Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
cause_n adam_n original_a sin_n 3,848 5 6.1835 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A52293 A conference with a theist part I / by William Nicholls. Nicholls, William, 1664-1712. 1698 (1698) Wing N1093; ESTC R25508 121,669 301

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

which are all very lame and unsatisfactory in themselves as they are asserted without any proof But on the contrary what can be more natural and easy than to account for this by deducing Mankind from one common stock which had deviated from its Original Rectitude That the Soul was strangely degenerated from its Original stamp was a thing which all wise Men were sensible of but how this came to pass the Heathens to whom God had not vouchsafed his Revelations was a thing they could only guess and blunder at in the dark Hence Aristotle compares the state of the Soul in the Body to the Etruscan Robbers joining dead Bodies to living ones And Tully talks of the effects of Original Sin more like a Divine than a Philosopher For thus St. Austin in his 4th Book against Julian brings him in saying Cic. Lib. 3. de Repub. non à Matre sed à Novercâ naturâ editum esse hominem in vitam corpore nudo fragili infirmo animo anxio ad molestias humili ad timores molli ad labores prono ad libidines in quo tamen velut obrutus inesset ignis quidam divinus mentis That Man was not born of nature as of a Mother but as a Step-Mother with a Body naked frail and infirm with a mind anxious for Troubles dejected for Fears sluggish to Labour and prone to Lust in which that divine Fire of the Soul lies as it were smothered Upon which St. Austin remarks Non Author iste male viventium moribus dixit effectum sed naturam potius accusavit Rem vidit causam nescivit Latebat enim eum cur esset grave jugum super filios Adam quia sacris literis non eruditus ignorabat originale peccatum This Author did not speak of the unhappy effect occasioned by the disobedience of our first ill-living Parents but only accused nature He very well saw the Thing but was ignorant of the Cause The Reason was hid from him why so heavy a Yoke was laid upon the Sons of Adam because not being educated in the sacred Letters he was ignorant of Original Sin If these wise Men had but had the Advantage of reading the Mosaical Account they would never have taken up with such foolish Hypotheses to explain the Origin of Evil by They would quickly have concluded with our Saviour's Argument that a Corrupt Tree cannot bring forth Good Fruit Matt. 7.18 Because this Explication of the rise of Sin by an Original Lapse is freed from those Absurdities which the other Explications abound with 2. Another very good Argument His account the best of the Pudor circa res Veneris for the Excellency of the Mosaical Account of the Fall is because it gives a Rationale of the Pudor circa res venereas which is a Thing which all the reason of Mankind was never able to do For how strange is it to consider what an innate bashfulness there is implanted in all Mankind as to these things and they are looked upon Monsters in nature that can devest themselves of it and yet to consider how little natural reason is to be given for such a shame Nay I defy the whole Wit of Mankind to give any one tolerably satisfactory For there is no reason in the World why Mankind should not use publick commixtures in a lawful way as well as eat and drink in publick or why he should be ashamed of one more than the other For nothing in nature is really shameful but Vice And upon this account the Cynick Philosophers reasoned themselves into such Beasts as to throw off all shame of this nature and pretended it was only a vulgar Errour But notwithstanding this the generality of men find a mighty impulse of unaccountable shame over-ruling them in such matters and the most impudent are forced to struggle long with it before they can conquer it and which no one can give a natural reason for but must be beholding to the Mosaical Relation to account for And from hence all the difficulty is cleared up we from hence learn what Irregularities we fall into by the defect of that Original Grace forfeited by the first Parents and from the predominancy of our Animal Nature over our Spiritual and that this shame is not only a Note of our own Turpitude but a perpetual Mark and Brand of our shameful Origin from such a degenerate stock Of the pain of Child-birth 3. Another very good Argument for the excellence of the Mosaical Relation of the Fall is The Pain of Childbirth Aristotle in his Book of Animals long ago observed that Woman of all Creatures in the World was most vexed and tormented in bringing forth Now what an unaccountable thing is it that Woman which is the principal Female of the whole Creation should be dealt withal more unkindly by God than the meanest Creature upon Earth I defy the wisest Philosopher upon Earth to give a reason why other Females should bring forth with so much ease and why God should inflict such intolerable pain upon Woman alone To be sure God Almighty did not allot this out of humour and Caprice but he had a very good reason for it now never any tolerable reason was assigned besides that which Moses has given in his Relation of the Fall and this appears very satisfactory and rational and therefore is a very good Argument for the Truth and Excellency of this History 4. Another Argument is Of the barrenness of the Earth the Account Moses has given of the modern Sterility of the Earth It has perplexed the greatest Philosophers to account for this Barrenness and it has made such Impression upon some as to make them turn Atheists and deny Providence And indeed from natural Light there is no reason to be given for it For indeed it is very surprising to consider what ungrateful returns oftentimes the stubborn ground yields to the care of the Husbandman how prolifick it is of its own accord of noxious and useless Herbs and how sparingly it produces those we want what a great part of the World is uninhabitable Deserts and Barren Heaths that are uncapable of any Tillage and bring forth hardly any thing profitable to Mankind Now this which has puzzled the Wit of all the Heathen World is fairly accounted for in Moses his History when he relates this as a punishment for the disobedience of our first Parents I could yet urge farther in behalf of this History of the Fall the slowness of the Education of Children and their natural Imbecillity above all other Creatures the subjection of the Woman to the Man our Antipathy to Viperous Animals if you can have patience to hear them and which can never be accounted for but by the Mosaick History Phil. You need not bespeak my Patience Sir at any time for your Discourse but I think by the Arguments you have brought upon this subject you have proved it strenuously enough And the Night draws on and therefore I must hasten away My hearty thanks Sir for the pains you have taken towards converting a poor Infidel and at your leisure I will take another opportunity to be further Catechized I. Chaos of the Sun and seaven Planets 1 Days work II. Let there be Light c. Gen. 1.3 2 Days work III. And God divided the Waters which were under the firmament c. Gen. 3.7 3. Days work IV. Let the Waters be gathered to gether c. Gen. 1.9 Let the Earth bring forth Grass c. v. 11. 4. Days work V. And God said let there be Lights c. v. 14. VI.