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	voluntary_a	will_n	1,414	5	7.9668	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37977	Cometomantia, A discourse of comets shewing their original, substance, place, time, magnitude, motion, number, colour, figure, kinds, names, and more especially, their prognosticks, significations and presages ... : where also is inserted an essay of judiciary astrology, giving satisfaction to this grand question, whether any certain judgments and predictions concerning future events, can be made from the observation of the heavenly bodies : both occasioned by the appearance of the late comets in England and other places.	Edwards, John, 1637-1716.	1684 (1684)	Wing E199; ESTC R1452	91,449	318

and voluntary ones cannot As the things which depend on the mere Power and Pleasure of God so those that issue from the Freedom and Election of Man are beyond the reach and out of the ken of Astrological Predictions Mens Wills are the Planets that guide them and make them Erratical It is not in the power of Astrologers to fix these and to bring them within the sphere of their Knowledge We see and observe that their Conjectures are uncertain concerning the change of Weather How often may they be confuted in their Predictions of Rain Snow Frost Winds c Some have writ down the weather quite contrary to their Prognosticks as Buchanan dealt with his Almanack above fifty Years together and as the Earl of Mirandula hath observed and have found that what they set down came nearest to the truth If an Astrologer then faileth so mnch in telling the weather how much more in undertaking to determine those Events which depend on the Will and choice of Man If he cannot exactly foretell the Changes of the Clouds and Elements how will he be able to acquaint us before-hand with the Alterations in Families and Kingdoms which are more uncertain It is by reason of such bold Pretenders and Undertakers that Astrology is rendred vile and scandalous and the Professours of it looked upon as Lyars and Impostours For what can be more like cheating than for a man to take upon him to determine certainly of future Contingencies when the Objects of his Predictions are every minute alterable by the interposal of free Agents who have power to interrupt the Causality of the Stars For though men may be thus and thus Disposed and Inclined according to the different Constellations and their Aspects yet they are left free and are not constrained and forced to doe this or that And if this be true the most sagacious Artist on Earth cannot punctually determine their Actions this being an impregnable Proposition That nothing can be certainly foretold by Man which is in the power of a free Agent Thirdly Astrology is abused not onely when the free Agency of God and Man are infringed but when the Concurrence of those other Causes which are requisite in the life of Man is wholly neglected This then must be laid down as a necessary Proposition That the Tempers and Constitutions of Men and consequently their Dispositions and Actions and all humane Affairs which are the issue of them depend upon several conjoyned Causes It is true that we receive our Complexion and Temperature from the quality of the Heavenly Bodies but not from them only but from other Causes and Authours I have granted once and again that there is a great consent and intercourse between the upper and lower World Heaven and Earth are confederate Many things are derived to our Natures from above many of our Inclinations are received from thence many Events and Accidents are depending on the Astral Revolutions but they do not derive their force from them alone There are other Causes besides the Prime Efficiency of God and the free Agency of Men which powerfully influence on Humane Actions Say then that the Stars act on the Body of Man and say that the Complexion of the Body swayeth the Mind as is acknowledged yet this Complexion depends on the Temper of the Parents and the quality of their Seed on the temper of the Air of that Countrey which he was born in and afterwards lived in on his Diet and Food he constantly takes on his Education and manner of Life All these and several other things make a great difference in men and the influence of the Stars may be hindred by any of them much more by all of them together Though the Heavens dispose to such and such Temperatures of Body yet they are easily changed and over-ruled by the Concurrence of these To speak freely the Stars act as all other natural Causes do according to the Capacity and Disposition of the matter they work upon Now the Disposition of Inferiour Bodies is very different and on that account they receive not the Heavenly Influences alike Just as we see the Effects of Diseases are according to the Diversities of Mens Bodies and therefore no certain Judgment can be made of the issue of one Man's Distemper from what is observed in another For Example a Physician sees such and such Signs of Death in two persons who have high Fevers but though the Prognosticks are equal in both yet the Natural Temper of one may be stronger than the others and so be too hard for the Disease and overcome it but it was not possible for the Master of Medicks