Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bring_v	effect_n	good_a	1,532	5	3.6660	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80008	The hinge of faith and religion or, a proof of the deity against atheists and profane persons, by reason, and the testimony of Holy Scripture: the divinity of which is demonstrated, / by L. Cappel, Doctour and Professour in Divinity ; translated out of French by Philip Marinel, M.A. and fellow of Pembroke-College in Oxford.; Piuot de la foy et religion. English	Cappel, Louis, 1585-1658.; Marinel, Philip.	1660 (1660)	Wing C482; Thomason E1845_2; Thomason E2265_1; ESTC R209659	84,739	200

by the Magicians and Diviners without the help of Devils First because the said persons being commonly rude illiterate and ignorant men they cannot have any knowledge of these Natural things and Secondly though they had an hundred times more knowledge and experience then indeed they have yet it should not be sufficient to produce those Effects And again had they such a knowledge yet could not they apply agentia patientibus with that promptness and ability which is requisite in the production of those Effects So that we may conclude that it is necessary that the Daemons should have some influence in the production of these Effects For example By what Natural Cause can a Diviner know those things which are hidden and the which he reveales and which have been done in a time and place utterly unknown to any but the Authours of those actions as the revealing of Murthers Poysonings Adulteries Rapes Thefts c and by what natural cause could the two horsemen in the shape of Castor and Pollux bring tidings to the Romans in their publique place of the Victory their Consul had gained in Macedonia but a few hours before And by what natural means can a foot-man go in few hours four or five hundred miles which the best Posts can scarce do in many dayes and a thousand like wonderfull effects So then it appears from that we have shown that they are Witches and Magicians which do these things that they are Devils which are the true causes of these effects and whose Instruments the Witches are Now if there are evil spirits there is no reason to deny that there are good ones too For good doth precede the evil evil being nothing but the corruption of goodnesse Whence it necessarily followes that these evil spirits were good at first but that they have corrupted themselves afterwards And if there are good and evil Angels we must conclude that there is a Deity above them from which they have had their being and which doth conduct the one and restrain the other For were it not so that incessant jarring and contrariety which would be among them would necessarily cause the ruine and subversion of all the World and of all the bodies over which they have so much power Again what reason is there to deny there is a Deity if it is once granted that there are good and bad Angels which are spiritual immaterial invisible immortal powerfull and intelligent substances For above these there is nought but the Deity of whose Nature they do very much participate and which doth excell them only in that it is Infinite Immense and Eternal Again if there are evil Spirits or Devils there is an Hell where they are placed which is their prison and the prison of those wicked and abominable ones which do follow and imitate them in their wickedness And if there are good Angels there is a Paradise for their Mansion and for the dwelling of those good and virtuous persons which are like unto them and above all a God a righteous Judg which avengeth the one and rewardeth the other CHAP. XII The ninth Argument drawn from the Universal Consent of the World That there is a Deity THe second kind of Reasoning against the Atheists is from Authority or Record which is two-fold Divine or Humane I call that Divine Testimony which is drawn from the holy Writ I call that Humane but yet unquestionable Testimony the Consent of all the men in the world all of which do naturally acknowledge that there is a Deity and Providence And here we must take notice First that the most ancient Philosophers and the most eminent and illustrious persons in Learning and Virtue of whom any mention is made in History have acknowledged a Divine Providence which seeth knoweth and rules all things rewards the one and punisheth the other Secondly all the People and Nations of the Earth which are or ever have been have acknowledged this same truth Which is evident because there was never any that hath not professed some Religion or instead of it an open and manifest communion and a familiar conversation with evill spirits as these savage and brutish Nations have viz. the Toupinambous Margajas Caribes Cannibales Patagons and the like and those Septentrional Nations which are neerer to our Arctick Pole in Europe Asia and the New world as it appears by the Relations of them which at this day are common and vulgar Now we have proved heretofore that if there are Devils there is a Deity and consequently those Nations acknowledging that there are Daemons by that commerce which they have with them do also tacitely acknowledge and are forced to grant that there is a Deity Every Religion also doth imply that there is a Deity For it is wholly imployed in the service and adoration of it and to make it propitious and mercifull to men and to obtain from it either the fruition of those things that are desired or an immunity from those evils that are feared or suffered either in this life or in the other and this is done either by Prayers Invocations Acknowledgements Thanksgivings or by Sacrifices and other Ceremonies This is the end of all Religions Since therefore that there hath been no People or Nation whether civilized as