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	motion_n	nature_n	2,722	5	5.9141	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29845	A letter in answer to a book entitled, Christianity not mysterious as also, to all those who set up for reason and evidence in opposition to revelation & mysteries / by Peter Browne ...	Browne, Peter, ca. 1666-1735.	1697 (1697)	Wing B5134; ESTC R19095	82,171	238

and what it is for a small quantity of Bread to be encreas'd to a mighty bulk but as to the manner how this was perform'd we are wholly ignorant of it thô we know well how Corn is encreas'd in the ordinary way of nature But he will object here as he did concerning the Doctrines viz. That at this rate All the Phenomena of Nature are miraculous for we know not the true manner of any one of them And this is the main drift of this Chapter to give us a wrong notion of a Miracle viz. That it is nothing more than the dextrous management of second causes and not any immediate effect of Almighty God and therefore in the close he tells us That Miracles are wrought according to the laws of Nature thô above it's ordinary operations which are therefore supernaturally assisted And this is the reason of that bold and arrogant expression of his That could he tell how a Miracle was wrought he believes he might do as much himself For there is nothing more in it than in a Chymical Operation and if he were Philosopher enough he would work any Miracle of them all But the true notion of a Miracle is that it is An operation wrought by the immediate power of God not by Assisting only but Over-ruling the laws of Nature not only by hastning and accelerating it's Operations but sometimes by an instantaneous production of what was never to be effected by the united force of all natural causes As to instance in the Raising a Body from the Dead all the united force of nature with the most dextrous management wou'd not be able to effect this all the E●tracting Mollifying Mixing Infusing Consolidating c. And the ministry not only of Thousands but of Millions at once wou'd not be able to unite a Soul and Body again when once they are seperated nothing less than the Almighty immediate act of God is able to effect this and that without the concurrence of any natural cause Again there are some Miraculous Operations which are so far from being according to the laws of nature that they are contrary to them As that of the Sun 's going back or standing still all the laws of nature are dispos'd for it's motion or at least for the motion of our Earth which makes it seem to us to move Again The making Iron to swim Were this effect produc'd by Mollifying Consolidating c. or any Operation which shou'd convert the substance of Iron into that of Wood then we could not say that Iron swam but something else or if the water were condensed to support it then it wou'd be Ice and not water and if any thing of this nature were don of a sodain●t wou'd however be miraculous but not contrary to nature But for a solid piece of Iron while it remains such to swim in Water no way condens'd this is not only above but contrary to the laws of nature And so likewise for Fire not to burn is contrary to nature Indeed if there were nothing more in it than what this man supposes that it is don by repelling the heat and keeping off the flames then it might be according to the laws of nature and there are many things which by an instantaneous application might extinguish the Fire But to hinder fire from burning while it remains such and combustible matter actually in it this is contrary to the laws of nature But all those Miracles which are not so directly contrary to nature can't however be said to be according to the laws of nature And I take these two expressions to be directly opposite Which he makes the same Miracles are according to the laws of nature And they are above the operations of it For to instance in the first Miracle our Saviour wrought that of Turning Water into Wine The production of Wine according to the laws of nature must have been by accelerating the growth of the Vine and ripening the Grape sodainly by application of all those things in nature which could forward it but to turn Water immediatly into Wine without any of these methods was to produce it afer a manner wholly different from all the laws of nature Upon his Principles we have no way from the nature of the thing of distinguishing between the Delusions of the Divel those celebrated Feats of Goblins and Witches and Conjurers which he speaks of and those which are wrought by the Finger of God For without doubt the Divel is a great Philosopher and can manag● second Causes so as to produce Effects according to the laws of nature which shall appear very strange to us But we are sure nothing less than that power which is the Author of Nature can work any real effect contrary to it or above it The Divel indeed may delude mens senses so as to make them think that Real which is only an Appearance as it is likely he did to mimick that miracle of turning Aarons Rod into a Serpent for that of the Magicines was not a real Conversion but effected by their Enchantments or as 't is in the original by their Wiles and Jugling For we find when they endeavour'd to imitate Moses in the instantaneous production of any real thing with Life there the Divel fail'd them and they were forc'd to own it was the Finger of God And thus we see plainly how this Man strikes at the foundation of all Reveal'd Religion by undermining one of the main Pillars on which the Faith and Credit of it is founded You see his drift all along in every thing he says is to take away all Operations above the Laws of Nature and all Doctrines above the reach of Reason and then all the Religion of Men is consequently resolv'd into Infidelity an Heathenism So that any one who wishes Christianity to be true must hope at least that this Mans Principles are false since they are so utterly inconsistent 2. But 2dly As miracles being in a great degree Mysterious is an unanswerable objection against him so they are altogether useless and impertinent upon his Principles He owns that God does not work them at random but for some end and this end he owns is for the confirmation of some Divine Doctrine But why for the confirmation of a Doctrine for he hath told us over and over that it is only the Evidence or immediate knowledg of the Doctrine it self can perswade us That Faith is nothing more than the knowing what is beleiv'd c. And therefore all Miracles for the confirmation of any Doctrine are needless and superfluous If they are so evident to our Senses or our Reason that we know them to be true what necessity is there of farther conviction if a thing be so evident to m● Senses or Reason that I know it to be true nothing can make me surer of it So that we see the reason of Miracles is that they may be a proof of something that we cannot

