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	sin_n	will_n	1,909	5	6.8826	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

them CHAP. XVII Of the cause of the enmity and antipathy of the Spaniards and the French I Have endeavoured divers times to finde out by speulation the fundamentall cause of the disdaine and hatred betweene these two Nations Because that though it is true that the Divell hath been the principall authour of this antipathy and discord to hinder the fruit which might grow through their union yet we must presume that hee found in them some ground and root to increase such a cursed dissention and pernitious poyson Some doe attribute this contrariety to the difference of the starres and their influences as their universall cause and say that the situation of the heavens and constellation of Spaine being farre different from that which the French have consequently the temperament and humours of both must bee very different They confirme this with Hippocrates doctrine in his booke de Aere Aquis Locis which saith that the divers constitutions of the starres is cause of the variety of temperaments complexions and humours of man And verily hee that considers the humours of these two Nations in order with the constellation and change of time shall find some likelihood in this reason seeing that in Spaine if hot weather once begins it continueth in the same vigour three or foure months there being in all that time no notable change and of the same compasse is the Spanish humour seeing that setting upon a purpose hee keeps himselfe firme in it without any change or alteration at all It is otherwise in France for there bee it Winter or Summer the cold nor the heat nor the faire weather never lasts three dayes together but the variablenesse of this constellation is such that a man can never perceive what time of the yeare it is The inhabitants of Paris know this to bee true because that in one day there you shall have the weather change eight or ten times the morning or day breake being very faire and two hours after there falling a deluge of rain after the which the Sunne will appeare more bright and resplendent then in the month of June and hee shall scarce have spread his beams but you shall heare a noise of thunder lightning and winde as though the world were sinking and therefore there being a dependencie from the influence and constellation the French as subjected to an inconstant clymate must needs be voluble and inconstant in their determinations And therfore hee that will assigne for the reason of this Antipathy and hatred the diversity of climates will say that the Divell grounded his malice upon nature making use of the differences of the starres This reason though in appearance it bears some shew of truth yet it doth not resolve our question seeing that though the starres have dominion over naturall things yet they do not extend their force to acts of absolute command of the will which are hatred and love and therfore we must confesse that those who bring this reason that the starres encline things subject unto them yet naturall ones and by reason of the league which it hath with their wills this influence may somewhat touch them moving them in some manner but yet it cannot force them And since this matter gives me occasion of speaking of a difficulty which is commonly handled by curious and learned men I will not passe it over with silence without speaking that which my small talent will affoord me All the world almost marvailes at some things which the Astrologers fore-tell which depend on mans wil over which no constellation influence or celestiall vertue hath power to move it or force it but contrariwise the will and discourse command and governe the starres with their influences Whence came that common Proverb Sapiens dominabitur astris and yet wee see that many times they prognosticate the truth and so punctually as if the starres did directly enforce mans will 〈◊〉 whence holding such predictions to bee miraculous they call the Astrologians Magicians no● beleeving that such things may be known by naturall reasons thinking it impossible that the command of the starres should go beyond materiall things under the which are not comprehended the powers and actions of our soule Surely they which finde great difficulty in this doe it not without great ground but if they ●hall consider the order which our understanding and the will ●old in producing of their acti●ns they shall finde that it may ●e done only by the perfect spe●ulation of the starres without ●oing beyond the bounds of na●…re Since all will yeeld to me ●●at the starres have their influ●nces in sublunary things and ●●at they have great power over ●aturall things they being governed by them and that being true the consequence followes that the celestiall vertue and influence shall have command over that which is natural in man as might bee the body with the senses to which our soule is so linked and so depends upon them that it can produce no act without them representing unto them the matter which is the intelligible species it necessarily followes that by reason of this union and streight bond of amity which they reciprocally hold the soule must somewhat participate of the dominion which directly falls upon the senses And although by this meanes they do not force but onely incline ye● our will after sinne remained so contrary to the law of Reason and so annexed to the sensitive appetite that it seldome withstands or contradicts it reproving those things which it propounds unto it which senses being governed by the influence and power of the starres as subject and depending on them the will must needs follow that which the appetite propounds unto it And therefore the Astrologers judging the actions of the will by the influence which governes the sensitive appetite many times prognosticate the truth though absolutely it depend on the will of man From this doctrine though true it followeth not that the influence of the starres onely and the diversity of the clymates are the fundamentall causes of the hatred antipathy of these two nations being there are many other nations in the world farre more different in climates and constellations which have not so much hatred and contrariety amongst themselves as these two we must therefore find out some other reason more powerfull then this of the starres I remember I have read in the histories of France that King Lewis the eleventh came to meet the King of Castile upon the confines of France to confer with him about some businesse of importance This King though magnanimous and generous had notwithstanding his particuler humour as other men have and so he ordinarily wore a leaden medall in his hat his cloathes and other French mens who were his followers were ordinary and of meane stuffe so that he was but meanly cloathed without any statelinesse or pompe the Spaniards did cloath themselves the best they could using all the pompe they could beleeving that the King of France