in old time the Heathen Romans and Graecians the Chaldaeans Babylonians Assyrians and Persians Syrians Phaenicians Aegrptians or barbarous as the Scythians Africans and infinite others that hath not had and professed some Religion it 's evident that all have with one consent acknowledged a Divine Providence As to the strength and validity of this Argument it is as hath been said not to be doubted of especially if it may be shown that there is no just Cause or Reason to doubt of this Testimony Let 's then see whether any may justly doubt of it One may be induced to believe a false opinion three manner of waies First By affection and desire that we have it should be so Secondly By Authority Thirdly By specious and deceiving Arguments But none of these waies can agree with that which is now in question As to the first There is such a Connexion between the Intellect and the Will that as the Will alwaies follows the Dictates of the Understanding so it doth desire that which the Intellect judges to be good So also we easily perswade our selves that which we desire with Passion man being inclined by this desire to seek all the Reasons that may be to perswade himselfe of the truth and goodness of that which he desireth and giving weight unto them by this strong and vehement affection But here it cannot be said that men perswade themselves that there is a God because they do desire it but contrariwise the most part of men would that there were none because they fear him as a Judge There is therefore much more Reason to suspect that the opinion of the Atheists is false and justly to object against them that they perswade themselves there is

themselves that their Charms are the cause of them Add to this that these stormes and Tempests are most commonly so terrible and furious and the Effects of them so strange and wonderfull that it plainly appears that these things do not proceed meerly from Natural Causes but that there is with them something supernatural which gives them their so strange vigour and motion And as to those harms which these persons confesse themselves to be guilty of Albeit their Inchantments had not that power as to cause them it cannot therefore follow that they are not guilty because they will and intend to do it and to this purpose they make Compact with the Devill to help them This evill purpose joyned with this Compact renders them wholly inexcusable Even as he is not to be pardoned who not thinking himselfe able to kill his Enemy doth implore the help of another to effect it These Sorceries therefore being the signes of the Compact they have made with the Devil and sufficient proofs of their ill Will and of the endeavours to bring it to passe do render them wholly guilty and the lesse strength and Physicall Virtue their Sortileges have the more clearly it s seene that there is some supernaturall Cause that produces these Effects which Cause can be none other but the Devill with whom they have made an agreement to do it And if there is some Physical Virtue in any of those things that they use to cause strange diseases and those Plagues which they afflict men withall they must needs have been taught to use them by the Devil they not being able to know these Virtues by any Study or Experience or the power of any thing they use in their Sorceries being that they be all or most of them rude illiterate ignorant and stupid persons But besides this we must necessarily grant that Sathan hath a great power over the ' Diviners and Magicians who do prophesie and reveal things to come and things occult which they cannot do by any art and which cannot be known to them but by the help of the Devils The like doth appear in those monstrous and strange things which those that make their addresses to these Magicians do see feel and hear For these things cannot be by any art effected but proceed meerly from the power and efficacy of the Daemons As to the extasies of Witches during which they really think themselves to be carried to their Sabbaths or meetings and there to see feel and do many strange and monstrous things although their transport was not real and corporeal but only an imagined one to which many Relations of the Reality of them and which also are verified are directly contrary they nevertheless are highly guilty because such Extasies and all those things they think they do and see at that time proceeding from the Devil with whom they have made a Contract cannot have their Rise from any Physical and ordinary cause since that Natural Causes do not operate at mans will and pleasure For those Extasies come to them when they lift and do not at all happen unless they have a minde to it Finally there are some who pretend that whatsoever wonders are spoken of Witches Diviners Magicians and possessed persons do or may proceed from Natural Causes And there are subtile men and great Philosophers which have employed all their parts and abilities to demonstrate this and to this end do instance in several wonderfull effects which proceed meerly from Physical Causes It is very true that in Natural bodies there are wonderfull qualities and proprieties both manifest and occult which produce Effects to the amazement of those that are ignorant of their Causes And those that have diligently enquired into the secrets of Nature have written something of Natural Magick where they muster many examples of such strange effects and proprieties but all that they have writ comes nothing near to that which the Witches Magicians and Diviners do bring to pass and in this we must acknowledge that those people have another guess Master then these viz The Devil himselfe For such people being all or most of them Rude Illiterate and unexperienced men cannot have learned of