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	matter_n	motion_n	2,080	5	8.1894	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39359	An answer to a book intitled Tractatus theologico politicus	Earbery, Matthias.	1697 (1697)	Wing E68; ESTC R41104	85,540	210

is a foolish thing to limit the power of Nature and to say her Laws extend to some things only and not to all L. Your Author speaks herein as little like a good Philosopher as a good Jew or a good Christian If the Laws of Nature are fix'd and immovable they may be observ'd and the Observation of them we call the study of Natural Philosophy To say therefore with your Author That the Course of Nature is fixed and immutable and yet that her power extends to all things Potentiam Naturae infinitam esse omnino credendum est is a contradiction in the very Terms for if she could do all things she could alter her setled Course and move in an Order quite contrary to what now she steers Nor does he mend the matter by asserting in the same page That the fixed Laws of Nature extend to all things that are comprehended in the Divine Vnderstanding For the Divine Understanding must needs comprehend as well what is impossible as what is possible to be done and the Mutability as well as the Fixation of the Rules of Motion in material Bodies into such notorious Absurdities does your Author run whilst he endeavours to destroy the credibility of Miracles by jumbling together the Names of God and Nature S. If there be a fixed Course of Nature how can there be a Miracle which is neither more nor less than an interruption of it L. Because it is fixed by a Superior Intelligent Being who can unfix the same when it is for his own Glory or the General Benefit of Mankind If Nature did not keep for the most part a setled Course we could have no distinct Notion of a Miracle but she is so steady that she gives us time to view her and from that view to frame such Axioms of Possibility and Impossibility as are as evident to our Reason as any of those principles which some tho I fear not truly do stile Innate Notions S. I am still of my Author's mind That we call those works Miracles whose natural Causes we do not understand L. No We rather call that work a Miracle which we know is done not by a Natural but by the immediate Energy of some Supernatural Power For the Course of Nature being steady nothing is more easie than to observe when her Course is broken i. e. when something is done that we are sure is repugnant to those fixed Rules which she is bound to observe in all other cases S. Prithee what are those Rules How do you know that they have ever been broken L. The first Rule Ex nihilo nihil fit Out of nothing there can come nothing is as clear by its own light as any One Proposition we can easily frame unto our selves Either therefore Matter made it self that is it was a Cause before it did exist which is a Wild Absurdity or it was made by a Superior Being and its very Production the beginning of Miracles We all know that mutations of bodies may be made by the regular Laws of motion but that Matter should make it self or be produced out of nothing by her own Laws of motion is repugnant to the common sense of mankind If Matter therefore was made there was a time when it did not exist and therefore its motion from non existence to existence could not be according to any fixed Rule of Nature which had then no being and consequently God did not always work by fixed and unalterable Rules to which the very Notion of Creation is directly repugnant S. You ramble too wide from our present purpose Can you prove that any thing yet was ever done since the Creation that was certainly repugnant to any One fixed Law of Nature which may be a sufficient Testimonial to a man that he is sent from God L. It is a Maxim in Reason That one body acts upon another by Contaction or Protrusion only If two bodies were placed never so near and no contiguous body between they might remain to all Eternity in that posture without affecting each other or producing any alteration in them If therefore any man can produce an alteration in bodies by the sole word of his mouth all men will conclude this man does act by virtue of a Supernatural Power When therefore the Children of Israel saw Moses turning water into blood or bringing Lice and Frogs c. upon the Land of Egypt by the lifting up his Rod or our Saviour curing diseases by the word of his mouth or raising men from the dead c. they must conclude that this was done by a spiritual and not by a material power which can cause no alteration on another body but by Contraction or Emission of minute Particles the secret Operations of which do constitute the whole body of Natural Magick Now if the moving of the Wand or speaking a few words did produce the wondrous Effects but now mentioned in the production or alteration of bodies by the sole force of Nature they would do it always when utter'd or apply'd after the same manner because the Laws of Nature are fixed and immovable But since we see they have done it but cannot do the same thing again we very rationally conclude that these alterations were made in Bodies by a Spiritual and a Superior Power Your Author therefore must not think to sham us off with a Wild Pretence That what we call Miracles were some strange works of Nature so called with respect to the ignorance of the Vulgar For we are willing the Miracles upon which our Religion is grounded should be tryed by the most known Axioms of Natural Philosophy and challenge the whole Race of Epicurean Atomists to shew how they could be done according to any Hypothesis that ever yet was framed of the Mechanical Laws of Motion S. Does not my Author clearly demonstrate That the Sun 's stopping his course of which we read in the Book of Joshua was nothing else but a refraction of Light the Sky being then full of Hail And the like may be said of the Dial of Ahaz L. Your Author boldly says much but he proves nothing The standing still of the Sun or the prolongation of Light by any other means whether Natural or Miracu lous would have been equally beneficial to the Israelites in affording them time to slay their Enemies But because it would be greater Encouragements to the Israelites to see God himself assisting them in a miraculous manner and the Scriptures do relate this as a Miracle and since no sufficient Reason can be given why the Sun should stop his Course or the Earth stand still which in the Effects is the same thing unless by the immediate Power of God we have more Reason to believe the Scripture-Narrative than the improbable Conjecture of your daring Author For why must we needs conclude That because it was possible the Children of Israel might be deceived that therefore they certainly were so Or how is it probable that the Air