to foresee this The Case is the same here and it is confirmed by Experience All persons who were born under the same Planets are not of the same condition and Fortune in the World and on the contrary the Conditions and Fates of Men are alike as when many thousands fall in Battel in one day though different Stars reigned at their Births and the Reason is because all men are not alike capable of the Influence of Heaven for there may be wanting a Concurrence of several Causes which I have before named to make them equal and it is undeniably true that the Heavens are not the Integral Causes of Mens Conditions and Actions I infer then irrefragably That no Astrologer can certainly foretell future Events which depend upon so many Causes whilst he is carefull onely to be acquainted with one sort of them And from all the premised Heads it is easie to conclude how shallow and imperfect the Judgments of common Astrologers are and what little reason they have to be absolute and peremptory in their Predictions For the Actions of Mens Lives and the different Events that happen to them are derived from several Springs and Originals besides the Heavenly Bodies A Judgment cannot be made of a Man's Life from one of these onely but from all The Prime Source and Fountain of all is God or the Divine Providence which Commandeth the Sun and it riseth not and sealeth up the Stars Job 9. 7. which can countermand the Ordinary course of Nature and particularly that of the Celestial Bodies Or the same infinite Power can change the Temper which was received from the Stars and cause his Grace to check and controll the Influence of their Aspects so that it shall be out of the reach of any humane Science to make a steddy Judgment of any Actions or Events that belong to such Persons And as for that other Spring of Mens Actions their Wills these being Free and Arbitrary cannot be confined by Art and whatever Actions depend on voluntary choice and determination cannot be foreknown unless they be revealed by him who is the onely knower and Searcher of Hearts It is His sole Pretogative to foresee future Contingencies which depend on free Causes Though it is true the Devil hath claimed This in all Ages witness the many ways of Divination by Oracles

Power and too exorbitant a Regency is ascribed to those Bodies This is done when such an Agency and Virtue is given to them by us as is prejudicial and derogatory 1. To God's universal Power and Government 2. To the Agency of Man's Will And 3. To the Concurrence of other Causes In these Three the Judicious Reader will find the whole Abuse of Astrology as to this latter extreme of it summ'd up For they who immeasurably and proudly brag of this Science defend the Stars to be as it were Divine Agents or that they are instead of God and they go so far as to destroy the native or acquired Freedom of Man's Faculties and they exclude all other Causes but the Stars from having a share in mens Actions On the Contrary if we would avoid the excess and Extravagancy of Astrology if we would correct so wild a Folly we must let God Man's Will and Ioynt Causes have their due place First I say Astrology is shame fully abused when Men attribute such a Power to the Heavenly Bodies as to deny God's Government and Superintendency or which is all one when they deprive God of his Sovereign Power and Dominion to give it to the Stars Some of the High-flown of this Faculty have been guilty of excluding the Divine Providence and Concourse whilst they have defended the Influence or rather Efficiency of the Celestial Powers This is a kin to that Pagan Persuasion That these Bodies have a certain Divinity in them and that they fatally and necessarily act upon us Hence the Chaldeans and others offered Sacrifice to the Stars and expected all good or evil from them which is making them Gods The Epicureans held that every one had his proper Star as a peculiar Daemon or Numen And not onely the Gentiles but Iews polluted themselves with the Worship of the Host of Heaven Manasses being their chief Perverter herein 2 Chron. 33. 3. But if some who pretend to Astrological Studies are not directly guilty of this as I cannot prove they are yet they act almost as profanely whilst they extravagantly and impiously extoll the Power of those Bodies above even so far as to deny God to be the principal Moderatour and Disposer of all Affairs and whilst they assert that extraordinary and preternatural Events and such as depend wholly on God's mere Pleasure and have no Relation at all to natural and common Causes are the Effects of the Motions and Aspects of the Stars and might have been foretold and prognosticated by them A most Intolerable Arrogance and Blasphemy For though I have above granted and am always ready to grant what is Reason and good Sense that God may and doth make use even of natural Instruments in the production of supernatural Effects yet this is a thing that is exceeding rare and then also it is impossible that these Arbitrary Effects should be foretold by any Knowledge that Men have of the Stars But there are some supernatural Effects and Productions which depend not in the least on second Causes but are wrought by God himself without the assistence of Instruments