Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	action_n	good_a	sin_n	1,408	5	4.8951	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32160	More wonders of the invisible world, or, The wonders of the invisible world display'd in five parts ... : to which is added a postscript relating to a book intitled, The life of Sir William Phips / collected by Robert Calef, merchant of Boston in New England.	Calef, Robert, 1648-1719.	1700 (1700)	Wing C288; ESTC R7219	167,192	172

unto you The Devil tho superlatively Arrogant and Proud nevertheless depends on the first cause for his Being and all his Powers without whose Influx he or any other Creature cannot subsist a moment but must either return to their primitive Nothing or be continually preserved by the same Power by the which they were at first produced therefore the Beings and Powers of all Creatures because they immediately flow from God are good and consequently the simple Actions as they proceed from those Powers are in their own nature likewise good the Evil proceeding only from the Rebellious will of the Creature wherefore 't is no Paradox but a certain truth that the same Action in respect of the first cause is good but in respect of the second is Evi● for instance the act of Copulation is in it self good instituted by God and may be explicitly willed and desired by the Soul which sinneth not for exerting the simple Act but for exerting it contrary to the Laws prescrib'd by God as in Wedlock and Adultery there is the same specifical natural Action which consider'd simply as flowing from a Power given to Man by God is certainly good but considered with relation to the rebellious will of the Adulterer who lieth with his Neighbours Wife whom he is forbid to touch is a very great Evil. We may say the same of all humane Actions the Executioner and the Murtherer do the same natural Act of striking and killing The difference consists in the rectitude of the ones and depravation of the others will These things premised what more reason have we to conclude that the Devil because he shews signs and wonders to gain belief to lyes which is very contrary to the will of God must be therefore an Independent Power than that the Adulterer the Murtherer or any other sinner because their Actions being Evil of which God cannot be the cause must be Independent Beings The deceit of the last is very palpable and I doubt not but you will readily acknowledge it for it is obvious from what has been said to the meanest Capacity to distinguish between the Action it self which is good and flows from God and the Circumstances of the Action the choice whereof proceeds from the Iniquity of the Will wherein doth solely consist the Sin the parallel is so exact that I cannot see the least shadow of reason why we ought not in like manner to distinguish whatever effect is produced by the Devil To whom as to Man God having given Powers and a Will to Rule them Powers is truly and properly the cause of all the Actions in a Natural but not Moral Sense that flow from the Powers he has given Therefore the Wonder-working Power of the Devil and the effects thereof considered as Acts of one of God's Creatures are not Evil but Good the using that Power which proceeds from the Rebellion of Satan to bear testimony to a lye is that one which constitutes the Evil thereof And now I have done with your Argument wherein you have indeed shewn great skill and dexterity in turning to your Advantage what being fairly stated makes against you as the Appearance of Angels c. observing nicely the rules of Art and particularly that grand one of concealing nay dissembling the same Art as when you quote that Scripture concerning vain Philosophy of which tho altogether foreign from the matter in hand yet you intend to serve your self with the Unthinking who measure the Sense of words by their Jingle not knowing how to weigh the things they signifie and truly herein your end is very Artificial for you intend both to throw dirt at them that differ from you and at the same time to cover your self with such a subtle web through which you may see and not be seen What follows is rather a Rhetorical Lecture such as the Patriots of Sects who commonly Explain the Holy Scriptures according to their own Dogma's and so obtrude humane Invention for the pure word of God use with their Auditors to recommend any Principle they have a mind to establish than an Impartial and through disquisition of a controverted point wherefore I do not think my self obliged to take any further notice of it especially seeing truth which for the most part is little regarded in such florid Discourses and not any prejudice of Education Interest or Party did set me about this subject I have never been used to Complement in points of Controversie therefore I hope you 'l not be angry because I have given you my thoughts naked and plain I have not the least motion in my mind of accusing you of any formal design to injure Religion I only observe unto you that your over eager contention to maintain your Principle has hurried you to assert many things of much greater danger both in themselves and their consequences than those you would seem to avoid which do amount to no more then that Men being in the ordinary course of Providence the Depositories of both Divine and Humane Laws may instead of using them to preserve pervert them to destroy which indeed is very lamentable But it is the inevitable consequent of our depraved nature and cannot be wholly remedied till Sin and the grand Author of Sin the Devil be intirely conquered and God be all in all to whom with the Son and Holy Ghost be Glory for ever Amen Sir Your Affectionate Friend to serve you Boston July 25. 1694. Boston August 17. 1694. Worthy Sir YOURS of Iuly 25. being in some sort surprising to me I could do no less than say somewhat as well to vindicate my self from those many Reflections mistakes and hard sensures therein as also to vindicate what I conceive to be Important truth and to that end find it needful to repeat some part of mine Viz. Conclusion 1. That the glorious Angels have their Mission and Commission from the most High 2. That without this they cannot appear to mankind 3. That if the glorious Angels have not that power to go till commission'd or to appear to Mortals then not the fallen Angels who are held in Chains of Darkness to the Judgment of the great Day 4. That when the Almighty free Agent has a work to bring about for his own glory or Mans good he can imploy not only the Blessed Angels but evil ones in it 5. That when the Divine Being will imploy the Agency of Evil Spirits for any service 't is with him the manner how they shall exhibit themselves whether to the bodily Eye or Intellect only or whether it shall be more or less formidable To deny these three last were to make the Devil an Independent Power and consequently a God The bare recital of these is sufficient to vindicate me from that reitterated charge of denying all appearances of Angels or Devils That the good Angels cannot appear without Mission and Commission from the most high is you say more than follows from the premises but if you like not

