Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	sin_n	will_n	1,889	5	6.7849	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42215	The [French-man] and the Spaniard, or, [The two great lights] of the world, displayed in lively [characters] representing the antipathy of their humours and different dispositions [with an impartiall survey] of the customes of both those nations / by R.G., Gent.; Oposicion y conjuncion de los dos grandes luminares de la tierra. English	García, Carlos, doctor.; Gentilis, Robert.	1642 (1642)	Wing G210; ESTC R7504	61,948	291

unto it selfe by means of peace love and union the Divell strives to subject every thing under his dominion by meanes of division hatred and discord Therefore such effects being directed unto such a detestable and perverse end as destruction wee cannot attribute them to God to whom by reason of his infinite goodnesse and perfection is not onely repugnant to be authour of evill as the Apostle saith but also to will it or desire it And if any selfe-weening or peevish man should contrary this alledging the words of the Prophet who said There is no evill done in the Citie but God doth it and likewise the words of the Apostle in the ninth chapter to the Romans where he seemes to prove that God is cause of the evill which is done in the world he may satisfie himselfe with the Fathers of the Churches ordinary exposition of those places considering that in evill or sin there are two things whereof the one is the materiall of it which is the physicall action or reall execution to which God doth positively concurre it being impossible for the creature to doe any reall act without the ordinary concurrencie of the Creator Since that all that is in the world lives and is preserved through him and in this sense are to be understood those texts which prove God to be the cause of evill But the formall and malicious part of sinne as the deformity of it and privation of righteousnes depends onely from our free and absolute will and not positively from God Because if that were so God should not onely goe against his supreame perfection of being God but should also bee unjust in punishing man he not being the true and immediate cause of sinne And so we must freely confesse that the proper and essentiall cause of sinne is the maliciousnesse of our will depraved both by it selfe and by the Divels temptations And though we finde in holy Scripture that many times God punisheth one sinne with another as Pharaohs insolencie with the hardnesse of his heart the Pharisees incredulity with blindnesse we cannot for all that say that God is the authour of evill because that although those which God punisheth with considered in themselves are sinnes yet if they bee considered as effects of the divine justice to which belongeth to reward and punish every one according to their desert they ought not nor cannot be so called And so our conclusion alwayes remains true that enmities warres discords divisions and other such like accidents are workes of the Divell CHAP. III. That it is monstrous in Nature for one to persecute another that is of his owne likenesse ANY speculative understanding will bee quite astonished and full of wonder if hee consider the abysse of chimeraes falshoods deceits persecutions and garboiles which pride and ambition doe breed in the heart of man to so detestable and perverse an end as the destruction of the particular creatures of the same kinde A thing so horrible monstrous and terrible that it goeth beyond the nature of the fiercest beasts of the earth amongst which you shall hardly finde any that will abuse and persecute another of the same species or kinde And therefore he said very well who left it to us for a Proverbe that man with man is like unto a Wolfe since that this beasts cruelty in tearing in peeces a poore Kid is not greater then the rigor and tyranny of a bruitish and soule-lesse man against another man Another said that one man against another is a Lion and a third who would expresse the venome of his heart said that one man towards another is a man declaring unto us that his fiercenesse surpasseth the fiercenesse not onely of these but also of all other beasts whereof there is not any that abhorreth from the preservation of its owne species and nature And if we doe in truth consider this point we shall finde that among creatures there is not any which hath more ground or reason to humble it selfe and to love the particulers of its kinde nor lesse reason to grow proud and persecute them then man Since that pride hath alwaies for her seale some noblenesse prerogative or excellency whereupon she builds her close pretences and presumptions And man is farre from all these his composition and first frame being of the lowest basest grossest and vilest drosse of the world which is the earth out of the slime and ordure of which man was framed And therefore the monstrousnesse and violence of pride is no lesser in man then if one would exalt the element of the earth above the heavens And if we will shew his begining state and end we shall plainly see this truth reduced into a short and compendious definition which most patient Iob made of him saying that the nobility of man consistes in being borne of woman to whom the expositers upon this text doe attribute variablenesse fragility imprudency and all manner of imperfections In having a short life and full of miseries calamities and afflictions there being none of Adams children that can glory of having had the least shadow of pleasure and content which he hath not paid for with a thousand griefes and bitternesses in a most incredible inconstancy and variability because he never continueth in the same state and purpose but is wholly a disordered and confused chaos which hath no determined nor sure end And finally it is a brickle and unsafe vessell into which as the Prophet David saith the treasure of life is deposited and which one and that a very small stone is able to breake and reduce to nothing Because that though his phantasticall prides be all of gold and silver and doe reach up to the heavens yet the foot and basis thereof being of clay like Nebuchadnezars statue some smal stone of weaknesse or disaster hitting against it they straightwaies come downe with their whole frame and all their chimeraes and fall into a poore and stinking grave so that if we consider him from the top to the toe we shall finde nothing in him but is contrary and repugnant to pride Whence followeth that man having no ground whereupon hee may grow proud he cannot have any for the persecuting of others persecution being the daughter of ambition and arrogancy but that the basenesse of his composition should rather invite him to peace amity and love And though these forealledged reasons should not move man to withdraw himself from such an execrable and cruell montrousnesse as to be the butcherer of his owne kinde yet his equality and similitude with all the rest might move him to procure peace and amity the holy Ghost in S●lomons bookes and nature it selfe teaching us that all thinges doe love their like which being most true it shall also bee more reprehēsible in man to persecute one another then in any other creature seeing that amongst all the created species there is not any that hath its particulars more like equall and proportionable then man reserving its