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	part_n	3,580	5	5.0404	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71108	The reflections on the XXVIII propositions touching the doctrine of the Trinity, in a letter to the clergy, &c. maintain'd, against the Third defence of the said propositions by the same hand.	Tindal, Matthew, 1653?-1733.	1695 (1695)	Wing T1304; ESTC R4525	56,470	59

the Nature of the Son and Spirit whose Natures are short of the Perfections of the Father's Nature and consequently their Natures are not Divine because the Divine Nature contains all Perfections but theirs want those that not only in themselves are the greatest and most excellent but the want of which is as he saith pag. 7. an abatement of all other Perfections And if the Father's Nature is independent and the Son 's and Spirit 's dependent it shews they have different kinds of Nature as different nay as opposite as Dependent and Independent But what can be a more staring Contradiction than that Beings that do eternally and necessarily exist and are Almighty yet notwithstanding this have not a Power to keep themselves in Life and Being no not a Moment and yet at the same time have a Power inherent in themselves from all Eternity to give Life and Being to all things whatever which also do entirely depend on them for the continuation of the same It is a contradiction to say a necessary Nature is dependent because a necessary Nature is that Nature which contains in it self the formal Reason why it cannot but be but a dependent Nature is so far from having any thing in it self that makes it necessarily exist that it not only owes to another its Existence but hourly depends upon another having no Power in its self to continue it in Existence which is the dependence of a Creature not of a Creator Is not a dependent Creator as great a Contradiction as an independent Creature And did ever any but our Author join necessary Existence and Dependence together How can they as I intimated Sect. 62. having necessary Existence be said more to depend on the Father for their continuance in Being than the Father on them since they as necessarily and as eternally exist as he who can no more hinder theirs than his own Existence nor could he more forbear emaning them from all Eternity than existing himself And if his Existence was without a Cause his emaning must be so too since the one was as necessary and eternal as the other In created Beings all necessary Emanations have the same cause as the Beings from whence they emane but God having no Cause of his Being his necessary Emanations must have no cause also And consequently eternal and necessary Existence as I observ'd in the same Sect. 62. is as great a Perfection as Self-existence since one is without a Cause as much as the other nay there can be no difference between them for if the Father is self-existent the Emanations that issue forth from him must be so too since they are emanatory Substances which were not produced by the Will and Power of the Father from nothing but they emaned from something which since there was nothing else to emane from must be the Father's self-existent Substance to which it was essential to have Emanations and consequently they have the same Existence as the Substance in which they existed when they emaned nor could their emaning make them lose their Self-existence But more of this hereafter But he says they depend on the Father for the continuation of their Being as the Streams on the Fountain or the Rays on the Sun But there 's no material Substance that depends upon another for its Existence or continuance in Existence all Matter is equally old and has subsisted ever since the Creation and Generation and Corruption is nothing but Matter according to the Laws of Motion changing its Shapes and Figures and therefore such Similies are not to the purpose because we are not speaking of any supposed Form or Figure of the Son and Spirit but of the Existence of their Substances viz. whether they have them by any third way different from both Creation and Self-existence As to the Streams depending on the Fountain it is no more than this that if the Water did not issue out of the Ground it could not run along the Ground if it did not bubble up in the Fountain it could no more flow to the next Place than if it stop'd there it could flow to a third but this does not make one part of the Water give being to another part or continue it in Being it is the same Body of Water which was in the Fountain that is now in the Streams And as to the Rays they no way depend on the Sun for their Being or continuance in Being except the Sun by a creating Power makes them to exist and by the same Power continues them in Existence If the Rays are as some imagin parts of the AEther set in motion by the Sun they no more depend on the Sun for their Being or continuance in Being than the Sun does on them but if they emane from the Body of the Sun they have the same cause of their Being and continuance in Being as the Sun it self because they like unto all other necessary Emanations were parts of the Body whence they emaned and consequently have the same Origin as the Sun it self And if the Sun had been self-existent they because parts of it would have been so too nor would their emaning destroy their Self-existing or any ways cause them then to depend on the Sun for their continuance in Being since the least Substance is as much a Substance as the greatest and consequently equally able to subsist by it self so that notwithstanding his altogether unlike Similies it 's evident if the Son and H. Spirit are Eternal and Necessary they are as self-existent and independent as the Father and consequently Gods in as high a Sense as he who if he were not a necessary Being would not be independent nor self-existent and consequently those three must go together but if their Natures are dependent and not self-existent they are so far from containing all Perfections and being as truly Divine as the Father's that they are truly created Natures or from no-beings made to be and like all such Beings as I observ'd Sect. 62. in God they live and move and have their Being I said Sect. 62. If the Persons have the same unlimited Perfections tho the manner of their getting them was different this would not cause any inequality between them to which he answers it would that is in reference to their manner of Existence though not in reference to their meer Essence But if there is not only a different manner of their getting their Essences but their Essences when gotten exist after a different manner which he must mean or else contradict himself and agree with me it 's impossible they should have the same kind of Nature because to exist is common to all Natures it 's the different manner of Existence that makes the difference between Natures and consequently a Nature that has a more excellent manner of Existing will be a more excellent kind of Nature And therefore if the Natures of the Son and Spirit had not only a different way of having their Existence