themselves to do these wonderfull things by any acquired Knowledge of the Virtues and Proprieties of Natural things of which they cannot discourse nor render any pertinent Reason Which doth evidently shew that what they do is not by any profound Knowledge that they have of the occult virtues of Naturall things but that all these things proceed from the ministry and help of the Devill who doth not teach them these Virtues of Natural things neither but only imploy them as persons with whom he hath made a Contract to the end they may practise such wicked things the causes of which they knew not at all All Natural Bodies are so composed that they have qualities and proprieties by vvhich they do act one on the other or do mutually suffer some alterations the one by the other whence the naturall Sympathies and Antipathies do arise From these virtues and proprieties proceed all the alterations and changes transmutations and effects which are seen in nature And if one could exactly know all these virtues and qualities and should apply them exactly agentia patientibus he would doubtless produce very strange Effects and wonderfull to those that should be ignorant of their Causes All which the Devils knowing exactly and being able to do these things they I say having an almost-perfect knowledge of Nature and of the Qualities Vertues Proprieties of natural things and applying them fitly by their activity and motion which is not at all perceptible to us it is no wonder if they do by the hands of Witches Diviners and Magicians so many strange things which make men to wonder at them even to an amazement It is commonly held and it may be not without reason That all the operation of Daemons doth consist in their local motion By which First they are carried from place to place though never so farr distant almost in a moment or imperceptible space of time Secondly they move and transport Physical bodies though never so great or heavy with an incredible strength Thirdly They mix and compound diverse bodies together by their strength and power Fourthly they mix and as it were incorporate themselves in those bodies and thereby make them to act as they please Fifthly they stupisie diminish strengthen augment and animate the virtues and proprieties of all things For they knowing all the virtues and Proprieties of all bodies being able through their activity and local motion to apply quodlibet agens cuilibet patienti they easily do all those things which are reported of the Diviners Wizards and Magicians And in this sense we may say that all these things are done by Natural Causes because as it hath been said before they are done by the application of Natural Causes but this application of Causes Natural is not nor cannot be done

thing as those people did fancy and besides that it is unimaginable that in so minute bodies such as those are there should be found various and infinite qualities which we deprehend in the bodies composed of them or if they be without any quality that out of their concourse there should spring forth so many and so various qualities there is yet this very palpable absurdity which is that out of so fortuitous and casuall concourse which is not directed by any Superiour intellect there should be produced a work so admirable as the world is all the parts of which are conformed with such a Harmony and Symmetry that it confounds the thoughts of those who do sedulously consider it and so constant a duration of this order in the perpetuall succession of bodies which we see are formed by nature and again that if by this fortuitous concourse the world hath been so made by the same motion of those Atoms it may likewise be dissolved and so we must imagine in an Eternity an infinite number of worlds made and again dissolved successively one after another by the motion and fortuitous concourse of Atoms and by this is destroyed the pretended Eternity of this world for the defending of which the Atheists do so much trouble themselves CHAP. IIII. A third Argument Drawn from the Difference which is between Vice and Vertue AS in the works of Nature there is that Symmetry and wonderfull disposition so well managed so constant and regular of which hath been spoken in the precedent chapter that it doth clearely evidence to us an admirable and infinite wisdom which is the Author of it so also in humane things even in the actions of men and in the products and emergencies of their intellects and wills we may plainly see an Order and Symmetry so wonderfull that it cannot be conceived to be a product of fate from which nothing but confusion doth proceed This Principally doth appeare in the wisdom and subtlety of a mans Spirit and in the effects of these faculties of his Soule or in the rectitude of his actions flowing from the practicall part of his soul which is called Morall vertue both of which do point at something of Divine in Man and which cannot have its birth from a fortuitous and blinder cause that is supposed to act without Knowledge and from this also is drawn another Argument against Atheisme of which we will treat in its place To this Virtue and Morall good Evill Sin and Vices are opposed which opposition doth not wholy depend on mans Free Will for things of this Nature easily do change and vary but this difference of Good and Evill Vice and Virtue is fixed and altogether immutable and is so deeply tooted in the heart of man who doth naturally know it that all the men in the World cannot alter it and it will be knowne by them even in despight of themselves for the most barbarous and desperate although they be Virtues grand Adversaries cannot but often admire its Excellency and highly value it where shee is found and although they many times know not the Vice which