Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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B08795
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Animadversions upon a fatal period, or, A brief discourse concerning the present state of the body, and the future state of the soul by Tho. Collard.
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Collard, Tho.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing C5102A; ESTC R174032
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31,547
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104
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Mahometan phrenzies TO affirm dogmatically that decollation suspension felo de se or any other miserable death that happen to men yea and all the cursed means thereto as fraud rapine treason sacriledge murther c. are all absolutely appointed by Gods immutable counsel and purpose these conceptions I say of the Almighty derogate much from his goodness mercy and truth and are not only diametrically opposite to his very nature who is Love in the abstract 1 Epist St Joh. 4. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and cannot be the Author of sin but to all the sacred Monuments Records which evince That the Period of every mans Life is mutable and may be extended or shortned by Providence or Art by God or Man For THE great God may as all must yield that will not deny his Attribute of Omnipotency or make him a necessary Agent prolong or shorten the days of any man and our Prayers Repentance the salubrity and purity of the Air and Water our temperance and choice in eating and drinking and the knowing and prudent Physitian may by Gods blessing extend our days Whereas prophaneness our immoderate passions and desires the corrupted and impure Elements our excess in any respect exposing our selves to any great and eminent perils as the Sword or Pestilence or an ignorant and confident Quack with his strong and improper Medicaments may shorten our days And he that denies this as W. C. out of abundance of humility or rather ignorance doth may as well contradict and deny not only his own reason reason did I say that is a most scandalous and impious thing for a meek and mortified man that is full of Raptures and Illuminations to own but also his own experience and the sacred History it self First 'T IS evident from the Scriptures That there is no fatal Period but that our lives may be extended or shortned OUR gracious Maker has promised long life to those that fear him and observe his Mandates Deus his qui ipsum timent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fore promittit Exod. 20. 12. Deut. 4. 40. 5. 16 33. 8. 1. Psal 9. 16. Prov. 4. 10. Eph. 6. 2 3. 1 Tim. 4. 8. AND God threatens the wicked that for their impieties he will cut them off in the midst of their Age that they shall not live so long as otherwise they might Lev. 26. 25. Deut. 5. 25 26. 6. 15. 7. 10. 8. 19. Psal 55. 23. 104. 35. 109. 8. Prov. 10. 27. FROM the Examples of Er and Onan Gen. 38 7 10. of Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16. 32 33. of the Jews Exo. 31. 14 15 of the Egyptians Exod. 14. 28. of Absolon 2 Sam. 18. 9 of Ananias and Saphira Acts 5. 5 10. But were there a fatal Period all these Promises and Menaces must needs be vain false and ridiculous which to affirm or imagine would be no small blasphemy And the sad Catastrophes of the forementioned of Er and Onan of Ananias and Saphira c. were the results of his eternal and absolute Decrees and not of his wrath and just Judgments And that tho Corah and his Confederates did not die the common death of men but the earth open'd her mouth and swallowed them up yet in W. C's Opinion pag. 9. they liv'd out all the days of their special and personal limit or all the days appointed as their portion in the land of the living This methinks looks Legerdemain than honest and sound Theology THERE are two places of holy Writ amongst several others some whereof anon I shall have occasion to nominate which may cause W. C. to strike sail and yeeld to right and truth if the simple Encomiums of the Vulgar and of the factious Party have not metamorphoz'd and puft him up into a carnal state which he tells us is very dangerous and in this we believe him of arrogancy and self-adoration THE first is Jer. 21. 8 9. Thus saith the Lord Behold I set before you the way of life and the way of death He that abideth in this City shall die by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence but he that goeth out and falleth to the Caldeans that besiege you he shall live and his life shall be to him for a prey Which clearly demonstrates that the time manner and place of their death were not limited and determined by any absolute and unchangeable purpose or Decree of God for 't was in their own choice and power either to extend or shorten their days If they would remain in the City they should die if forsake it they should live THE second is the fifth Commandment Exod. 20. 12. which only hath a Promise annext to it Honour thy father and mother that is thy civil Parents the King Magistrates thy Ecclesiastical Parents Bishops Pastors as well as thy natural Parents that brought thee into the world that thy days may be long in the land That here intimates not the final cause but the event 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Grammarians speak for this is not the end of our obedience but an event and a consequent to follow upon it and the Promise is used as a motive to give honor to whom honor is due To clear the truth of this we must observe first That all the Promises of God for temporal things as for life health wealth are conditional not absolute Psal 34. 12 13 14. 1 Pet. 3. 10 11. Mat. 6. 33. and shall so far be performed as may make for our good and therefore in Deut. 5. 16. the Promise is thus limited and declar'd Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be prolonged and that it may go well with thee So that the meaning is saith the most Reverend and Learned Bp. of Glocester in his Exp. that so long as it may go well with any man his life shall be prolonged as no farther but if his life prove to him a displeasure and no benefit it shall be taken away and an eternal which is far better bestowed on him Thus it happen'd to Josiah 2 Kings 22. 20. Thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring on this place Or secondly That it may go well with thee may carry this sense which St. Paul intimates 1 Tim. 1. 2. Honor and pray for Kings that you may lead a quiet and peaceable life for where this holy Order is broken and abrogated all peace and quietness as our civil Dissentions prov'd is disturb'd and nothing but blood wounds and confusion follow Or thirdly This might shew Gods Ordinance For the Almighty commonly gives a healthy and long life to crown our obedience even before the Sons of men Psal 37. 22. Jer. 17. 11. In this particular the disobedient Son was to be cut off by the hand of the Magistrate and was to be stoned Deut. 21. 18. And Solomon tells us Prov. 30. 17. The eye that mocketh
