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	natural_a	reason_n	1,505	5	4.9161	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76312	The grounds and foundation of natural religion, discover'd, in the principal branches of it in opposition to the prevailing notions of the modern scepticks and latitudinarians. With an introduction concerning the necessity of revealed religion. By Tho. Beconsall, B.D. and fellow of Brasenose Colledge, in Oxford.	Becconsall, Thomas, d. 1709.	1698 (1698)	Wing B1657aA; ESTC R223530	119,538	326

Providence has contrived to enforce the Observance of it By this means their Time and Thoughts will not be engrossed in deep Researches after the Line of Duty and consequently a competent Share of both may be reserved in advancing Arts and Methods to enforce the Practice of it By this means the World enjoys a standing Order of Men by Divine Appointment whose Office is not only to preserve the Line of Duty entire and uncorrupt but to press and inculcate the Observance of it by all the Methods of Persuasion By this means the Overtures of spiritual Succours are ascertain'd to facilitate the Practice of Virtue and certainly where such unmerited Acts of Grace are conferred God may well be allowed to publish his own Canon and require a suitable Obedience to it especially when the doing it is another Act of Grace and unspeakable Condescension § 7. But to proceed the most convincing Argument to represent the Necessity of Revelation derives from the Necessity of a Mediator It 's abundantly concluded That the whole World lieth in Wickedness we certainly carry the Seeds and Principles of Sin about us that will bring forth Fruit unto Death or A Law in our Members warring against the Law of our Minds and bringing us into Captivity unto the Law of Sin This is not a piece of Spiritual Cant invented by any Designing Leaders of an Vnthinking Herd we have traced it in it's Original for by one Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin And tho' the Sin of this one Man may not be allowed to be the formal Sin of the whole World yet the Seeds and Principles of Sin engendred by this Sin of one Man and propagated in him thro' the World cannot be denied In this Sense at least Death passed upon all for that all have sinned In this Sense all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God In this Sense the whole Race of Mankind were by Nature the Children of Wrath. The Vengeance of Sin did undoubtedly hang over our Heads in a State of Nature and consequently Deliverance and Safety can only be expected in a State of Revelation For nothing but God who is rich in Mercy for the great Love wherewith he hath loved us even when we were dead in our Sins hath quickned us together with Christ by this Grace we are Saved Natural Reason will inform us That the Wages of Sin is Death for since every Sinner lies at the Foot of Infinite Mercy the Methods of Redemption are lodged in the Hands of God to be established as he shall think fit to reveal himself If God intends a Redemption infinitely more valuable than that Death which he might have exacted in every Man's Person he may rightfully pitch upon his own Methods and establish his own Laws of Redemption The Wisdom and Purity of his own blessed Nature would induce him to contrive a Redemption suitable to the Nature of the Punishment as well as Crime He therefore resolved upon a Substitute or Mediator and required Death for Death Blood for Blood even the Blood of the Immaculate Lamb of God a Sacrifice not only negatively Pure but of infinite inherent Worth and Value It was therefore absolutely necessary God should communicate himself by some special Revelations The Condition of Mankind was such that they must be eternally miserable without some special Communications and Intercourses with their Maker and it was an Act of infinite Grace and Mercy that God was pleased to make his Proposals to his Off-spring This certainly introduces a fresh Covenant between God and Man God was obliged to signifie all his Proposals of Grace and Mercy or the Riches of his Love and consequently it was not only extreamly fit but necessary that he should give us an entire Body of Laws established on express Sanctions and that these should remain as inviolable Conditions on our part to oblige him to make good all his Overtures and Dispensations Thus the necessity of Revelation is established upon a Train of Causes and issues forth of the certain Frame and Posture of Human Affairs and Exigencies Tho' Natural Reason could instruct us in the Line of Duty and we acted with Ingenuity and Abilities to