Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	death_n	sin_n	2,635	5	5.2185	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43279	A cabbalistical dialogue in answer to the opinion of a learned doctor in philosophy and theology, that the world was made of nothing as it is contained in the second part of the Cabbala denudata & apparatus in Lib. Sohar, p. 308 &c. / printed in Latin at Sultsbach, anno 1677 ; to which is subjoyned a rabbinical and paraphrastical exposition of Genesis I, written in High-Dutch by the author of the foregoing dialogue, first done into Latin, but now made English.	Helmont, Franciscus Mercurius van, 1614-1699.	1682 (1682)	Wing H1390; ESTC R6303	13,090	32

Natures will differ little from the very Creator himself and because it is supposed that matter is from their Stupefaction or Dispiritedness it will follow that the Divine Essence is as it were a kind of bodily Spirit Cabb In the first place indeed some of the Ancients seem to have asserted That the Soul is a Particle of the Divine Air or Breath and that men are called the Off-spring of God Acts 17.28 Yet is this warily and wisely to be understood that the Air or Breath of God doth at least differ from God himself as the thing principiated or principled differs from its principle now for things to agree generically or in kind doth not infer or allow that they are the same in Essence or do agree essentially Whence none do assert the Divine Essence to be Bodily-spiritual but those who deny all nature of Spirits tho' perhaps it may be more truly said that there is that in God if may so say which may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an affect or moving as it were sufferingly to Create rather than in Spiits an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an affect or moving sufferingly to become Matter However from this Hypothesis or doctrinal supposition the Nature of God is established to be much more Spiritual than from the Vulgar Hypothesis because by this Vulgar one Matter as such is not allowed to be so much as a Substance but to be only a certain extrinsecal and accidental Modification of a Spiritual Substance from which God is most vastly distant insomuch as he is the most wise and chief Mover of all things Comp. But however the Material World will be thus after a sort determined to be a Spirit Cabb Matter as such is not a Spirit by only that very Substance it self which appeareth under the form of Matter viz. in its blindness or darkness to wit in that its dull rest and privation of its former happiness that was in sometimes past a Spirit and as yet is fundamentally and radically such and will sometime hereafter be such again formally as it is said Rom. 8.19 20 21 22 23. Eph 1.10.1 Cor. 15 28. Examples hereof may be a Man Living and a Man Dead a thin Vapour and Ice c. Comp. Dost thou therefore conclude positively that out of nothing nothing can be Created Cabb Indeed having positively determined that Matter is made by a Coalition of Clinging together of Spiritual degenerate dull Monades or single Beings and that this Coalition is called Creation I should not speak accurately if I should say that Matter is made out of Nothing But I should assert that a Spirit is produced neither out of nothing nor out of something because the very Particle Ex out of respects a material cause which is by no means admitted to be in Spirits But the Inferences with which the first Axiom is loaded do not touch my Hypothesis But these Absurdities and Incongruities do flow from the vulgar Opinion viz. that Matter is Created by God out of nothing viz. 1. That from a Being supreamly perfect supreamly intelligent supreamly free having motion in and by it self in the highest degree supreamly penetrating supreamly immutable supreamly positive supreamly living c. should be produced a Being most absolutely imperfect in the highest degree void of all Science Understanding and Knowledge under the highest necessity and force imaginable bound in the highest degree to the Laws of Passive Motion and by consequence destitute altogether of all liberty and willing wanting in it self in the utmost degree all motion and subjected only to the motions and impressions of others and therefore of and in it self in the highest degree quiet and immovable wanting in it self all penetration as well active as passive most highly mutable most highly privative and despoiled of all happiness and the possession of all real good and therefore most highly dull sluggish and dead and by consequence enjoying nothing at all of those things which are contained in the cause whence also many have said that nature is plainly contrary unto God whereas an efficient cause as it cannot produce any thing that is altogether like unto it self so neither can it produce any thing altogether unlike unto it self 2. And yet this Subject so vile and void which is by us deservedly said to occupy the least part of the Universe is