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	necessary_a	voluntary_a	1,479	5	10.9108	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07610	A mirrour for Christian states: or, A table of politick vertues considerable amongst Christians Divided, into three bookes. Reviewed, and augmented, by E. Molinier, of Tolose priest, and Doctor of Divinitie. And by him dedicated, ro [sic] the most illustrious lord, the Lord Cardinall of Valette, Archbishop of Tolose. Translated into English, by VVilliam Tyrvvhit, Sen. Esquire.; Politiques chrestiennes. English	Molinier, Étienne, d. 1650.; Tyrwhit, William.	1635 (1635)	STC 18003; ESTC S112798	133,530	388

without successe is a faire tree without fruit and it is the fruit not the tree the successe and not the counsell men chiefly desire since counsell is not sought for but in hope of the desired event the way but for the marke the Medium but for the Terminus and the meanes but for the end Now that good Luck whereof I speake proceeds not either from that blinde Fortune which spirits yet more blinde have forged nor from that imaginary destiny of inflexible decrees whereto Heathenish Antiquity hath subjected the Counsels even of Iupiter himselfe nor on the disposition of Celestiall bodies whereto the vanity of Nativity-casters submit the whole order of things happening here on earth whether Naturall voluntary or casuall Fortune is a Fable Destiny a Dreame and that necessitie the judiciall Astrologers pretend to bee imposed by the Starres upon humane and free actions or upon casuall and accidentall events is an evident errour and a manifest impietie For as concerning those effects depending on naturall and necessary causes the order of the World and Nature ranging inferiour bodyes under superiour ones giveth to those Authority to those dependancie and regulateth the actions of elementary Bodies by the Law of the influence of Celestiall Bodies All that God hath made is established with order sayth the Apostle Quae a D●o sunt ordinata sunt But what power would men ascribe to Starres either over humane actions proceeding from the Will or over casuall occurrents which being accidentall effects cannot by consequence have any Naturall certaine or limited cause Nature being appointed to a certaine and infallible end Natura ad unum determinatur according to a Philosophicall Maxim what authority or command can she have eyther over mans will being unbounded free and indifferent to the one or other of two contrary objects or over that which being meerely casuall may eyther happen or not happen The Starres being corporeall what can they imprint upon the soule of man being spirituall unreasonable things upon reasonable ones what is necessitated upon what is free or a thing determined upon an indifferent matter In like manner concerning casuall accidents what subordination can casuall and accidentall things have to the influences of Starres being regulated necessary and infallible things Is not this as much as to strive against all reason and to abuse the weaknesse and credulity of spirits so much as only to dare I will not say maintaine but even to broach such absurd propositions The Starres then O man shall be culpable of thine offences authors of thy good workes causes of thy prosperities instruments of thine infortunities if you doe any good they shall have the merit and consequently the reward shall bee due to them and not to you If you offend they shall beare the blame and you may justly cast the punishment upon them And why are Lawes among you if the Starres impose lawes upon you If the starres be the causes of your good and bad actions and you only the instruments to whom is the penaltic of ill or crowne of good due to the workman or his tooles to the cause or to the instrument See you not plainly that if these propositions were true you offer injury to the Starres to appropriate to your selves the reward of the good which they doe and wrong to your selves to inflict on your selves the punishment of the evill you commit not Who sees not how these propositions overthrow all reason all justice all vertue all order and all policie In like manner if it be the Starres which send good fortunes or fatalties prosperities or adversities to men they then governe the world it is they who raise some and represse others who distribute honours give victories transferre Scepters and dispose of Kingdomes But if this be thus wherefore is merit raised in one time and why at another time doth ambition obtaine all Honours Is it because the Starres one while make use of justice an otherwhile of favours Why in one age doth Industry conferre dignities in another gold or advantage in bloud is it because the Starres alter and accommodate themselves to the abuse of times as well as men doe Why in one Nation doth Election conferre Crownes in another Succession Is it by reason the Starres follow the fashions of Countries and doe diversly distribute their benefits according to the lawes of Kingdomes But they doe well in accommodating themselves to lawes lest they should bee resisted and finde some more compulsive thing then their owne power Of two borne at the same instant and under the same Constellations why is the one prosperous the other miserable and the aspect of Starres beeing so equall in both why should the effect bee so different Who seeth not that the Startes consisting of naturall and necessary causes appearing in all times and places and in all and every where after the same fashion producing so inconstant and various effects according to places moments and circumstances cannot be any constant cause of humaine events but in their conceipts