resides in their hearts and the evill Actions which they blinded by their Passions do commit yet they will with facility deprehend it in others and detest and condemn it if especially it turns against their interest and to their prejudice And as all acknowledge the Beauty and Excellency of Virtue and the deformity of its contrary Vice so all agree in this that the former calls for the Love Praise and Commendation of men Contrarily that the latter is worthy of the bitterest hatred and of all mens detestations and ought to draw after it selfe severe punishments as its due from thence we draw another Argument against Atheisme This difference of Good and Evill is not a meer Fancy and Opinion but Essentially reall as in naturall things Black and White Light and Darknesse Neither doth it proceed from any custome that by degrees hath gained upon mens minds for that which comes by custome doth grow by little and little and is weaker in the bud then afterwards may be altered easily and insensibly turnes to nothing which is not seen in the difference of Good and Evill which hath alwaies beene deepely rooted in all mens Hearts at all times and more strong perswasions were there of it in the Beginning then now in this age where the Corruption of men is stronger then ever And this cannot be abolished by any contrary Custome for it alwaies remaines the same in it selfe The Lawes of Magistrates or the Morall Precepts of Philosophers have not given to Virtue its Being they have only apprehended it in the Actions and Deportments of men and according to their apprehensions they have framed their Precepts and Lawes to rule the lives of men and to hinder them from Vice its contrary As we may say of Aristotle That he hath not meerly invented out of his owne Brain the Rules and Precepts of Argumentation but only hath framed them upon the Remarks which he hath made of all mens Discourses and Arguments And upon these Remarkes hath compiled his Organon where the Rules of Argumentation are layd which are neither mutable or arbitrary but certain and unchangeable effected upon the right and Naturall Reason common to all men This Virtue hath its Rise and Foundation in Mans Nature as he is Rationall and endowed with that Will and Understanding which ought to have the Supremacy over the Affections and to hold them in their Right Compasse and this doth consist in the Symmetry and proportion which is in the Rationall Souls Faculties from this doth spring forth the Beauty and Excellency of virtue which doth compel the most barbarous to admire it as in Bodies Works either artificiall or naturall their Beauty proceeds from the due Position of all their parts for the one is no more Arbitrary or Imaginary then the other but both are True and Reall that of Virtue being so much the more glorious as the spirituall exceed the Corporeall in worth and dignity This Virtue as we have described it cannot proceed from a blind fate or fortuitous cause which can produce nothing well regulated but ought to have a most certain constant and invariable Cause which hath in it selfe all manner of virtues in the highest Degree which is the most perfect pattern and the exactest modell of all humane Virtues and which is the Author and efficient cause of it in man seeing it cannot come from any other principle which if it were supposed would be much lesser then its Effect for there is nothing in all that man can imagine in Nature more divine and excellent then Virtue by which man is not only infinitely more excellent then beasts but is in some manner deified and in some respects surpasses himselfe And here we need not to constitute two Principles with the Manichees the one of all good the other of all evill one only being sufficient for as the streight line

is the rule of it self and of the oblique so this pattern and Modell of all Vertue and perfection which is the Deity is the rule of all human vertues and by it is known its contrary viz. Vice which of it selfe hath no more need of a Principle or efficient cause then darknesse which only proceeds from the privation and absence of light The Spirit of Man being so wavering and unconstant cannot be so good a rule of this most excellent and glorious vertue as it is of it self Again that knowledge of the difference of good and evill which all men have so deeply and naturally inprinted in their soules doth not simply proceed from any Tradition or Institution there being severall barbarous Nations who having no such Institutions neverthelesse acknowledge and admire vertue and highly detest vice many also who want those Traditions or may be are taught the contrary to this Truth do often notwithstanding their bad education acknowledge the difference between vice and virtue Now from whence can proceed so strong lively and constant impression in the soule of man but from some Superior cause which hath engraved this in the Creation of it Which cause can be none else but the Deity there being none but it above man to effect this CHAP. V. The fourth Argument Drawn from the disorder which is seen in Man which Disorder of necessity hath a beginning and an ending WE have in the preceding Chapters drawn two Arguments against Atheisme the one from the order of Nature and the other from Man We will now draw one from the disorder which is in both Vertue is indeed proper to Man as he is rationall and by it he chiefly differs from brutes which are not capable of it but yet it is not naturall or essentiall to him for then man should never sin but accidentall from which he hath departed himselfe witnesse the great corruption of manners which we see in the World which of necessity hath had some beginning and cannot have existed from everlasting for disorder is a perturbation of order