regulate our Lives conformable to it yet in as much as we have been Sinners nothing less than a new Covenant established in a Mediator can entitle us to the Favour of God or that Happiness to which we were originally created Let the Deist then ridicule the revealed Dispensations of his Maker as long as he pleases there 's nothing as yet revealed but what is wonderfully accommodated to the State and Condition of Human Nature nothing but what a Mind that is not grown leud and wanton with Lust will acknowledge to be the Effect of Necessity as well as infinite Bounty and he that disputes it I 'm perswaded is embarked in the same Design with the Psalmist's Fool That hath said in his Heart There is no God § 8. I hope I have in some measure removed this mighty Objection and certainly nothing remains but a short Return to the Absurdity which our Adversaries would throw upon us If Revelation say they were necessary God must be obliged to have published it to the whole Race of Mankind I 'm perswaded there 's no Necessity for Thought or Art to expose or uncover the Nakedness of this Objection It 's abundantly concluded That Man is the Harbinger to his own Misery and consequently it 's an Act of Grace in God to send Overtures of Deliverance If he is the Sovereign Lord of Grace as well in respect of the Time as the Measure and Extent of it there 's no Injustice in confining it either as to Time or Place It 's sufficient that he has taken competent Methods for publishing his own Dispensations whereever he obliges Mankind to the Conditions of it Upon the whole then Revelation is necessary and yet this Necessity does by no means interfere with a Law of Nature antecedent to it The Reader is desired to make the following Amendments ADD and line 23. p. 4. them read Revelation p. 6. l. 9. the r. this p. 18. l. 18. add an after and p. 25. l. 16. omit of p. 28. l. 12. omit if p. 29. l. 25. to r. of p. 38. l. 4. add if p. 39. l. 28. add en to graved p. 43. l. 12. we r. he p. 46. l. 12. Rev. r. Lev. p. 48. l. 19. of r. for l. 22. ib. add there are after and p. 58. l. 25. add only after not p. 89. l. 11. Conscientiaa r. Conscientia p. 92. dictate r. dictates p. 114. l. 19. Intrusion r. Invasion p. 135. l. 7. add any after away p. 136. l. 9. omit is p. 140. l. 9. add as after well p. 140. l. 28. from r. the p. 151. l. 26. yet r. yes p. 161. l. 19. omit tho' p. 169. l. 22. add his before Off-spring p. 180. l. 1. Portion r. Notion p. 185. l. 2. Natures r. Nature p. 242. l.

an Instrument of future Condemnation as well as Misery we must conclude that it will be one and the same Conscience acted by the same Measures and Principles and of the same Extent and Latitude and consequently a Conscience cleared from all Error and Mistake Partiality or Connivance and in a Word a Conscience established according to the Divine Oeconomy of it the Law of God and the eternal Measures of Moral Goodness and Duty This is that Candle of the Lord as the Wiseman expresses it that will display its Light into the deepest recesses of the Heart and Search into the inward parts of the Belly Prov. 20.27 In a Word it will be the inward Voice or Word of God quick and powerful and Sharper than any two Edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the Joynts and Marrow and is a discerner of the Thoughts and intents of the Heart Heb. 4.12 § 2. From what hath been said it may not be improper to make some further Remarks upon Mr. Lock 's Notions of Conscience It 's observable Mr. Lock makes Consciousness and Conscience the same and Conscience to consist in nothing else but our own Opinions of our own Actions and pursuant to this he affirms that in personal Identity which he makes to consist in Consciousness is founded all the Right and Justice of Favour Rewards and Punishment Book 2. c. 27. § 18. But certainly the Conscience that will prevail in the great day will not be any Opinions we have entertained of Actions when Committed tho' taken up at large No we shall then be acted by no other Opinions but those of a regulated Conscience and they shall sit as Judges even over former Opinions that were engendered by Neglect or Carelessness and nothing but invincible Ignorance or sincere Repentance can deliver us from its Dominion This is indisputably evident from the Regulations of Conscience that shall be made according to the divine Oeconomy of it whereby our Opinions of past Actions shall not be measured by former Convictions but by the conformity of our Actions to the true Line of Duty or means of Information Again that consciousness which some Men might be under when Enormities were