the Witches really have such a Miraculous or Wonder-working Power And 't is remarkable that the Apostle Gal. 5.20 Reckons up Witchcraft among the Works of the flesh which were it indeed a Wonder-working Power received immediately from the Devil and wholly beyond the Power of Nature it were very improper to place it with Drunkenness Murthers Adulteries c. all manifest fleshly works 'T is also remarkable that Witchcraft is generally in Scripture joined with spiritual Whoredom i. e. Idolatry This thence will plainly appear to be the same only pretending to a sign in order to deceive seems to be yet a further degree and in this Sense Manasseh and Jezebel 2 Chron. 33.6 2 Kings 9.22 used Witchcraft and Whoredoms Nahum 3.4 The Idolatrous City is called Mistress of Witchcrafts But to instance in one place instead of many that 2 Thes. 2. from the 3 to the 12. v. particularly 9 and 10. v. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness And for this cause God shall ●●nd them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who belie●e not the tr●th c. This that then was spoken in the Prophesie of that Man of Sin that was to appear how abundantly does History testifie the fulfilment of it particularly to seduce to the Worship of Images Have not the Images been made to move to smile c. too tedious were it to mention the hundredth part of what undoubted History doth abundantly testifie And hence do set down this nineth Conclusion 9. That the Man of Sin or Seducer c. makes use of lying wonders to the end to deceive and that God in Righteous Iudgment may send strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they might be damn'd who believe not the truth c. 'T is certain that the Devil is a p●●ud Being and would be thought to have a Power equal to the Almighty and it cannot but be very grateful to him to see Mortals charging one another of doing such works by the Devil's Power as in truth is the proper prerogativ● of the Almighty Omnipotent Being The next head should have been about an Explicit Covenant between the Witch and the Devil c. But in this the whole of it I cannot perswade my self but you must be sensible of an apparent leaning to Education or tradition the Scriptures being wholly silent in it and supposing this to fall in as a dependent on what went before shall say the less to it for if the Devil has no such Power to communicate upon such compact then the whole is a Fiction tho I cannot but acknowledge you have said so much to uphold that Doctrine that I know not how any could have done more however as I said I find not my self ingaged unless Scripture proof were offered to meddle with it For as you have in such cases your Reason for your guide so I must be allowed to use that little that I have do only say that as God is a Spirit so he must be worship'd in spirit and truth So also that the Devil is a Spirit and that his rule is in the hearts of the Children of Disobedience and that an Explicit Covenant of one nature or another can have little force any further than as the heart is engaged in it And so I pass to the last viz. Whether a Witch ought to be put to death And without accumulation of the offence do Iudge that where the Law of any Countrey is to punish by death such as seduce and tempt to the worship of strange Gods or Idols or Statues by as good Authority may they no doubt punish these as Capital Offenders who are distinguished by that one remove viz. to their seducing is added a sign i. e. they pretend to a sign in order to seduce And thus worthy Sir I have freely given you my thoughts upon yours which you so much obliged me with the sight of and upon the whole tho I cannot in the general but commend your Caution in not asserting many things contended for by others yet must say that in my esteem there is retain'd so much as will secure all the rest to instance if a Spirit has a Vehicle i. e. some portion of matter which it acts c. hence as necessarily may be inferred that Doctrine of Incubus and Succubus and why not also that of Procreation by Spirits both good and bad Thus was Alexander the Great the Brittish Merlin and Martin Luther and many others said to be begotten Again if the Witch has such a Wonder-working Power why not to afflict will not the Devil thus far gratifie l●e And have none this Miracculous Power but the Covenanting Witch then the offence lyes in the Covenant then 't is not only hard but Impossible to to find a Witch by such Evidence as the Law of God requires for it will not be supposed that they call Witness to this Covenant therefore it will here be necessary to admit of such as the nature of such Covenant will bear as Mr. Gaul hath it in his 5th head i. e. the testimony of the afflicted with their Spectral sight to tell who afflicts themselves or others the experiment of saying the Lords Prayer falling at the sight and rising at the touch searching for Tets i. e. Excrescencies of Nature strange and foreign stories of the Death of some Cattle or ove● setting some Cart and what can Iu●ies have better to guide them to ●●ad out this Covenant by 'T is matter of lamentation and let it be for a lamentation to consider how these things have open'd the Floodgates of Malice Revenge Vncharitableness and Bloodshed what Multitudes have been swept away by this Torrent In Germany Countries depopulated In Scotland no less than 4000 have said to have suffered by Fire and Halter at one heat Thas we may say with the Prophet Isa. 59.10 We grope for the Wall like the blind and we grope as if we had no Eyes we stumble at Noon-day as in the Night we are in desolate places as dead Men and this by seeking to be wise above what is written in framing to our selves such crimes and such Ordels or ways of Tryal as are wholly foreign from the direction of our only guide which should be a light to our feet and a Lanthorn to our paths but instead of this if we have not followed the direction we have followed the Example of Pagan and Papal Rome thereby rendering us contemptible and base before all People according as we have not kept his ways but have been partial in his Law And now that we may in all our sentiments and ways have regard to his testimonies and give to the Almighty the glory due to his Name is the earnest desire and Prayer of Sir Yours to Command R. C. A second Letter of a Gentleman endeavouring to prove the received Opinions about Witchcraft SIR SInce