and a confusion introducted since in mens natures and that disorder and confusion cannot possibly be Eternall is evidenced from this that to be without a begining is one of the greatest perfections that can be imagined And truely experience teacheth that the more we go on forward we see corruption to be greater and greater and wonderfully to encrease for corruption and all evill is at this day much rifer then it was a hundred yeares agoe and was greater a hundred yeares agoe then it was one hundred yeares before which a Heathen hath very well noted about sixteen hundred yeares ago in these Verses Aetas parentum pejor Avis tulit Nos nequiores mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem And so going upwards corruption will be found sensibly to diminish untill we come unto a first beginning If then Vice hath had its first rise in Man man cannot be from everlasting and this World of necessity hath had a beginning from this viz. that the World was Created we have heretofore proved a Deity that Created it for the beginning of this corruption cannot be so far stretched upwards but that an infinite space of time preceded necessarily the beginning of this corruption Now if man could for an infinite space of time remaine uncorrupted why could not he continue so still Add to it that if Vice and Corruption hath begun after an infinite time of uprightnesse it may justly be asked whether it hath begun in one man only or in all men at once Which of these two questions be asserted it matters not in the assertion of either there is a very grosse absurdity For if they say that it began in one man only we may ask again why it begun in one rather then in another and if one was the first Author of Vice why the rest did not suddenly dispatch him for fear that he might infect and spoile the rest as at this day we see Magistrates putting the wicked to death that they may not by their ill example draw the rest to their exorbitancies And if all have at once it is a thing beyond imagination how it could be so after infinite time of their persevering in Vertue and uprightness chiefely if there is no other Governor of this Universe then the fatall order of Nature as the Atheists say which doubtlessely should alwayes have remained the same as it was before in an infinite space of time and there cannot be given or imagined any reason of so sudden and universall a change The same cannot be objected to us who hold that the World and Man have had a beginning who though he was Created by God pure and without Vice was not therefore immutable there being nothing immutable to speak properly but that which is Eternall and therefore he being naturally mutable it is no wonder if some time after he hath suffered some change and alteration We have said that Corruption growes more and more but yet it cannot grow to the infinite both because evill being a defect and imperfection it cannot be infinite because to be infinite doth denote perfection and also for that if evill should grow to be infinite the Society of men could not subsist but should be at last wholly abolished and the humane kinde annihilated by this evill all men at last coming to kill and destroy one another which again is against the pretended Eternity of the World and opinion of the Atheists who say that as this world hath no beginning so it ought to endure for ever And the World being made for Man and all things in it ministring to him if humane kinde should come wholly to perish as we have shewed it would come to passe if evill grew infinitely the root of the World would of necessity totally perish being deprived of its Principall end which is the service and good of man It is easie for those that consider diligently the works of Nature to see in them a wonderfull order and a firm constancy but it is also easie to deprehend in them besides and against this order a manifest disorder and as it were an extravagancy or exorbitancy of nature for if there is in Nature a regulated and constant vicissitude of the seasons of the yeare following one another the Spring after the Winter and Summer after the Spring there is in it also a manifest alteration of these seasons as excessive cold in Summer extraordinary heat in Winter one season intrenches upon another a Winter we many times see in the spring and a Summer-in Autumn If raine and snow ice and mists and dewes have their regulated times for the production of the fruits of the Earth and to furnish Man and all Animalls with food yet also often we see them confused and altered hence proceed droughts and extraordinary moisture which spoile the fruits of the Earth and bring famine and want of all things along with them hence also proceeds the corruption of

it they be such as have overwhelmed and drowned their reason in carnall delights and pleasures and who are like a Malefactor who makes himselfe drunk in the prison whilest the Sentence is pronouncing against him But all their reason and subtileness will never perswade it to those that are perplexed and tormented within themselves by the guilt of their crimes and they themselves very often are not free from the scourges of these Furies which in spite of them do sometimes give them terrible checks which is an invincible argument of this great truth naturally imprinted in the hearts of men that there is a just Judge and a severe Revenger of their sins which he never leaves unpunished It is also a poor evasion to say that such are not bred in the Schole of Epicurus whose followers and disciples laugh at these phantasmes and Chimeras For first experience sheweth that they themselves are not exempted from these terrours of conscience and I think they will grant Caligula and such like Monsters were of their tribe who yet have