Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bad_a	good_a	reason_n	1,431	5	5.5448	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67178	An apologetical narration, or, A just and necessary vindication of Clement Writer against a four-fold charge laid on him by Richard Baxter, and published by him in print.	Writer, Clement, fl. 1627-1658.	1658 (1658)	Wing W3722; ESTC R12025	57,785	109

author of these Scriptures and by extraordinary endowments was the Author of those Miracles which were wrought for its Confirmation N. When or by whom was this done or any Miracles wrought for the Scriptures confirmation A. The Scripture reports the Miracles can the Miracles reported by Scripture confirm that report The Scripture rather confirms the Miracles it reports if any confirmation at all be between these two I shall here for a Conclusion onely note one passage more of his and that is in his Saints Rest part 4. page 149. being as followeth God doth not regenerate thy soul that it may be able to know him and not know him or that it may be able to believe and yet not believe c. By which is implyed That none but regenerate persons are able to believe and that regeneration is wrought onely by God Whence I may quere of him 1. How then comes unbelief to be any sin in the Unregenerate 2. Or is it a sin in the Regenerate onely and if so then regenerate Persons onely must be damned for not believing it being inconsistent with the Goodness Mercy and Justice of God especially by his Gospel of Grace to require impossibilities of men and that upon pain of Damnation FINIS An EPISTLE to Mr. BAXTER Collected for the most part out of his Prologue to Mr. KENDAL Sir BE pleased to minde what Solomon adviseth Not to strive with a man without cause if he hath done thee no harm Prov. 3. 30. and Not to go forth hastily to strive lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof when thy n●ighbou● hath put thee to shame Pr. 25. 8 It seemeth a st●ange thing to me that you could finde no Man among all your learned Opponents to contest withal but that you must make to your self an Adversary of one so unlearned as my self unless it be because you are likely with such a one to have the easiest conflict but then you should have remembred that the victory will be as small I pretend not to such a piercing Knowledge or Acquaintance with the invisible Regions of humane Arts and Sciences as infallibly to determine of what Province or Degree that Spirit in you was that raised this Contention or to know exactly the Name or Sir-name of that fury that animated these your practises or lines against me Have you already levelled all those high Mountains that lay in your way and fel'd to the ground all those Cedars with whom you formerly contended that you seek now to stock up all Shrubs likewise that bear not your Impress and Mark upon them Doubtless this proceeds rather from your Presumption and Pride then from any just Authority you have either from God or Man but seeing you are pleased to chuse me for your Adversary I must desire you to bear with me if I have spoken something less pleasingly and to use what patience you have yet left as knowing you have drawn this trouble upon your self by your causeless Provocations and Assaults made upon me which I hope will excuse me in the eyes of all impartial and ingenuous Men. I confess my self destitute of School-Learning and humane Arts and Sciences so much applauded in the world herein I freely give you the day to weare those Titles and Robes of Honour appurtenant thereunto contenting my self to have right to that far better Title of being an honest Man which in respect of your self you have much hazarded the loss of by your dis-ingenuous carriage towards me I contend not to have the Reputation of learning or being a rare and excellent Scholar but freely allow you the due praise thereof scarcely thinking it worthy my labour till I have higher thoughts of the Prize mens applause being but an airy nourishment meerly feeding vainglory in men empty of all true worth Onely I must crave this of the Reader that my confess'd weakness be no prejudice to the Truth here vindicated by me and that he will not judge of the cause by the person nor take the name or person nor yet the rarity of the thing for a fault which is the thing that the ancient Christians did much deprecate of the Pagans and therefore I hope every ingenuous and impartial man will grant it me in the present case And I must also desire that the want of Eloquence Rhetorick or smooth and pleasing Words may not be judged the want of truth Enim vero dissoluti est pectoris in rebus seriis quaerere voluptatem c. inquit Arnobius Li. 1 adv Gent. p. 49. viz. It is the condition of a dissolute heart to seek pleasures in serious matters and when thou hast to do with those that are ill at ease and sick to fill their ears with pleasing sounds and not apply medicine to their wounds I confess I deeply compassionate the generality of Professors to think how unpossible it is for them to discern the truth among the multitudes of smooth Words plausible Arguments fallacious School-distinctions and reasonings of the learned Contenders on each side usually they think each Mans Tale good till they hear the other and then they think it bad and at last when they see what fair glosses a learned Sophister can put upon the worst cause they are justly occasioned to believe or regard little or nothing they say The Reader that I expect should profit by this discourse must neither be the careless vulgar utterly unlearned nor any so learned as your self for the former are scarcely capable of it and the learned think themselves beyond it and will hardly learn any thing from any man that is less learned then themselves it is the middle sort and plain-hearted people who are sincere Lovers of truth whose instruction I intend who are neither quite above nor below information nor so ingaged to any party or Opinion but that their minds lye open to the evidence of Truth by what hand soever it be made known to them And although I come extreamly short of you in humane Arts and Philosophical Notions yet let not the Reader thence conclude That you are therefore right in your Divinity or more right then another man that comes short of you in humane Learning for if he doth let him be assured to be miserably deceived in the end And I could wish that you had so mean thoughts of your Philosophy and other your humane Arts as that you would not build your Divinity so much upon it as you do nor think much the better either of your Writings or your self for doubtless when the Canon of a Councel forbad the reading of Heathen or humane Authors this kind of Learning was not so highly valued as now it is which may likewise evidently appear by Socrates L. 1. C. 5. cited P. 33. of the foregoing Treatise Farewel C. W. Lond Aug. 10. 1658. An Appendix and Supplement to the foregoing Discourse by the same Author IF it were lawful further to dive into this mysterious fraud we should finde That the