Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	know_v	soul_n	2,162	5	5.1925	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48621	A discourse of constancy in two books chiefly containing consolations against publick evils written in Latin by Justus Lipsius, and translated into English by Nathaniel Wanley ...; De constantia. English	Lipsius, Justus, 1547-1606.; Wanley, Nathaniel, 1634-1680.	1670 (1670)	Wing L2360; ESTC R18694	89,449	324

God vvills it otherwise vvho you ought to know sees more clearly into these matters and punishes for other ends The heats of passion and a certain desire of Revenge transport us from all vvhich God is most remotely distant and intends the vvarning and correction of others For he best knowes to vvhom and vvhen these things may be useful The choice of times is of great moment and for vvant of a due and seasonable administration the safest medicines do oftentimes prove fatal to us He took away Caligula in the first setting out of his Tyranny He suffered Nero to run on longer and Tiberius beyond either and this no doubt for the good of those very Men vvho then also complain'd Our vicious and uncorrected manners do often stand in need of a lasting and continued scourge though vve vvould have it straight remov'd and thrown into the Fire This is one cause of the forbearance of God vvhich respect us the other respects himself To vvhom it seems natural to proceed on to his Revenge vvith a slow pace and to recompence the delay of his punishment vvith the vveight of it Synecius said vvell the Divine inquisition moves on slowly and by degrees And so did the Ancients vvho from this property of his feign'd God to have feet of Wool So that although you are passionately hasty of Revenge you cannot yet accuse this delay since it is so only a respite of punishment that it may be also an encrease Tell me vvere you present at a Tragedy vvould you stomach it that the Atreus there or the Thyestes in the first or second act should in a glorious garbe and vvith a stately tread pass through the Scenes That they should rule there threaten and command all I suppose you would not for you know that felicity is but short-liv'd And expect that all this grandeur should finish in a fatal Catastrophe In this Play and Fable of the World vvhy are you more offended vvith God than you vvould be vvith any Poet That wicked Man flourishes and that Tyrant lives happy Be it so but think vvithall that this is but the first Act And before possess your self inwardly vvith this that tears and forrows press on hard to overtake those joyes This Scene shall shortly flow vvith blood and then those robes of Gold and Purple shall be rowled up and down and trampled in it For that great Master of ours is a good Poet and vvill not rashly exceed the Lawes of his Tragedy Do vve not vvillingly bear with Discords in Musick for some time because vve know that the last closures vvill end in comfort Do so here But you vvill say those miserable Creatures that have suffered under this Tyranny do not alwayes see the punishment What wonder is it For the Play is oftentimes somewhat long and they are not able to sit it out in this Theatre But others see it and fear because they see that though in this severe Court of Judicatory some Men are reprieved yet they are not pardoned And though the day of execution is prolonged yet it is not forgot Wherefore Lipsius remember this that vvicked Men are sometimes forborne but never acquited Nor is there any Man that entertains a crime into his brest but vvho also hath a Nemesis at his back for that Goddess is in pursuit of him and as I may say vvith Euripides VVith silent unsuspected pace She doth the guilty Sinner trace And though he strive with utmost hast To scape she seiseth him at last CHAP. XIV That there are divers sorts of punishments some occult and internal which accompany the crime it self and which the wicked never escape That such are more grievous than any external ones WHich notwithstanding that you may more clearly apprehend and that I may once lead you into the height of this cause You must know that Divine punishments are threefold Internal Posthumous and External Those I call Internal vvhich are inflicted on the Soul vvhile it is yet in the Body such are Anxiety Penitence Fears and a thousand pangs and stings of Conscience Those are Posthumous vvhich are inflicted upon the same Soul but then vvhen it is freed and separate from the Body Such are those torments which even the Ancients most of them vvere of opinion did await the vvicked after Death The third sort are such as touch upon the Body or the things that belong to it as Poverty Banishment Pain Diseases Death All vvhich do sometimes by the just Judgment of God concurr against the Wicked but the two former alwayes To speak of internal punishments vvhere shall we find the Man so profusely and audaciously wicked that hath not sensibly felt in his Soul some of these sharp scourges and stripes either in the Commission of his crimes or at least after he hath acted them So true is that vvhich Plato said of old that punishment treads upon the heels of sin or as Hesiod more properly it is coeval and twinns with it The punishment of evil is not only ally'd to but is bred vvithin that evil nor is there any thing in this Life that can pretend to calmness and security besides innocence alone As the Roman custome did enforce the Malefactour to bear that Cross which vvas streight to bear him So hath God impos'd upon all wicked Men this Cross of Conscience on vvhich they shall begin to suffer before their further and vvorse sufferings do begin Do you suppose that only to be punishment which we can look upon and which this Body doth sensibly undergo No. All those external things do but lightly and for no long time touch upon us they are the internal that more exquisitely torment us As we judge them to be more desperately sick who languish away under an inward waste than those that are seised vvith some visible inflammation or preternatural hearts though these last are more apparent So are vvicked Men under a more grievous punishment vvho vvith so low and indiscernible procedures are lead on to their eternal Death It used to be the cruel command of Caligula so strike as that he may feel he dyes the same befalls these Men vvhom their Conscience as an Executioner doth daily torture and even kill by these slow degrees of lesser and repeated stripes Nor let the splendour or the inlarged power and vvealth of those Men impose upon you Since they are no more happy and fortunate for these than they are healthful whose Gout or Feaver rests it self upon a purple Couch Do you see a beggarly Fellow represent in some Play the person of a Prince all Pompous and brave You behold him yet vvithout envy for you know how under those golden Robes his Sores and Filth and Poverty lye hid Think the same of all those great and proud Tyrants In whose Minds if they lay open to us saith Tacitus we might behold gashes and wounds For as Bodies are torn with stripes so are the Souls of Men miserably dilacerated vvith blood lust and

