to apply them to effect For 6. There are a multitude of things in Nature that those Spirits know the Nature of which we do not For their Abilities of knowing are vastly above ours as not working by the dull Tools of Earth and Clay as we do and their Experience exceedingly greater as having known the Works of God from the beginning and by long Observation pried deep into the Secrets of them If a Chymist or a Mathematician by his Skill in the Powers of Nature can do many things which to the ignorant and unlearned shall seem as Miracles as we often find how much more can those knowing Spirits do so whose Knowledge of the Powers of Nature is vastly more above all ours put together than the highest and perfectest of ours is above that of the most ignorant that lives among us But 7. As those Spirits have a vastly greater Knowledge of the Powers of Nature than we can have so also have they a vastly greater Power to apply them to effect For they are of a much greater agility in their motion of a much finer substance to penetrate into things and actuate them into operation and also of a much stronger agency or power to work than we have and which no doubt they are endowed more or less with according to the different orders and degrees in which God hath created them and by both these together that is their greater Knowledge of natural Causes and their greater Power to apply them to effect can they do a great many things within Nature's limits which exceed all the Powers of Men to effect and seem as miraculous and wonderfull unto us when ever brought to pass 8. Good Spirits never work those Miracles but in subserviency to the divine Will as they are necessary for the effecting of those things which God hath ordained by their Ministry to bring to pass And to them those Miracles mentioned in Scripture which exceed not the Power of such created Beings may be referred as the immediate Authors of them it not being likely that God would interpose his immediate Power excepting only in such cases as where there was need of it For why should the Lord himself put his hand to that work which may as well be discharged by the Ministry of his Servants 9. Evil Spirits having in a great measure the same Knowledge of Natural Causes as the good and the like Power to bring them to effect can also work the like wonders and by God are often permitted so to do both for the trial of Men and also for other good Causes which to him of his infinite Wisdom seem fitting and we have a plain instance of it in the Case of Job 10. Evil Spirits have not only this Power of working the like Wonders which Good Spirits do but also another which Good Spirits will never make use of that is by juggle delusion and deceit to imitate those true and proper Miracles which none but God himself can really effect And thus by the delusion of the Devil was a cheat put upon Saul in the raising of Samuel to him from the dead For really to raise Samuel from the dead none but God could and therefore that appearance which Saul saw was no more than a false appearance contrived by the Devil to put a cheat and delusion upon him And of this same sort may we reckon the Miracles which Jannes and Jambres wrought in imitation of Moses For to turn a Rod into a Serpent and Water into Blood or to cause Frogs to come up upon the Land in which three Particulars they did the same thing by their inchantments that Moses did by the hand of God are Works which if really done require the creating Power to bring them to effect which none but God hath and therefore in this case the Devil acted for them not by his effecting but only by his deluding Power And such Miracles the Scripture calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Lying or false Miracles which are not really wrought but only made so to appear by the juggle and delusion of Satan 11. Those cheats and delusions of the Devil whereby he imitates the true and real Miracles of God which he cannot work are only in transient Effects like those of Jugglers upon a Stage never in such as are lasting and permanent And where the Effect is totally transient God's Works are often so far above the Devil's Imitation that even in these there will be still a multitude of Particulars wherein he can have no power as much as by juggle or delusion to do any thing like unto them 12. Whatsoever signs or wonders are wrought by Magicians or false Prophets must be referred to one of these two Heads that is that they are either the Devil's Works or the Devil's Delusions and the Scriptures which tell us of Magicians and false Prophets working such signs and wonders do in many places referr them hereto 13. Those signs or wonders which are really wrought by the Devil and his Evil Spirits are to be distinguished from those which are wrought by the Power of Angels or Good Spirits by these following Marks 1. That Angels