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A62254 An antidote against poyson, or, An answer to the Brief notes upon the creed of St. Athanasius, by an anonimous author by J. Savage ... Savage, J. (John), 1645-1721. 1690 (1690) Wing S768; ESTC R19099 21,469 17

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the Father was not the Cause and the Son the Effect for all Causes produce their Effects by the Mediation of an Action whereof the Cause is the Origine and the Effects is the term wh●ch receives the action and subjects it in it self as the Philosophers teach Now the Eternal Son of God was produced by an act of the Divine Understanding which doth not operate by acts distinct from it self as Men and Angels do but all acts of the Divine Intellect and Will have a real identity with the Divine Nature and Essence of God as the Divines teach for else if God should understand by distinct acts those acts must inform the Divine Understanding which would make a change in God and so destroy his Immutability as is apparent The same with proportion is to be said of the Holy Ghost who proceeds by an act of Love from the Divine Will no less than that act of the Divine Intellect produces the Divine Word or its Hypostasis With what reason now can this Author still go on in his wilful ignorance He often saith that this Creed contains many Contradictions and as many Impossibilities as Trabsubstantiation and yet in all his Discourse he hath not alledged two Propositions with a contradictory opposition which follows out of the Doctrin of this Creed nay I confidently assert that neither he nor any of his Sect can alledge any one contradiction issuing from the same Doctrin Let the pretended contradiction be assigned and we are ready to answer it and to discover its fallacy but to blunder and vaper as this Author does that there are Two Fathers Two Sons and Three Holy Ghosts and yet prove nothing of all this is not to proceed like a Scholar much less like a Divine but is wholly loss of time How often must I inculcate this Orthodox Truth That in the ineffable Mistery of the Divine Trinity the characteristical notion of the Father is his innascibility together with his paternity and fecundity of active spiration of the Son is his filiation and fecundity of active spiration of the Holy Ghost is his passive Spiration alone These Three Persons as they mutually are correlatives to each other so they are really distinct from each other they are capable of Multiplication and constitute a number The Father hath in himself besides the relative Predicates all the absolute Predicates and Perfections that are contained in the Divine Nature and Essence all the Attributes of the Divinity The Father hath Communicated to the Son all the absolute Perfections of the Divine Nature and the notional Predicate of active Spiration To the Holy Ghost the Father and the Son have communicated all the Divinity with all the absolute Attributes and Perfections thereunto belonging So that although these three Persons are three in number yet the Divinity of them all is the self-same individual and singular Deity for the same Divine Nature that is in the Father is also in the Son and Holy Ghost Now this Author would have us to multiply the Divinity as the Persons are multiplied thereby to lead his Reader into a Labyrinth of Errors by acknowledging more Gods than one which in effect is no better than rank Paganism Must we follow the conduct of his wild Genius because he pretends to Demonstrations which in effect are meer Improbabilities or adhere to those Sacred Truths which are delivered to us by holy Writ and are backt by Divine Authority But let us proceed with him to the Incarnation of the Divine Word The Athanasian Creed from hence proceeds to the Incarnation of the Divine Word thus The right Faith is that we believe and confess that our ●ord Jesus Christ the Son of God is both God and Man To which words this Author replies That then the Lord Christ is two Persons for as he is God he is the second Person of the Trinity and as he is man a perfect man he is also a Person for a Rational Soul vitally united to a Humane Body is a Person I answer that a Rational Soul vitally united to a Humane Body is the compleat Nature of a Man compleat I say ratione naturae but to be compleat also ratione Personae you must add to this compleat Nature a subsistentia which makes up the compleat Suppositum or Hypostasis of a man ratione personae But in Christ there was no need of this Humane subsistentia for the Divine Word assumed the compleat Humane Nature not the Human Person as Nestorius said for the Humanity of Christ subsists by the Personality of the Divine Word which supplies abundantly all defects and functions which the Humane Personality would exercise were it present so that the Humane Personality would be superfluous in Christ and of no use at all To what he adds viz. Let the Athanasians then Confess that Christ was not God which is the truth Here he plainly professeth his Error and flatly denies the Divinity of Christ It is not my design to prove at large in this short Treatise the Divinity of Christ which the Divines have effectually prov'd in the matter of Incarnation I shall therefore only hint at some Particulars As the fulfilling of the Prophecies of the Old Prophets the Testimony of the Eternal Father in a Voice from Heaven This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased the often asseveration of Christ himself confirmed by many strange and prodigious Miracles and sealed by his Death the Reluctancy of Nature at his Crucifixion his Resurrection after Death which none could effect but by the mighty hand of the Omnipotent the Universal attestation of all the Apostles in Confirmation whereof they all sacrificed their Lives with other pregnant motives contained in the Sacred Word of God which are too prolix for this short Treatise all which being duly prondered and considered are able to convince not only an indifferent judgment but also the most obstinate and perversest judgment that can be if it be swayed by Reason and work them into a stedfast belief of the Divinity of Christ wherefore I shall wave in this place any further dilatation of my Discourse upon this Subject Now we proceed to examine the Hypostatical Union between the Divinity and Humanity of Christ how we can make it out that any Union can be of that Nature as to unite two Natures whereof the one is Infinite and the other Finite for the Athanasian Creed asserts that though Christ be God and Man yet he is not two but one Christ one not by Conversion of the Godhead into flesh but by taking the Manhood into God one not by confusion of substance but by Vnity of Person for as the reasonable Soul and flesh is one Man so God and Man is one Christ Against this the Deist argues that in the Personal Vnion is between Finite and Infinite which is impossible For we must either suppose that Finite and Infinite are commensurate that is equal which every one knows is false or that the Finite is