would have come withall the greatnesse and variety as they expected from so great a King and seeing him otherwise they began to despise him and strangely to scoffe the French men where they conceived such hatred against the Spaniards that they could never since forget this disgrace and affront and if we will say that the devill at this meeting grounded the enmity and antipathy which now a daies raignes we shall not say amisse seeing a farre lesser ground then this will serve his turne To all that is said before may be added a great motive which these two Nations have had to contemne and abhorre one another which is that in times past there came not out of France into Spaine any people of sort and note but onely poore beggerly and needy people of the frontiers as Guascons Biernois and others who went as they do to this day in white round caps like a trencher upon their heads bare legged with wooden shoos which they call esclops upon their feet these with a base kind of avarice will put themselves to any base office as keeping of cowes and hogs to sweepe chimneies or the like and though in their eating they bee sober enough for with an onion or a head of garlicke and a peece of bread they will passe the whole day yet in their drinking they are unreasonable and all their gaines goeth in wine which being strong and heady presen●ly makes them drunke so that for the most part of the day they go reeling and falling about the streets to the great scandall of the Spaniards amongst whom there is no greater infamy or dishonour then to bee drunke wherefore the Spaniards who saw no other French men but these thought that all the rest had been like them did abhor them and conceive much enmity against them and contempt of them the same occasion had the French for very few or no Spaniards of fashion going into France and they seeing none but poore and wretched people who went to bee touched for the Kings evill verily beleeved that all other Spaniards had been of the same kinde and so from that basenesse they tooke occasion to hold the Spaniards in little esteeme and besides this contempt to encrease this mortall enmity each of these foresaid reasons in my minde are sufficient occasions and motives of the hatred and disdaine we finde between these two Nations especially the divell mixing his care and industry with it But if I should speake mine opinion I think there cannot be a more powerfull reason given for this antipathy then the naturall contrariety of these two Nations humors and so it being so hard a thing to force nature with reason I doe not wonder if the will in which consists hatred or love keeps company with nature and followes her steps obeying her contrarieties and repugnances and we must imagine that to move the will so much the more to the contrariety of humors the divell did helpe forward all the forenamed accidents so that the constellation the diversity of humours the contempt of both nations and the divell joining together there could nothing be hoped for but a mortall hatred and the antipathy which now we see the remedy of which lieth in God only seeing I doe not beleeve that on earth there is any antidote for such a pestilent poison CHAP. XVIII That the conjunction and confederacy of these two crownes is a thing which proceeds from heaven AMongst the great and infallable truths which the Apostle St. Paul writ to lift us up towards the knowledge of God me thinkes that is a marveilous one when he saith Invisibilia Dei per ea quae facta sunt intellectu conspiciuntur which is as much to say that in all and every creature shines the infinite power of the divine wisdome and that they are all like so many tongues to declare unto us what the almighty power of their author is wherefore that must be a grosse and materiall understanding which by the contemplation of things created could not reach to the knowledge of the perfection and noblenesse of of him that made them The same was the royall Prophet his intent when he said Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei opera manuum eju● annuntiat firmamentum whereby is knowne the imperfection and misery of our understanding subject only to the knowledge of the materialities of this world and unable to reach at the knowledge of things which are beyond natures bounds since that in these as Aristotle saith he is as the owle or the night-bat is with the sunne beames when it shines most cleare and bright and the same Psalmist knew this truth when he with such great fervency craved of God Revela oculos meos considerabo mirabilia de lege tua holding it for a certain that it was impossible to arrive to the knowledge of such high mysteries with the imperfection of nature onely wherefore the supreame architect finding that there could bee no equality nor proportion found between his greatnesses and our humane understanding they being infinite and this materiall limited he ordained that man should come to the knowledge of his infinite power by meanes of the visible effects of this world Whence we shall see by this reason that God at all times did communicate himself to men by materiall and visible means as in the guiding of the people of Israel by day with a pillar of cloud by night with a pillar of fire making mount Sinai to shake whē he gave the Law affrighting them with thunder lightning sending fire from heaven the deluge and the like by which he did accommodate himselfe to the imperfection of our understanding For if God should not use materiall things and easie to bee understood perhaps the understanding of man would either attribute such effects to some other cause or would not know from whence they proceeded For it is certaine that when God decreed to destroy the world with the floud hee could as well have annihilated and destroyed it without filling of it full of water or doing any other manifest and visible action but it would not have seemed so great a wonder to men if they were all fallen dead without any manifest cause as the rivers over-flowing of their bankes and the opening of the cataracts and windows of heaven was And though God could have destroyed those accursed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah without any apparent signe with making them fall simply without any other visible effect yet he would have their ruine be by meanes of a materiall cause which should manifest the great power of him who sent to doe such an execution as that was to make fire as the sacred text speaketh and brimstome to come downe from heaven a signe that hee could make even the grossest understanding know what the power of divine justice was for if God had used some insensible meanes the cause would not have been knowne nor his great might and power So also