Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	believe_v	reason_n	see_v	1,394	5	3.2017	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28272	No reason to desire new revelations a sermon preach'd at the Cathedral-Church of St. Paul, October 7th, 1700, being the seventh for the year 1700, of the lecture founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. / by Ofspring Blackall ...	Blackall, Offspring, 1654-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing B3047; ESTC R18677	36,532	66

had very good Proof and Evidence of the Truth of the Christian Religion and had they but been of this happy Number they are sure they should not only have believed but also willingly have suffered as much as the Apostles themselves did for Bearing their Testimony to the Truth of those things which they had seen and heard And what now must be done for the Satisfaction of these Men For these have as much Right to a full Satisfaction as any others and by the same Reason that others do expect to be gratified in what they desire these may do so too And therefore in order to their Satisfaction it is necessary that our Saviour should be Born into the World in every Age of it or indeed much oftner and that in every Country at least if not in every Town and Village he should live and Preach and do Miracles and be Crucified and Rise again for that these things have been once done they can't they say believe only upon the Testimony of other Men who say they did see them And therefore by the same Reason if they themselves should see them other Men that should come after or live in other Countries would have as little Cause to believe their Testimony So that for the full satisfaction of all such Doubting Men as these our Saviour must have suffered often since the Beginning of the World and must continue to do so very frequently as long as the World shall last because with some Men nothing but seeing is Believing But that this should be is what I presume none besides themselves can think it reasonable either for Men to ask or for God to grant 4. Lastly The Unreasonableness of desiring any further or additional Proof of the Truth of Religion besides what is already afforded us in the Standing Revelation of the Holy Scripture will farther appear by considering our own Interest in being convinced and persuaded of the Truth of Religion by such Arguments and Motives as are in themselves sufficient for that purpose altho' they be not so very strong and forcible as we could wish they were And this Argument I shall handle in the way of Reproof and a just and seasonable Reproof I think it to such bold and presuming Persons as I have been now speaking of who will needs stand upon their Terms with Almighty God and will not be persuaded to Believe and Repent but just by such Reasons and such Motives as they themselves shall be pleased to require Tell not us say they of Moses and the Prophets and of things that were done a great while ago we know not when We 'll have fresh Revelations and new Miracles or Messengers from the Dead or else we will not Believe and Repent that we are resolv'd on Very well Then I say you may if you will continue still in your Unbelief and Impenitence Nevertheless I would advise you before you fully determine to persist in this Resolution to take a little time to consider seriously whose Interest and Concern it is either that you should Believe or that you should not Believe consider who it is that will be a Gainer or a Sufferer either by the One or by the Other For let me tell you if there be really a Heaven and a Hell and a Judgment and a Life to come 't is not your not believing them that will make them not to be and if these things are true 't is your own Life and Soul that is at Stake and if you are resolv'd to lose both unless you may be Saved your own way you your selves will be the greatest nay you your selves will be the only Sufferers And this is a Consideration that affects the Case very much and makes it very unreasonable to insist upon having such satisfaction in this Case as in some other Cases might not so very unreasonably be desired For if any Man tells me a Story which it is for his Interest I should believe it is his Concern to give me such Assurance of it as I shall require even altho' less than I require would be in all Reason sufficient And therefore if I will not believe one or two Witnesses tho' it may be unreasonable in me not to believe them yet it is his Business and what it behoves him to do to produce if it be possible ten or twenty Witnesses or as many more as I shall ask for And if one sort of Proof tho' in it self it be never so good will not satisfie me it is his part and what he ought in Reason to do if he be able to bring other Proofs of it and so to go on multiplying his Witnesses and his Proofs 'till such time as I shall declare my self fully satisfied And the Reason is because the Loss or Inconvenience will be his and only his in Case he cannot convince me of the Truth of his Relation But now on the other side if the Story which he tells me be true and it be for my Interest and Advantage only not at all for his that I should believe it to be true If I say he will be neither a Gainer nor a Loser whether I believe his Report or whether I do not believe it then if he gives me such Evidence of the Truth of it as is sufficient to convince a Man of Reason he has done enough he has done all that belonged to him as a Friend to do And if after this I make it my Business to cavil at and to except against his Evidence and go about to prescribe to him what sort of Proof he should give me of the Truth of what he relates declaring withal that less or other Proof than just that which I require shall never satisfie me he may justly reject my Suit as unreasonable and condemn me for a Fool that will not see my own Interest nor know when a Friend has done enough And this is exactly our Case God has sent his Son to us with the Promise of Eternal Life and has given us sufficient Assurance of his Divine Mission and thereby of the Truth of that Revelation which he made Now if we will believe this well and good the Profit will be all our own we shall save our own Souls alive But God will receive no Advantage to himself by our Believing his perfect Happiness being not capable of any Increase But if we will not Believe this Testimony that God has given of his Son if we except against his Witnesses and cavil at his Evidence and will not Believe but just upon that very sort of Proof which we our selves are pleas'd to pitch upon why then we may e'en take our own Course we may be Unbelievers still but 't is we only that shall suffer by our Unbelief the Infinite and Essential Happiness of God being as little capable of Diminution as of Advancement And as if we Believe and Repent God will be Glorified in our Salvation so if we will not Believe and Repent he will be