who have neyther rule nor reason Naturall reason clearely sheweth the vanitie of their discourse Insigna coel● nolite m●th●re qui timent gentes quia l●ges populorum vana sunt Ierem. c. 10. Scripture condemneth them as full of Superstition errour and impietie Feare not the signes of Heaven which Idolatrers dread because the Lawes of the Nations are vaine sayth the Prophet Ieremy and the Church rejects and detesteth them Astrologia planetarii damuatur à Christiana vera pietate De Aug. l. 4. Confess as contrary to true pietie Iudiciall Astrologers and the Planetaries sayth Saint Augustine are condemned by the Christian Law And Saint Epiphanius reporteth that Aquila Ponticus who in the Primitive Church De Epiph. l. de som mensuris in the Emperour Adrian his time translated the old Testament out of Hebrew into Greeke was expelled out of the Church for addicting himselfe to judiciall Astrologie All the Holy Fathers with joynt consent have impugned this errour D. Bas in c. 14. Esay and St. Basil sayth That it confoundeth mans spirit and takes away Gods Providence Yea even the Lawes of well insticuted Republiques among the ancient Pagans have banished these judiciaries and deviners of good events as pernicious to civill societie And we reade in Tacitus of a Decree in Senate made in the Emperour Tiberius his time Factum est Squatus consulium de Mathematicis Italia Pellendis gonus hominum quod in urbe nostra expellotur semper retinebitur Tac. lib. 1. Ann. to expell them out of all Italy Whereupon this grave Authour addeth a very remarkeable observation that this kind of men have at all times beene chased out of Rome and yet have they continually beene retayned and supported Expelled from thence by publick Lawes but fostred by the superstitious foolish credulitie of particulars So as neyther humane actions nor casuall accidents depend at all upon the disposition of

Stars neither as efficient causes nor as singes or tokens of what hapneth Against the errour of Origen who affirmed that though the Starres cannot be the causes of what is done eyther freely by man or casually by hazard yet so it is that one may know what will happen by the inspection of Starres as by the reading of a booke where God hath written and imprinted with his finger in great and legible Characters all the order of future things as in a Table or Patterne of his divine prescience which hee hath exposed to mans sight An errour which the Scripture condemneth as well as the former forbidding us to have recourse to Starres in any sort save only to know times and seasons and what hapneth by a natural and necessary order But first as for what concerneth humane actions they have not any neare and interiour cause but only mans free will resolving eyther upon good or evill And as for more remote and exteriour causes when man operateth rightly and sutably to reason God concurres as the mooving cause eyther by his generall concurrency or particular in an naturall order as some will have it naturall and morall actions or by a particular grace or by a supernaturall order in Christian and supernaturall actions After the law whether divine or humane the just customes of those Countryes where we inhabite and the good example eyther of Ancients or of such with whom wee converse are the exteriour meanes interiourly moving the will to incline it selfe toward good And when man is inclinable to evill his irregular actions cannot be imputed besides his proper inclination being the interiour and principall motive but to the Divels impulsion to the perswasion of wicked persons to pernicious example to the attractions of Creatures or to occasions depending upon and inclining toward vice but to the Starres they can no way be referred but indirectly in that Starres may incite passions in the inferiour appetite and these passions the will As for what concerneth casuall events being the subject of our question they have no other cause save onely the disposition and casuall encounter of certaine circumstances of times places and persons whereon such uncertaine affects depend as upon unsure and irregulated causes But I call this chance casuall as to us but not as to God to whom nothing is accidentall but all fore-seene by his prescience and ordered by his providence For if even a poore Sparrow falls not to ground without Gods Providence as the Gospell speaketh were it not a manifest impietie to suppose that any thing could happen to man which God foreseeth not by his fore-knowledge and if good ordained by his expresse will but if ill permitted by his secret and hidden Will but alwayes holy and just providence So the good fortune whereof we speake causing good designes and sage counsels happily to succeed proceed not but from the casual disposition and encounter of circumstances which are to concurre toward the production of happy successes This being often casuall as concerning our providence but at all times forescene and ordered by that of God who so well disposeth the places times persons and affayres in favour of such as he intendeth to make use of in the execution of eminent actions as all things make way and succeed favourably for them CHAP. 8. That this good Fortune followes some and how it is to be managed THis good Fortune being understood according to my explication is an heavenly guift which God hath in such sort annexed to certain persons as it followeth and accompanieth them in all places as the shadow doth the body To deny this were to be ignorant of what Histories affirme and whatsoever daily hapneth in humane affaires For who can rightly consider the Progresse and pursuit of Augustus his fortunes who among all the Emperours