the eternal Generation of the Son the change of our Bodies the Joys of Heaven of the operations of the Spirit c. because if God had reveal'd them he wou'd have made you conceive the manner of all these perfectly and if he did not it was certainly want of sincerity or ability in him But let this Blasphemer know that it is neither want of Veracity nor Ability in God that is the reason why we don't conceive these things but the Weakness and Imperfection of our present state who have no capacities for them as yet And therefore as we now give our assent to the Reality and Existence of what we can't conceive upon that veracity of God which he hath thus endeavour'd to rob of all it's Authority and Influence upon our assent so God will one day manifest his Power in bringing all those things to pass which we can't now conceive and will so enlarge our Souls that we shall clearly apprehend them and all the Objects of another World He proceeds and says that God wou'd loose his end if what he said did not agree with our common notions i. e. I● God shou'd speak Nonsence to you in his Revelations you wou'd be never the wiser for if he should reveal to you that a thing call'd BLICTRI had a being in nature and not inform you what this Blictri was you could not believe it Now this very Instance which he intends by way of Ridicule of all the Objects of our holy Faith doth happily shew the true difference between a rational Assent and a blind Credulity and is a sufficient confutation of his whole Book Let us therefore compare these two words BLICTRI and GLORY Of the first I know nothing more than that it is made up of seven Letters and therefore he that speaks it is a Barbarian to me And as I know nothing of it so I can believe nothing concerning it but the uncertain found it makes to my ●●t and that seven Letters makes two Syllables in writing As to the other word Glory I grant I know as little of the real nature of the Glory of God and of the Saints in Heaven as I do what that Blictri means and yet God doth not speak Nonsence when he reveals to m● that there is such a thing in Heaven as Glory For 1st Thô I have no notion of the thing as it is in it self yet it is represented to me by the brightness of the Sun and Glory of a Kingdom the greatest Images I now am able to frame of it 2. I am made acquainted with the Relation this Glory hath to me viz. That it expects me in the Heavens that I shall enjoy it and be made partaker of it and that it will render me happy beyond all imagination But I am no more able to conceive that Happiness than that Glory of God which shall be the cause of it And 3. It is reveal'd by God with this design that it shou'd be a prevailing motive of my Obedience and an incitement to the practice of Vertue and Holiness 4. I have not capacities at present to apprehend the real nature of it as perfectly as I can apprehend any thing in nature if it were discovered to me And thus we see how God in all his Revelations doth not speak Nonsence to us thô we have not clear and distinct Idea's of the things which are reveal'd Nay thô we have no more Idea of them as they are in themselves than we have of what Blictri is Besides the Text he brings to back this Sophism of his explains the matter farther and lays open the Fallacy Heb. 11 6. He that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him By which we see all that is knowable of God by us now is his Existence and the Relation he hath to us viz That he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him For I hope he will own that we are bound to believe all we know of God thô he flatly denies that we are bound to believe any thing more in him than what we know as well at least as we do any thing else He goes on and asks without conceiving Faith after this manner i. e. without making it nothing else but knowledg How could Christ be term'd the light of the World and how could we be said to have the Spirit of Wisdom i. e unless he gives you as clear and distinct Idea's of every thing he reveals as you have of a Stock or a Stone I answer by giving us a clear and distinct Revelation of their Existence of which we should have been wholly ignorant but for him for thus he hath made us wise unto Salvation since he hath given us a clear knowledg of our Duty and back't his Precepts with the promise of future rewards which we have no notion of and the best thought we can frame of them is That they exceed all that we can think or speak But says he That remarkable instance of Abraham's Faith will be objected Yes 't is objected and the way he answers it is by saying as we do and leaving his own Opinion to shift for it self God promised Abraham to give him a numerous Progeny in Isaac after this before Isaac hath a Child God commands him to sacrifice his only Son He obeys upon this consideration that God was able to raise him up again by the same power that he at first rais'd him out of the deadness of Sarah's Womb. Now the question between him and me is not Whether this Faith was a firm Perswasion built upon substantial Reasons which we allow and contend for and therefore he says nothing to the purpose But the question is Whether Abraham gave his Assent to what he was not able to comprehend which he must own unless he proves that Abraham knew as perfectly the whole manner of God's raising a Body from the dead or from a Womb past Child bearing as he did the procreation of it in the ordinary way of Nature Had Abraham been able to demonstrate that God wou'd raise his Son to conceive exactly the manner how this was to be brought to pass then indeed it were no Faith but Knowledg but instead of this he had only the promise of God for it and knew no more how God wou'd raise him than he knew how he made the World After this he lays down several Observations to prove there can be no such thing as Faith i. e. an assent distinct from Knowledg 1. If Faith were not a Perswasion resulting from a comprehension of the thing believ'd there could be no degrees in it I answer this is false like all the rest for thô I know nothing more of a thing than it's Existence and the Relation it hath to me and therefore am fat from comprehending it Yet my assent to the truth of it shall vary in degrees either according to the Proofs