or any Means nay even in defiance of all Secondary Causes as most of the Miracles of the Old and New Testament and these could never be prognosticated by the Stars And therefore the Insolency and Impiety of those is to be abhorred who have told the World in Print that the Judgment of God in the Deluge of old and all the Appearances of Angels afterwards and the Prophesies and Wondrous Dispensations to the Jewish People were from the particular Influence and Operation of the Stars at those Times and that all Christ's Actions Life and Death and consequently our Redemption depended on the Figure of the Heavens at his Nativity in short that Christianity itself was beholding to the Constellations that the Gospel was indebted to the Aspects of the Stars and that all things of Religion are from the Position of the Heavens If the Reader pleaseth to cast his Eye on the Margent he will see that this cursed Doctrine was patronized not onely by professed Atheists but by great Divines and Church-men but let not that offend him for they were such as belonged to that Church which is said by some to be the Nurse of Atheism and Profaneness witness the swarms of Atheists in Italy and the adjacent Countries But sober Reason as well as Religion will inform us that the things before named are above the power of Nature and therefore out of the reach of Astrology This Art hath nothing to doe with supernatural Events with the Divine Oeconomy and God's immediate Will and Pleasure And though in respect of things of another Nature I grant the Heavenly Bodies to have an Influence yet this must be remembred that they cannot Act without the Almighty's Order He telleth the number of the Stars and calleth them all by their Names i. e. He hath the full Command and Disposal of them It is no Dream but a Reality that the Sun Moon and Stars come and bow down and make Obeysance to Him Which indeed is after the rate of the sober Philosophy of the Stoicks viz. That the First Cause is not tied to the Stars These are subject to the Prime and Omnipotent Being who can suspend their Influences whensoever He pleaseth This I suppose is the meaning of what the Hebrew Doctors tell us God said to Abraham in Chaldaea when he studied Judiciary Astrology there Abraham egredere de Astrologia tua nullum enim est sidus Israeli Trouble not thy self about the Stars for there is not one of them can be unlucky to Israel And on this consideration it might be made evident that no man can be Positive in foretelling future Events by the Stars Secondly Astrology is abused and perverted by those who attribute such a Power and Sovereignty to the Heavenly Bodies as whereby they destroy the liberty of mans Will and introduce a kind of fatal Necessity whereupon they ground the certainty of their Prognostications For these men fondly hold that we are all fatally tied to the Stars whereas Man being a free Agent it is folly to imagine that his Will can be constrained This faculty remaineth Arbitrary and Unconsined and therefore no Artist can Divine what the Acts and Exertments of it shall be It is true that Reason and Wisedom have the Dominion but in few Men. The Generality are led by their sensitive and brutish part which is immediately Subject to the Influence of the Heavens But it is not impossible nay it is easie by the aid of Divine Grace and by a resolute Resisting to avoid their Operation upon us Prayers and Endeavours frustrate the Stars for their Influence is not inevitable so as to force any Man's Will and hereupon it is undeniably consequent that voluntary Actions cannot be Infallibly foretold I have shewed already that Supernatural Actions cannot be predicted by the Stars Now I believe it will as palpably appear that Free

that Learned French Physician his Judgment and Practice in this case are well known I question not but the carefull observing and due attending of the Times of the Heavenly Aspects and Influences are very usefull in Physick though now that course be laid aside generally by Practitioners A Third End of these Lights in the Heavens is to be for Days and Years v. 14. that is by the constant Motion of these Bodies Time is measured and numbred by these Time is divided and distinguished into greater and lesser portions as Years Months Weeks Days Hours c. By these we keep an account of our Actions we call to mind reckon compute forecast we understand the duration of Beings the certain Intervalls and distances of things the Ages and Generations of the World which is of singular Use in Man's Life Their Fourth Use is to divide the Day from the Night v. 14. or as it is said afterwards v. 18. to divide the Light from the Darkness and to rule over the Day and over the Night These Heavenly Bodies by their Setting and Rising cause Light and Darkness and consequently are the Authours of the successive Returns of Day and Night to us This is set them as an immoveable and never failing constitution and therefore is styled the Covenant of the Day and Night Ier. 33. 20. and the Ordinance of Heaven Ier. 31. 