and Monarchs of the earth hath merited the name of Happie but he must observe the disposition and order of Gods Providence causing affaires humors times and other circumstances to meet in the same point and manner as was fitting did raise and leade him as by the hand to the soveraigne authority of the worlds Empire Iulius Caesar had already begun to cast the platforme of Monarkie but because things were as then not absolutely disposed for so great an alteration Love of liberty and the zeale of maintaining the same still boyling in their breasts the successe was not answerable to his couragious resolutions and his designes wanting no valour to under take it fayled only of fortune to bring it to effect But at the same instant when Augustus began to appeare in the lists all things shewed themselves favourable and inclinable to his wishes The people incensed for the death of Caesar against those who defended the Common wealths liberty Affections and humours inclined to alteration Anthony under pretext of revenging this death fighting with generall approbation against publike liberty Cicero deceived under Augustus his apparance as then named Octavius putting him into reputation and opening unawares the first passage to his future greatnesse After this the conspiracie betweene Anthony and Lepidus for the ridding their hands of the principall heads of the Republickes faction and so to share the Empire betweene them three The opposites suppressed resistances removed The Empire divided Lepidus soone giving place to his two Companions Anthony in the end to Augustus all Authority collected and reunited in him alone a triumphant armie on foot to maintaine it The peoples and great persons their affections ready to receive him his enemies eyther dead subdued or won with rewards Conspiracies either repressed by feare or vanquished for want of power Adversaries overcome or dispersed by clemency In a word all things disposed to Crowne and Proclaime him Emperour of the World who seeth not plainly Gods providence disposing all things in his favour in this tissure and linkes of prosperities Now were it that God by meanes of the temporall Monarkie in Rome intended to lay the foundation of the spirituall which IESVS CHRIST who was pleased to appeare in this world came to establish in his Church Or were it that by an universall peace proceeding from the conduct of one only head he intended to dispose men to the reception of the promised Messias who brought peace upon the Earth or were it that by reducing all Nations under the authority of one Emperor he would open by these means as St. Leo observeth the course of the Gospell which was to be announced and published to all Nations Or besides all these reasons were it for some other secret or hidden cause one may clearly know and perceive that this greatnesse of Augustus is not a worke of his vertue but of his good fortune and his good fortune not a worke of hazard Destiny or the Starres but of Gods Providence I alleadge this so vulgar and well knowne an exāple to shew that the good fortune which follows some persons depēdeth only on the concurrence of circumstances rightly disposed and

is not any thing so prejudiciall to action as to be continually bent upon action without intermission For as the corporall eye seeth not the objects touching it but those onely more remote so the understanding continually plunged in affayres is not so quicke-sighted in occurrents as his who sometimes retireth himselfe from publike action beholding it aloofe off by consideration As it is reported how the noyse which the waters of Nile make do cause all those who liveneere the fals or Cataracts to become deafe Or as the Roman Oratour in his booke of the dreames of Scipio was of opinion that the harmonious and musicall sound resulting from the divers motions of the celestiall Spheres is not by us understood by reason the sound is so strong so quicke and violent that our eares are thereby deafned Or as they who nourish silk-wormes hinder those little creatures from hearing the thunder by the sound of brazen or iron vessels when at any time it is excessive So those who are continually amidst the tumults and tempests of affaires become insensibly besotted and deafe to the voice of Reason and Gods law which ought to give the conduct and motion to active life Besides experience teacheth us that the eye having lost its quicknes with too much looking upon the light recovers it againe in the darke The spirit in like manner dazled weakened and distracted among the multitude and variety of affaires ought to recollect and recover its force in the privacie of some small retreit Moreover see you not how the vapours rising from the earth darken the Sun-light and would utterly over-cloud it did not the Sun recollecting its vigour at length dissipat them by the point of his beames In like manner worldly affaires send forth certain mists invironing the interiour eye where the light of wisedome resideth and by litle and litle coveting the soule with darkenesse transports it to inconsideration and from thence to a thousand stumbling blocks forcing it to retire with shame if the soule preventing this danger did not now and then recollect it selfe and by the attentive consideration of its estate duty and end cause it to disperse those clouds which darken reason This hath caused me to admire that excellent sentence of Ezekiel the Prophet That the earth is desolate for that no man vseth consideration and reflection in his heart and he seemeth to say that it is the onely sourle of all human errours not onely in what concerneth eternall salvation but even in what toucheth the