being full of Hail should make a whole Nation believe that the day was longer than it ought to be S. Supp●se the Earth did stand still does it therefore follow it must be a Miracle Might there not be a Concourse of grosser Particles of Matter in the Liquid Ether that might stop its Course for a Season without the interposition of a miraculous Power L. Since we have no infallible Knowledg of all the possible motions that may happen in the Celestial matter we cannot conclude that New alterations therein are the immediate effects of a supernatural Power But since we are sure that one body works upon another by contaction only we are sure that Joshua's Prayer could by no force of Nature cause the continuance of the Sun upon the Horizon beyond the usual time But alas we do not seek for Miracles in the Heavens above nor in the Seas beneath most Fruitful of amazing Prodigies We appeal to the most approved Axioms of Natural Philosophy as the Tests of the truth of those Miracles upon which our Religion is grounded He that admits the Historical part of Revealed Religion to be true as your Author does more than once can never pretend to solve all that is therein recorded by Natural causes without running into absurdities of the grossest Nature In complyance to his own Hypothesis he must believe that the Course of Nature is settled and yet in complyance to the Historical Account of the Scriptures he must believe that words can cure Diseases and raise the Dead c. And yet that the same words spoken by another Person cannot do it i. e. That the Course of Nature is settled and that it is not settled but moves at random He must admit that one inanimate Body Acts upon another only by contaction And he must admit that words have made alteration in inanimate Bodys which yet can cause no other contaction than what arises from the modulation of the Air. He must believe it to be a Law of Nature That the Dead cannot be raised up to Life because that is known to be above her usual Course and he must believe that the Dead have been restored to Life by Virtue of a Divine Command In short your Authors endeavour to solve Miracles by Natural causes is ridiculous to the highest Degree for he attacks reveal'd Religion in that place which is of all others most impregnable if the Sparks of your Principles did believe that Moses and the Prophets and our Saviour did really do all those mighty things recorded of them by a due application of Natural causes why do not they attempt to do the same Or why do they laugh at all others who do attempt it as Fools and Madmen And how does it happen that no such things were ever well attested to have been done by other Persons who have made Experimental Philosophy their study with good success And how comes it to pass that they are repugnant and irreconcilable to all the Axioms of Philosophy that hitherto have been Written that the more any Learned Man considers them the more he finds of a Natural impossibility in them And why can't your Author find out as easy and probable a solution of all the Signs and Wonders wrought by our Saviour as of the standing still of the Sun or the Passage of the Children of Israel over the Red Sea S. My Author is a wiser Man than to believe all the strange Stories to be literally true which you read in your Bibles He tells you that whatsoever is there reported to be done which cannot possibly be ascribed to Natural causes is to be presumed as thrust in by malicious designing men And that in telling Wonders the Scriptures speak to the Fancy but not to the Reason of mankind L. Nothing speaks less to the fancy than the Christian Religion which in its Doctrines and Precepts too is altogether perfective of humane reason But if your Author denies his assent to the Historical part of the Bible and only in some places pretends to give it to please the States of Holland why does he give no reason for his dissent For one substantial reason would be sufficient in this case to overthrow the whole bulk of reveal'd Religion Why does he not shew that no man can have any certainty of any matter of Fact unless he see it done with his own Eyes Why does he not prove that Number and probity of Witnesses are no sufficient motives to assent VVhy does he not produce some Testimonies of Witnesses that may invalidate the credit of these who have recorded the Miracles of our B. S. or of his Apostles There is certainly no more obvious way of ruining reveal'd Religion than the disproving those relations of Miracles upon which its rational Evidence is most strongly grounded Either therefore your Author could find nothing to say on this topick or else through inadvertency he has omitted those Arguments which are most conducive to support so bad a cause S. It is enough that he demonstrated before that the Power of God and Nature being the same there can be no such thing as a Miracle L. An Historical Account is to be refuted in an Historical manner not by Foreign Arguments which have no force to refute a matter of Fact We urge the Testimony of a sufficient Number of highly creditable Witnesses that Miracles have been done your Author denys all because according to his reason it is impossible any such thing should be This is just as if a blind man should endeavour to confute all those who testify there is such a thing as light by giving his reasons that oblige him to think that there can be no such thing VVhen a thing is well attested to have been done it is a vain attempt to make men Renounce their senses in complyance to his reason S. You think you have gained a great point when you have brought a man to acknowledge the reality of your boasted Miracles But alas you fight for that which can do you no good when you have gain'd it For Miracles can never make us understand either the Essence or Existence or Providence of God L. According to my Notion of a Miracle it is a work that is done by the immediate Finger of God and that a work we know to be done by God alone should not so much as render us certain of the Existence of a God is to me an unaccountable Riddle Again a Miracle is a work that we know cannot be done according to the Mechanical Laws of matter and motion but is therefore ascribed to a free Spiritual and Powerful Agent and yet that all this should be no demonstration of the Spirituality Freedom and Power of the Divine Nature is to me the 2d part of the same Riddle Again a miracle is a work that is wrought to give some men a Testimonial that they are sent on some errand by God to his Creature man and yet that this should be no Argument of