committed cannot be the foundation of future Punishment but that Consciousness of past Actions which will arise from a regulated Conscience For it is concluded that we may become conscious of Enormities committed of which we were not conscious when committed and conscious of others by wrong Measures and Convictions but it will be that Consciousness and those Convictions we are under at the Great Tribunal and result from a regulated Conscience that will be the measure of a final Absolution or Condemnation And certainly if Mr. Lock will not suffer his Notions to be guarded by these limitations he must pardon me if I cannot comply with 'em or cannot but esteem 'em dangerous and false On this account I cannot suffer an Instance that seems to interfere with what is asserted pass off without a few Remarks Mr. Lock in order to the establishing his Notion of Personal Identity brings in Enormities committed in Dunkenness of which a Man is not conscious and places them upon a level with those committed by a Man in his sleep making him no more answerable for the one than the other He indeed makes the Drunkard in this case obnoxious to the Civil Laws for no other reason but Because in these cases they cannot distinguish what is Real from what is Counterfeit and so the Ignorance in Drunkenness or Sleep is not admitted as a Plea But in the great Day wherein the Secrets of all Hearts shall be laid open it may be reasonable to think no one shall be made to Answer for what he knows nothing of but shall receive his Doom his own Conscience accusing or excusing him See Sect. 22. Book 2. Chap. 27. Here are a great many Passages that look with a very evil Aspect and therefore I shall say something to each in their order And first I think this Author has drawn a very unjust Parallel between Crimes committed in Sleep and Dunkenness It 's well known that Sleep is a thing entailed on us as a Law even a Law established in the frame of our Beings and commences upon the necessities of corruptible Nature and therefore if Mischief accidently follows it cannot well be imputed because it is founded in a Cause or Principle that is inseparable from Humane Nature or rather is an Appendage of the most necessary Powers of it that set us on a level with Brutes and consequently the Actions that flow from it cannot be imputed But I hope this Author cannot plead a necessity of Nature for Drunkenness A quantity of generous Liquor may sometimes be required for the actuating the Spirits but never to intoxicate unman or drown the Reason In a word Drunkenness argues a willful neglect in humane Conduct and as such is an Act of a free Agent and consequently the Actions that flow from it tho' destitute of Choice or Deliberation are justly imputed For in order to the imputing or charging an Action upon us it is not necessary that it should proceed from the free exercise of Reason or previous Deliberation at the very Moment when Committed It is sufficient that it 's owing to a Cause that is to be esteemed truly Deliberate and Wilful If this were not so it 's impossible any Sin of Ignorance can be Culpable a Position so wide from the line of Christian Duty that every Heathen Moralist will teach this Author the Absurdity of it I shall for once Refer him to Aristotle because he has culled out the case of Drunkenness to confirm the Doctrine He assures us Ignorance is Punishable whenever the cause of it can be charged upon us and for this Reason pronounces Crimes committed in Drunkenness liable to double Punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ethic. ad Nichom Lib. 3. Chap 7. But to proceed As for the practice of Civil Governments in punishing Crimes committed when Disguised by Drink he has shamefully Misrepresented it when he Suggests that the only Reason is because they cannot distinguish what is Real from what is Counterfeit and so the Ignorance in Drunkenness or Sleep is not admitted as a Plea It 's a known truth that Civil Judicatures take cognizance of nothing but the outward Act and when this appears they constantly ascribe the internal Principles of the Action Knowledge and Freedom where the Criminal is under no Natural Disabilities so that the Reasons that induce them to proceed to Censure in cases of this Nature can be no other but those which this excellent Moralist has assigned for every such Criminal has 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tho' he was not Master of himself when the Fact was committed yet he is Acted by a Principle that made him Master of the cause of it and consequently the Government may exercise a Right of Punishment Again