conduct of temporall affaires whether domesticall or publike For whence arise so many mischiefes ruines and desolations be it is in families Cities or Estates but only out of the want of wisdome among men and whence this but from the defect of consideration It is a thing naturall that as a stone cast into a calme and setled water causeth there a circle this circle a second the second a third this third maketh a fourth Circle after circle till the water from one side to the other be all troubled so worldly objects beat upō the senses the senses touch the appetite the appetite exciteth motions in the will the will stirred and tickled by delectation darkeneth the Vnderstanding disordered motions engender desires desires adors ardors breed passions passions temeritie temerities hatch follies and from thence issue all the troubles calamities and disorders falling out in the life of man and all this happens by reason that men being incessantly busied out of themselves eyther with pleasures vanities or affaires never take time to recollect themselves and as the Lamiae in faigned Stories keepe the eye of their Reason fastened to the Gates of their Senses and wittingly either scorne or neglect to weare it within the interiour part of their house thereby to consider know and regulate themselves I say not this as seeking thereby to send the Civill or Politicall Person into a Desart or Cloyster but onely to give him the counsell which Plato gave to Dionysius King of Sicil Plato Epist ad Dionys to take some houre in the day at leysure to contemplate not upon the subjects of vaine Philosophy but upon the eternall verities of divine Wisdome But the advice of Gods Spirit ought to be more efficacious than the precepts of Philosophers Consider and see that I am God saith he by his Prophet Vacate videte quoniam ego sum Deus speaking in generall to all men Give saith God some ease to your occupations to consider who J am and how in comparison of me all therest is nothing at all and shall be soone even as that which never was That I am permanent and how all other things are sliding and transitorie That I am the first law whereby all should be directed the eternall veritie whereto all should conforme themselves the soveraigne power under which all ought to tremble the Wisdome all ought to acknowledge the Iustice none can escape the finall end whereto all things should tend This consideration is a light dissipating the Clouds of ignorance a bridle restraining the rage of passions a rod correcting excesses and discipline composing our manners an Oracle inspiring good counsels a rule directing actions a booke wherein a man doth insensibly with delight learne the science of human and divine things In this sort doth the Scripture propose the Patriark Isaac unto us retiring and recollecting himselfe towards Sun-set walking pensive and solitary in his Garden Moses the Law-maker divided betweene contemplation and action one while comming downe toward the people and otherwhiles re-ascending toward God The Iudge Samuel sometimes giving sentence then contemplating after disposing of the affayres of Israel and opening the eye of his Soule towards Heavenly illuminations King David sometime giving lawes to his people then meditating divine lawes The wise Salomon now deciding the sutes and controversies of his Subjects and presently applying himselfe to the study of divine wisdome Briefly whosoever have at any time managed state or temporall matters according to Gods rule have at all times shared time betweene affaires and recollection betweene God and the world betweene Earth and Heaven as those Creatures called Amphibions who are not alwayes in the water nor continually on shore but doe now and then converse with Beasts on land and presently take water joyfully and naturally to divide the Waves among other aquaticall Creatures Now that which herein is to be observed is that even Pagan Politicians have acknowledged the necessity of these small intermissions in active life to the end to take some time for contemplation For not againe to repeat what I have formerly spoken conserning the counsell given by Plato to Dionysius King of Sicily who knowes not what the Roman Orator writ concerning the great Scipio whom he represents unto us often solitary and being never better accompanied than when he was alone by himselfe beside who hath not read how those ancient Law makers Numa Zaleuxis Lycurgus Solon and others made use of frequent

happy memory in things past in all Ages and States are the beginnings The practice of important affaires long experience and the gray maturitie of yeares are the consummation For this word of the Ancients never deceived any Councell of old men Armes of yong men sound consultation circumspection of circumstances foresight of consequences precaution against impediments prompt expedition are the beautifull actions of States-men and in fine the peoples repose the safety of States the common good of men are the divine fruits of this perfect prndence Who so possesseth this treasure enjoyeth a Diadem and if his origin hath not conferred Crownes upon him Crownes will seeke after him and if his condition have not made him a King his sufficiencie will make him the Oracle of Kings VVhat he pronounceth are decrees what he sayes are lawes his bare words ought to passe for reasons and as the Philosopher saith His naked propositions have the authority of demonstrations since the practise he hath acquired by experience enableth him in whatsoever he proposeth to consider the causes and principles But what is said of the Phoenix which being so frequent in Bookes was happily never framed in nature