35 36. And under This Vse of the Heavenly Bodies is comprehended their Warming and Chearing Virtue especially of the Sun which brings to us Day and This together and of which the great Observer of God's Works thus speaketh There is nothing bid from the heat thereof and also their fructifying generative and prolifick Faculty whereby they may justly be said to Rule and bear sway in the World The Fifth and Last Use of these glorious Lights in the firmament of Heaven and which is the use of them wherein we are most concerned at present is to signifie something to the World Let them be for Signs v. 14. And in the place before commented upon they are called the Signs of Heaven Which an Astronomical Poet expresseth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here then may Business is to shew how they are said to be for Signs or What it is that they signifie to the World Accordingly I assert that they signifie three forts of Occurrences viz. Natural Civil and Divine First They give notice to us of Natural things as Rain or Drought Storms or Calms Heat or Cold Winter or Summer with the other Seasons of the Year the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea Plenty or Scarcity of the Fruits of the Earth in short the Change of Weather and Alteration of the temper of the Elements These are signified by the Sun 's Rising or Setting with such and such Stars or Constellations by the Access or Recess of the Planets to and form the Sun and among themselves This it seems is a thing which was thought worthy to be mentioned by a Divine Pen-man for he biddeth the Rebellious Jews seek him that maketh the Seven Stars and Orion i. e. God who by the Appearing of these and other Constellations at certain times gives notice of the different Seasons of the Year And this was a way of speaking which well became Amos the Herdsman who had been used to keep his Cattel and watch in the Fields all Night and there had leisure and opportunity to observe how the several Seasons were ushered in by these Lamps of Heaven But hear what another inspired Searcher into the Heavenly Bodies saith of the great Creatour viz. that He maketh Arcturus Orion and Pleiades and the Chambers of the South That is he maketh the Year the Parts of which are signified and known by the rising of these Constellations for Arcturus or the Bear 's Tail a Star of the first Magnitude in the Northern Hemisphere is said to arise in Autumn Orion a Southern Constellation made up of many splendent Stars arises in Winter It is called Nimbosus Orion by Virgil and is accordingly deemed by Astrologers to be the Cause of great Storms and Tempests It s name in Hebrew is Kesil whence perhaps the Month Kisleu among the Jews which answers to November had its denomination this Constellation rising in that Month. And by the bye let me shove in this Criticism when we reade that the same word Kesil signifies a Fool as in Solomon's Proverbs and other places we need not wonder that a Constellation which causes Change of Weather gives name to a foolish light and unconstant Person The Pleiades or Seven Stars arise in the Spring And Iob makes mention of the Chambers of the South which perhaps are the Stars which arise in the Summer and so the four several Quarters of the Year are set down Aratus and Hyginus and other Ancients discourse of this kind of Prognosticks Of these Philo the Jew speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Stars were made not onely to enlighten the Earth but to be signs of future Accidents i. e. as he there explaineth himself of different Seasons of Weather Which is his meaning in another Treatise where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Signs of all these things that you see upon Earth are set up and erected in the Heavens And I am mistaken if the Learned Father speaketh not of these Prognosticks when he telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Observation of the Luminaries of Heaven is usefull and even necessary for Man's Life unless People will beyond measure and with an unlawfull curiosity search into the Signs which those Bodies afford us Secondly These Heavenly Bodies were created not onely to signifie Natural things but Humane and Civil Occurrences and these either Private or Publick the Concerns of Families or Kingdoms All sorts of Actions and Events whether good or evil or indifferent may at one time or other be partly discerned from the Observation of the Natural and usual Motions of the Host of Heaven For though I cannot make out the dependence and affinity between them and these as of Effects and Causes and though the Knowledge which is gained thence is usually uncertain yet I cannot assert with the boldness which I see others do that there are no Natural Effects following from such Positions and Situations of the Stars but I have reason to believe on the contrary that their various Motions and Aspects are in some measure Significant Let us consider then that the Seven Planets are always in one or other of the Twelve Signs or which is the same thing they are directly under some part of the Zodiack which is divided into 12 parts in all or to speak plainer yet the Wandring Stars move under some particular fixed ones and the mutual Habitude which those have to one another as they are placed under these or as Artists speak as they move through these Signs causeth several Aspects And these Aspects are either Right or Collateral