felt these compunctions and terrors Secondly every one through the corruption of his Nature and his strong inclinations to evill is to himselfe a Master of Epicurism and a professor of Atheism and would if he could perswade this to himselfe that so he might with more freedom let the reins loose to all his passions And though it may be those that have these alarums and terrours are not open and professed Atheists yet they are so in their will and desires and nevertheless they cannot do so much as to free themselves from these fears and to loose the opinion they have of a Deity and of a Providence which will avenge it self of their crimes which doubtlesse they could easily do since they defire and endeavour after it if this opinion was false and vaine and did proceed from nothing but from a vaine institution or the phansy of some that should at first have taught it And it is much to be wondered at if the opinion of the Atheists be true how those that have rid Common wealths of Tyrants and oppressors have been commended by all have had their Statues erected and Panegyricks have been composed to praise them and extoll them unto Heaven whereas if Epicurus in Athens or Lucretius in Rome had ascended the Theatre to perswade men to their opinion and to free them from these Tyrannicall insulting and by them pretended Panicall terrors of Conscience which do perplex and torment the soules of men instead of being applauded they had been stoned and branded with the execrations and curse of every one And although all those that are laden with vices and enormous crimes are not vexed or tormented by these Furies yet this is not an argument to evince that therefore these terrours are vaine no more then because all here below do not receive the just punishment due to their crimes is an argument that there is no Providence that taketh notice of them but is rather a clear evidence of the sottishness and brutishness of men which drown their reason in the torrent of their vices and the remorses and worme of conscience in the rest are sure proofes and effects of the Deity which never leaves it self without a witness in man whose conscience is his own accuser witness judge and executioner altogether If man knowes and is certain of the evill that he doth and if his conscience accuses and affrights him he knowes also and is very certain of the good he doth and that knowledge that he hath of his innocency and good life doth cause in him a great rest and quietness and a wonderfull tranquillity of minde which he values and esteemes more and which makes him more happy and content then wicked men are with the enjoyment of all their goods honors pleasures and riches And of this felicity and content which honest men do partake of more then the wicked men the writings of heathen Philosophers themselves are full without excepting even Epicurus who hath been forced to acknowledge this truth which is a strong argument that vertue hath a more reall and nobler recompense in it selfe then that happiness which is pretended to consist in the goods honours pleasures of this life and that it carries along with it selfe its own reward and expects another somewhere else then in this life and that cannot be altogether the praise and esteem of men and the posterities romembrance of their good works because most commonly vertue and vertuous men are deprived of this which shewes unto us its excellency above vice and an infinite distance between her and evill Moreover when men are wrongfully and unjustly blamed their goods life and laudable actions calumniated and their persons abused and diffamed they justifie and defend themselves as much as they can and passionately and vehemently endeavour to prove their innocency and this very thing do the Atheists against whom we dispute if they are at any time calumniated or blamed without a cause Why this I pray unlesse there was a vast difference between good and evill vice and vertue unlesse the one was worthy of praise the other of disgraces the one of punishment the other of reward I say what need they care to be praised or vilified if these praises or disgraces are in effect but imaginary things without any reall ground and if all this doth confist but meerly in fancy and opinion These pretended strong wits should laugh at all the ill opinion that men can have of them for their crimes and should not put themselves to the trouble of making any Apologies then when they are wrongfully accused for why should one trouble himself for a false imagination that hath no real and solid foundation And this is an Argument to prove that those men maugre themselves are forced to acknowledge even against their own Maxims what a vast difference there is between good and evill vice and virtue the recompense due to the one and the punishments which the other doth deserve Again experience teacheth us that when men are violently and unjustly oppressed without any means or hopes to revenge themselves they have recourse to the Deity from whose Justice they expect and promise to themselves the revenge of that wrong which is done to them Which Tertullian doth remark very well in his Apologetick against the Heathen and saith that if any one of them was oppressed he did cry out Deus videt Deus reddet God sees and God will render it and that in saying so he did not look towards the Capitoll where was the Temple of Jupiter but toward Gods Throne and he adds that it is an evidence of a Soul really Christian For this motion doth not proceed from a preconceived opinion of a Deity which hath been imprinted in a mans soul by education but which proceeds from his conscience and from the bottom of his heart and from the judgement of his best and purest reason which dictates and suggests to him