or what is related of that Orator among the Antients so highly extolled but never heard or of the Philosophers Republique the so well depainted Idaea whereof could never really appeare the same may be said of this perfect Prudence whom the contemplation of Sages hath so excellently expressed and which the imbecilitie of humane Nature could never yet perfectly produce So many rare endowments required in one man are more easily imagined then met with sooner desired than acquired To abuse our selves with Ideas is to feede upon fancies Wishes rule not the world and since things cannot be sutable to our votes wee must proportion ovr votes to things We are to acknowledge our owne ignorance in the truth of this passage of Scripture How irresolute are the thoughts of men and how uncertaine their foresights and to confesse the truth in al things but chiefly in Politicke Prudence which governeth the incertitude of worldly affairs that he who hath the fewest defects hath a great share of perfection One single circumstance susficeth to alter all in this case and very often the effect of greatest and most important actions as the cure of desperate diseases in States depends upon a very instant which Prudence either seeth not or fortune ravisheth away and after all we are to avow that in such cases wherein ordinarily waies are hidden the causes obscured the councell incertaine and the events independant of us he who seldomest stumbles hath no small sufficiencie and who so oftnest doth happen rightly to hit hath a great deale of good fortune CHAP. 11. That true Politicke Prudence ought to be derived from the Law of God against Machiavilians BVtas true wisedome ought to be deduced from the law of God so doth true Prudence flow from this divine fountaine For God hath spoken by the mouth of the Wise man Councell is to me Equitie is mine Prudence is mine and David said to God Lord thou hast made me wise by thy word VVisedome without God is meere folly and Prudence no better than malice the one followeth salle principles the other useth the meanes opposite to the true end of man the one depraveth the understanding the other deregulates life the one deceiveth us in what we ought to understand the other in what we ought to doe the one adoreth lyes insteed of truth the other embraceth iniquity for vertue in briefe the one diverts us from the true way the other leadeth us to a precipice The Prudence of the flesh produceth nothing but death saith the Apostle So as if it be pernicious to particulars what profit can it afford to Republiques if it ruine men how can it relieve Empires Is not God the finall end of States in generall as well of men in particular if he be their end ought he not to be their ayme if their ayme ought they not to levell thereat by meanes conduceable to their end What other meanes are proper to cause all States to tend toward God than those which the Prudence derived from God dictates unto us If therfore fleshly vain prudence supposing to maintaine it selfe maketh use of unjust meanes and those contrary to God is it not apparent it diverteth them from their mark their end and happinesse ruining insteed of establishing them Wherefore Moses called the people of Jsrael who would not guide themselves according to Gods law but by their private spirit a Nation without Councell and Prudence And the spirit of God gives us two advertisements as two generall rules of our life the one by the Wise man Relye not on thine owne Prudence the other by the Apostle Derive not your prudence from your selues Plato reporteth of Hyparchus in a Dialogue intituled by his name how this man desirous of the publique good placed great Pillars in all the crosse-waies of Athens whereon were engraven grave and wholesome inscriptions advertising men of their duties If this custome were still in use among us it were fitting these two sentences as two Oracles from heaven were engraven in Marble and brasse in the most eminent and chiefly frequented places of all Cities to admonish men not to guide the course of their lives affaires and offices by the foolish Prudence of the flesh but by that Prudence derived from God being the infallible rule as it is the finall and firme conclusion of all humane actions CHAP. 12. How the Law of God is usefull for the acquisition of true Politicke Prudence THe Law of God doth in two sorts serve toward the acquisition of true Prudence not onely of that which is ordinary and oeconomical but of the civill and Politicke likewise First in proposing to every particular action its due end direct meanes and just measure secondly in appeasing and calming the passions of the soule which as the Philosopher saith cause a certaine thicke fogge to arise in the superiour part thereof darkening the eye of reason and hindering the wholesome counsell and right judgement of things which Prudence ought to afford For passions imprint in the soule a kinde of malignant disposition causing counsell to ere in the election of the true end judgement in the choice of the meanes and the commandement of reason in the definition of times we ought to take of the place whereof we are to make choice and of the measure we are to observe in making an Act truely Prudent The covetous and ambitious person who propoundeth to himselfe no other end than his particular profit and honour will not make use of other meanes but such onely as may conduce to the raising of his revenues and dignities yea and often carried away by the floud of this unbrideled desire as by the force of an impetuous torrent he is not able to observe either time place or measure VVhat counsels can be expected from a spirit so indisposed