be Christians and when the Scales are already near even a small weight put into the lightest will make it overbalance the other so that it may reasonably be hoped that some small Addition to the Proof of Religion no more than might be made to it without destroying either our Freedom of Choice or the Excellency of Faith and Virtue would prevail with these Half Christians And perhaps it might But God is wiser than we are and knows better than we what is fit for him to do towards the Conversion of Men. We ought therefore to conclude that he does all that is fit to be done tho' we do not see but that he might do more But this it may be will not be taken for an Answer but will rather be thought a way of avoiding a Difficulty too hard to be accounted for And therefore I say further and it was the third thing which I proposed to be considered 3. That if God should gratifie all Men in this Request working new Miracles every Day for the Conviction of particular Persons Sermon VII and as I have formerly noted there is no Reason in the World why any one Man should be gratified in this Request rather than others when they have all equal Reason and equal Right to desire it should God I say gratifie all Men in this Request the Abundance of the Miracles that must then be wrought would be so far from adding to the Proof of Christianity that it would rather lessen or weaken that Proof of it which we have already because Miracles the properest Proof of a Publick Divine Revelation would not be then so convincing as they are now For that which most of all affects Men in a Miracle is the Unusualness of it because it is such a thing as was never or but rarely before ever seen or heard of As the Blind Man that had been Cured by our Saviour well observes Joh. ix 32. Since the Beginning of the World hath it not been heard that any Man hath opened the Eyes of one that was born Blind Had it been a common thing it would have been no Miracle I mean it would not have appeared so it would not have been thought so by Men. For that which makes Men wonder even at a true Miracle is not so much because it is such an Operation as they cannot give a fair account of by Natural Causes for this they can't do I 'm confident I may say they have not yet done it of many of the Works and Productions of Nature But they therefore conclude such a thing not to be a Natural Operation because it is not usual because it is such a thing as was never before known to be done And if the same thing which now for this Reason we should account a Miracle was done every Day the Virtuosi would presently set themselves to invent and would quickly fancy they had found out some Natural Solution of it And I believe there are not many Miracles that have been done which they might not after long Study be able to give as clear and probable an Account of by Natural Causes as they have done of Gravity of Fire of the Loadstone of Vision of the Production of Vegetables of the Generation of Animals and of many other things which yet are doubtless the Works and Effects of Natural Causes So that I say the most probable Consequence of having Miracles so very common as they must be if they were wrought for the Conviction of particular Men would be this that they wou'd cease to serve for that Purpose for which Miracles were designed because being common they would be disregarded or would quickly be looked upon to be the Effect of Natural Causes only There would not be wanting those that would offer to give an Account how they were done and all those would be despised by the Scorners of Religion as too much addicted to Superstition who rather than attribute the greatest Miracle to a Supernatural Power would not acquiesce in that Solution how silly soever that was given of it by meer Matter and Motion And in particular I question not but that if it was a common thing for dead Men after they had lain in their Graves for some time to come forth again and shew themselves alive to their Friends this wonderful Effect would be attributed by a great many to some Vital Principle in the Body which only Slept for a while as it does in Corn or other Seeds while they are kept dry and above Ground but afterwards when the Body was buried a while was excited by some Natural Virtue that was in the Earth to exert it self and so by its Plastick Power formed the Body into the same shape it was in before This I say would in all probability be the Effect that the greatest Miracles would have in the World if they were very common They'd only serve to set the Philosophers Wits to work to invent new Forms of Matter and new Laws of Motion by which to solve them and any Solution of them tho' never so improbable tho' only by Occult Qualities would serve turn and be thought better than to recur to an Almighty Power The Consequence of which would be that this which we desire as an additional Proof of Christianity would in effect destroy one of the best Proofs of it that we have already But 4. Lastly If it be supposed that Miracles would still be thought Miracles notwithstanding their Commonness yet Abraham might well deliver it as a General Truth to which there are none or very few Exceptions that he who is not wrought upon by a Standing Revelation of God's Will would not be persuaded by an extraordinary Message or a new Miracle because it is Matter of Fast and Experience that this last Method has been generally unsuccessful upon those who have not hearkned to nor been convinced by a Standing Revelation For this was the very Case of the Jews in our Saviour's time the Parable was literally fulfilled in them For as they would not believe Moses and the Prophets testifying of our Saviour so neither did they any more believe our Saviour himself when he came down to them from Heaven in the Power of God And as they did not believe him while he lived amongst them and went about Preaching and doing Miracles so neither did they believe him a jot more after he came again to them from the dead Never were there such Signs and Miracles wrought for Mens Conviction and yet never was there such a number of obstinate Infidels as then Very few even of those who were Eye-witnesses of our Saviour's Miracles were the better for them but many were a great deal worse wilfully blaspheming that Spirit by which he wrought them and attributing those Operations to the Help of the Devil which they were convinced in their own Judgments were done by the Power of God The opening the Eyes of the Blind Joh. 9.39.11.47 12.10 did but make those that