the case is very different for in the first of them which is this the Father is a Person though the Subject be the same as in the three former Propositions yet the Predicate is very different for in the first of these last Propositions the Predicate is a Person a generical term common to all Persons the Predicate of the second is also a Person but distinct from the former in application as the Mystery teaches so likewise the Predicate of the third is a Person but these Propositions being all affirmative cannot be verifi'd but by applying that generical Term a Person to different and distinct individuums for an affirmative Proposition cannot be true except there be an Identity between the Subject and the Predicate ex parte objecti now the Filiation is a singular individuation which cannot be identifi'd with any other Personality therefore the Propositions import a multiplicity of Persons as the three former do import a singularity of the Deity Hence it is apparent that we cannot say yet not three Persons but one Person as we say yet not three Gods but one God What follows in the Author is meer stuff and deserves no further answer for he goes upon a false supposition which no Orthodox Christian will admit namely that there are two sorts of true Gods three personal Gods and besides one Essential God whereas the Christian Faith never admitted but one true God who by his Omnipotence Created this Inferiour and Superiour Wold and by his infinite Prudence and Providence preserveth and governeth all things wherefore we deny the supposition as false and Heretical as will be obvious to any who considers what hath been already said in this Treatise especially in the first and third Observation But this great Oracle of the Deists goes on upon the subsequent passages of this Creed and particularly upon these words The Son is of the Father alone not Made nor Created but Begotten to which he answers That if the Creed-maker had spoke here of the Creation of the Son by Divine Power on the Virgin Mary it would have been true that the Son is neither Made nor Created but Begotten but then the first part of the Article would be false that the Son is of the Father alone for he that has a Father and a Mother is of Both. But since he speaks of the pretended Eternal Generation the latter part of the Article is false and inconsistent with the first part of it The meer explanation of the terms Made Created and Begotten will evacuate this difficulty That which is Made or Created proceeds from the Maker or Creator as an Effect from its Cause by the mediation of a real action or causalty between the cause and the effect that which is begotten is produced by Generation but how shall we distinguish Generation from the production of the Effect from its Cause I answer that according to the known definition admitted and approved of in the Schools of Philosophers and Divines Generation is Origo viventis à vivente à principio conjuncto in Similitudinem naturae Now to admit a real Action or Causality between the Father and the Son in the Eternal Generation of the Divine Word were to make a change in the Divine Essence ad intra of that immutable God that can admit of no change Whence it unavoidaably follows that the Eternal Son of God is neither Made nor Created but how how then can we make it appear that he is Begotten I answer because he is produced by Generation according to the definition given for he is produced by the Divine Understanding as related to all Creatures possible by a clear and conspicuous representation but especially a lively Image of all the Perfections of the Divinity which makes him to be in similitudinem naturae as I shall more largely explicate and prove in the Treatise of the Trinity which I intend shortly to bring to light But to talk of a Mother as this Author doth is an impertinent indignity offer'd to the Divine Word and savours too much of the mean thoughts of the ignorant Vulgar Next in the Athanasian Creed follows that the Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son neither Made nor Created nor Begotten but Proceeding Here this Deist Cavils first with the Holy Ghost's proceeding from the Son contrary to the Tenet of the Greek Church for which he cites that Text of Scripture John 15.26 When the Comforter is come which I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me Doth this Text prove that the Holy Ghost doth not proceed from the Son it only asserts that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father which we all grant but whether or no it proceedeth also from the Son it doth not determine but I shall prove this at large in my Treatise of the Trinity Secondly he says subjoyns this Author that the Holy Ghost is not begotten but proceeding yet he alledgeth that it is confessed by the most Learned Trinitarians that Begotten and Proceeding differ nothing at all But I would fain know who those Learned Trinitarians are for it is well known that the second Person of the Trinity therefore is Begotten because he is produced by the Understanding which represents the Deity and the Creatures possible so that by the internal vertue of his production he is intended to be in similitudinem whence he is called the Divine Word naturae whereas the Holy Ghost proceeds by the Will which is no representative Power but be proceeds by an act of Love of the same Divinity who doth not see that these two are far different from each other and this clearly solves that frivolous Discourse which follows that in counting right we should say two Father two Sons and three Holy Ghosts or Spirits for which saying there is no ground at all as appears by the difference given between Begotten and Proceeding Next in the Creed follows None is afore or after other none greater or less than another Yet the Son himself saith John 14.28 the Father is greater than 1. I answer That the Son says not this of his Divinity but being Hypostatically united to flesh he spoke it when he was in flesh of his Humanity none is afore or after other I ask says this Deist whether the Son doth not as he is a Son derive both Life and God-head from the Father I answer affirmatively But says he if the Father gave to the Son Life and Godhead he must have both before he could communicate or give either of them to the Son I answer All this argues only prioritatem originis for as much as the Father was the Origine of all that is in the Son but all was done from Eternity so there could be no prioritas temporis for before Eternity there was no time neither could there be any prioritas naturae such as there is in a Cause in respect of its Effect since