ANIMADVERSIONS UPON A FATAL PERIOD Or a Brief DISCOURSE Concerning The Present State of the Body And The Future State of the Soul By Tho. Collard M. A. O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as an hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Matt. 23. 37. LONDON Printed by T. D. for Thomas Basset at the George near St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1678. To the judicious knowing and skilful Physicians Apothecaries and Chirurgians These Animadversions upon a fatal Period are most humbly dedicated by the Author Honoured Sirs I Hope I may beg and easily obtain your pardon for prefixing your names to these few Sheets seeing your whole Profession by the clearest Consequence is by some mens endeavours likely to be defam'd and cashier'd as one great Imposture To the READER THe Notion of a Destiny of the Fatal Event of all things of peremptory and absolute Decrees being once imbibed by the Vulgar or even by their great Abettors they soon commence such excellent Sophisters as to argue and cajole themselves out of all morality and honesty Abold and Hectoring confidence an idle and fruitless faith Yeas and Nays grave nods sadtones and accents wrie Mouths sullen and lugubrious looks Hypocrisie and meer Formalities with the more precious Sort of them and oaths curses imprecations and notorious frolicks and debaucheries with the Prophaner have the like influence they think on God concerning their present and future State as truth sincerity temperance ardent zeal emient piety real charity and devotion For the Almighty in their judgments before they had a Being design'd their Fate either of bliss or misery which neither Vice nor Virtue can alter Death 't is confest is very formidous of a tragical and austere Aspect and Life especially eternal is sweet and eligible desir'd and courted by all but should they endeavour to use all the Means and Methods imaginable to eschew the One and to enjoy the Other yet a previous and dormant Decree might frustrate their designs and press them to the infernal Pit whiles Ideots like they were aspiring for Heaven This supersedes their care and industry makes them respect an extravagant Romance a Dithyrambick or a hymn of their own making as good for the Health of their Souls as the whole Duty of Man Te Deum or one of Davids Penitentials and Chalk Ashes and Sawdust as efficacious for the Health of their Bodyes as the richest Julips and Cordials and so Both oftentimes perish either by Presumption or Despair these being the direful Effects and sad results which naturally issue like insipid rivulets from putrid springs from such brain-sick and vertiginous Phancies There are many I know elaborate and judicious Discourses both from the Press and the Pulpit which since the blessed and miraculous Restauration of our exil'd KING and CHURCH have like so many holy Engines batter'd down those prodigious Opinions concerning Gods most just and sacred Decrees Yet the Contagion still remaining in these Parts as was evident from W. C's Pulpit-Prate in Vindication of a Fatal Period and the Turks Aphorism Quod terminus vitae est immutabilis and even as it now appears from the Press in its new form after two years licking for there are some things added as that of Bp. H. and more omitted yet the zealous Harangue is still a Bear able to startle all that have any good thoughts of a Deity or any real estimate for Truth Reason Piety Religion and the Sincerity of the Sacred Writ tho 't is receiv'd by his infatuated Proselytes with as great veneration as one of St. Pauls Epistles And this is no Novelty nor wonder neither for 't is storied of a Geneva Innocent I might say a blasphemous Zealot that said Si veniret Sanctus Paulus qui eadem horâ concionaretur quâ Calvinus ego relicto Paulo audirem Calvinum If St. Paul should come from Heaven and Preach at the same time that Calvin did I would desert Paul and attend and hear precious Mr. John Calvin Comparisons I know are odious and I must needs confess that there is as vast a difference between J. C. the Master and W. C. the Disciple as there is between a subtile Politician that can Argue and Rhetoricate and one of his talkative Bigots Our Plebeans and Artizans and most that formerly frequented the illegal Meetings being infected with the sowr Leaven of absolute and irrespective Decrees of Election and Reprobation which are us'd by them as Catholicons to free them from all the diseases both of body and mind from all faults and Errors for after the most detestable acts and hainous offences they usually solace themselves as I have often known That all was decreed allotted and appointed for them that Gods will must be done and that if God had given them better Grace as they usually word it they had been better men and less peccant So that the poor ignorant Creatures tho highly conceited of their own as well as of their Teachers knowledg dream that the Almighty is oblig'd in honour to pardon their most deliberate and blackest crimes they being according to their own Principles necessitated thereto by his own eternal and immutable Act and Deed. This Contagion I say being yet amongst us This mean Antidote may not I presume prove altogether ineffectual tho not totally to Allay and expel yet in some measure to put a stop to the Increase and spreading of it which has been one of the grand Causes of that vast Empire Sin has got in England since the publick Preaching of it in and a little before our late intestine Commotions I shall not apologize but shall leave the ensuing Lines to thy serious and impartial Consideration A brief Discourse Ezek. 18. 31 Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die O house of Israel THE many Misapprehensions of God especially concerning the secret purposes of his Will which he neither commands us to search after nor will permit us to know and surely then were we but half ashamed of notorious Contradictions we should never pretend to know Gods Decrees which we call hidden and secret and the divers Misperswasions of the Divine Attributes especially concerning his Justice and Mercy are none of the smallest Causes of those gross Errors and scandalous practices that are found amongst the Propugners of them The Pulpit Chair and Press when we found by woful experience that Maxim verified No Bishop no King insinuated unto us such Opinions and Doctrines one of the most blasphemous that ever I heard was vented when the Good Old Cause was rampant by Mr. W. at a Soul-edifying Lecture viz. That we are not saved by Jesus Christ as infer falshood in God and set an opposition between his revealed and his secret Will his holy Commands and just Decrees