undergo since it is most righteous that punishment should be the inseparable companion of unrighteousness But you vvill say it is the inequality of it that displeases me For vve see them heavily scourged that have but lightly offended vvhile those that are outragiously vvicked do continue and flourish in the height of all their grandeurs Would you then vvrest the ballance out of the hands of the Heavenly Justice and poise it vvith your own vveights agreeable to your own apprehensions For vvhat else can you mean by that bold pronouncing upon the equality or inequality of crimes otherwise than God hath done before you You are therefore here Lipsius to consider of two things First that a true estimation of the crimes of others neither can nor ought to be attempted by Man For how shall he do it that not so much as observes them And vvhich vvay shall he put an exact difference betwixt those things vvhich he hath not so much as seen For you will easily grant it me that it is the Mind that sins by the Body and senses indeed as its instruments but yet so as that the main business and vveight of the crime doth in the mean time depend upon it self This is so exactly true that if it appear any one hath unwillingly sinned he is clear of the sin And if this be so how is it possible I beseech you that you should throughly discern of Sin who are not able to reach to the residence and seat of it For so farr are you from seeing into the Heart and Soul of another that you cannot attain to the knowledge of your own It is therefore a wonderful vanity and no less a temerity to pretend to the Censure and Arbitration of such things as are neither fully seen nor to be seen neither known nor to be known Consider secondly that if what you say were true there were yet neither Evil nor injustice done to them No Evil because it s done for their good who are presently punished even for smaller offences 'T is rather the love of God to them since that punishment vvhich is delayed is justly to be suspected as portending a heavier judgment is to come Neither is it unjust because as I said we have all deserved punishment Nor can the best of us pretend to so unblemished a purity but there vvill be found some such spots in it as are to be vvashed out as I may say vvith this salt water of Affliction Forbear therefore young-man this intricate pursuit of the respects and proportions of crimes And since thou art but an earthly and pedaneous judge leave it to God who from his higher tribunal vvill determine of it vvith greater equity and certainty 'T is he only that can distinguish of our deserts and 't is he alone vvho notwithstanding all artificial disguises can behold both vice and vertue in their proper countenances Who can impose upon him vvho equally searches into things internal and external that sees at once the Body and the Mind the Tongue and the Heart And to conclude those things that are open vvith those that are recluded and retyred Who doth not only most clearly behold our actions themselves but also their causes and the vvhole progress of them When Thales vvas ask'd vvhether a Man might hide his evil actions from God He answered truly no nor his evil thoughts neither Whereas on the contrary vve are here so benighted that vve do not only not see those close sins commited in the bosome and as they say vvithin the Buttons but scarcely those vvhich are open and dragged into the light For vve cannot behold the Crime it self and the vigour of it but some certain footsteps of it vvhen it is already committed and upon its departure They oftentimes are the best Men to us vvho are the worst in the sight of God as on the contrary they are reprobates in our esteem vvho are the choicest to him Forbear therefore if you are vvise to discourse or judge of persons that deserve or deserve not their punishments for such obscure causes as these are not to be decided by some light and superficial appearances CHAP. XVII The Third Objection that punishments are transferred answered That Men do the same why God doth so BUt you have cast another Cloud upon Justice vvhich I must disperse It is concerning substitutes For say you it is not so just that God should transferre punishments and 't is somewhat hard that posterity should rue the crimes of their Ancestours But vvhere is the wonder and strangeness of it I rather vvonder at these vvonderers that they can find a wonder in that which is every day done by themselves here on Earth Pray tell me do not those honours vvhich for his vertue a Prince hath conferred upon the Ancestours descend to his posterity Yes they do and so also do those mulcts and punishments vvhich are inflicted on him for his offences In attaindours for treason or rebellion it is manifest that these are guilty but others share in the punishment vvhich humane cruelty doth so farr enlarge as to make Lawes that follow the innocent Children vvith perpetual vvants such as make life a burthen and death a comfort Perverse Minds who will permit that to be lawful to a Prince or Magistrate which you forbid to God Who yet if you examine it rightly hath a juster reason for his severity For all of us in one have sinned and rebelled against this great King and through so many successive Generations that first blot hath been derived to the unhappy Children So that there is to God a continued twist and chain of Crimes For instance my Father or yours did not begin to sin but all the Fathers of our Fathers What vvonder then is it if he punish in their posterity not properly divers offences but such as by a kind of communion of seed have been still linked and coupled together and never discontinued But to omit these higher speculations and to deal with you in a more popular way of reasoning You must know this that God joynes those things vvhich vve through ignorance and unskilfulness use to sever and that he considers Families Cities and Kingdomes not as divided but as one Body and Nature The Family of the Scipio's or the Caesars is one thing to him Rome or Athens for the whole time of their duration were but one to him and so was the Roman Empire and that very justly for the Society of the same laws and priviledges is that bond vvhich unites these great bodyes and intitles them though in several ages to a communion in partaking of rewards and punishments Were then the Scipio's of old good That Heavenly judge vvill remember it to the advantage of their posterity Were they Evil It shall be hurtful to them Were the Belgians some years ago Lascivious Covetous Impious We shall suffer for it For in every external punishment God not only beholds the present but also looks back upon pass'd times and