notwithstanding in this vulgar Hypothesis concluded to be co-extended yea co-existing and co-ordinate with God and therefore is lifted up into so high an estimation that all the doctrine in the whole Pagan Philosophy is exhausted or drawn from this Subject alone which also is established the measure of all Theorems Maxims and Conclusions concerning Spirits or concerning God which they call a Demonstration a posteriori that is from effects or posterior Considerations whence it becomes an accursed Materialism and consequently Atheism 3. As To be and not to be done imply a contradiction so●●t is a consequent of this contradiction out of Not-being to be if we should speak accurately and according to the Laws of the Essential Descriptions of Causes 4. After the same manner God must be said to have Created Death Sin Shadows or Darkness Monsters Evils c. which are privations as Matter is the privation of spiritual nature inasmuch as in whose definition not one only positive term ought truly and rightly to be made an ingredient because neither is discerpibility or divisibleness or separableness to be allowed to it in the abstract and as considered in an Atome or indivisible Being 5. The Creation of matter out of nothing doth directly and perfectly oppose or is repugnant to the Wisdom of God inasmuch as in the case thus stated when he might have done that which was best as for Example he might have made every Creature a Spirit yet some and so many he would make to be no Spirit and not the best 6. It is contrary to His Goodness because he would Create something without any Communication at all of most of His good things 7. It is contrary to His Beauty because Matter is quite opposite directly contrary to and distant from the first Fair One. Yea. 8. Hereby would be a progress or passage from one extream to another immediately Whence 9. it would be absurd for the avoiding of uncertain absurdities which flow not necessarily for an Hypothesis to admit of many more other absurdities which are highly hurtful to the nature of the Soul and Kingdom of the Messiah and are such as plunge the Mind so into material dirty Gulphs that by reason of the utter blotting out of its Spiritual nature in it it at length plainly becomes a material thing as it were which God forbid Compil Dost thou therefore assert that matter cannot be Created Cabb Not immediately But after that a Spirit is immediately Created it doth for certain assignable Causes and which are elsewhere to be remembered descend into that state of Death that it admitteth of the Qualities and name

A Cabbalistical DIALOGUE IN ANSWER To the Opinion of a Learned Doctor in Philosophy and Theology THAT THE WORLD WAS MADE OF NOTHING As it is Contained in the Second Part of the Cabbala Denudata Apparatus in Lib. Sohar p. 308. c. Printed in Latin at Sultsbach Anno 1677. To which is subjoyned A Rabbinical and Paraphrastical Exposition of Genesis 1. written in High-Dutch by the Author of the foregoing Dialogue first done into Latin but now made English LONDON Printed for Benjamin Clark in George-Yard in Lombard-street Bookseller MDCLXXXII A Cabbalistical Dialogue in Answer to the Opinion of a Learned Doctor in Philosophy and Theology That the World was made of Nothing To which is Subjoined a Rabbinical and Paraphrastical Exposition of the First Chapter of Genesis Compiler THE Marts and Fairs drawing near I cannot possibly enquire of thee concerning all those things which I once was determined to enquire of Only tell me briefly for the present Are these the Fundamentals of thy Cabbala which are proposed in the Aeto-paedo-melissaean Dream Cabbal No no But what answer shall I give to one that is ●n hast unless thou dost allow me to defer until another time those things which are more amply to be added to those three Treatises called A further Disquisition the Exposition of the Mercava and the Cabbalistical Catechism Compil Be it so This is all I ask in the first place Whether dost thou deny all Creation properly so called Or what is Creation according to thy Hypothesis or doctrinal Supposition Cabb I will answer Paradox●s with Paradoxes and becau●e I perceive thou examinest all things so strictly in the Ballance of Reason which for the most part is stark blind in these more sublime matters I shall answer problematically so as ye may be able to judge whether our Cabbalistical ter●●s do not also admit of another interpretation according to the dictate of reason than such a one as may be said to labour under an absurdity But as for our Hypothesis it self I shall more freely expatiate on that another time Now therefore to answer thy question I know one who is of our number who defineth Creation properly so call'd to be the effection of an infinite efficient whereby a separable Being is constituted or made This definition of Active Creation may also be easily applied to Passive Creation or to that which is Relative that is to that respect which the Creator hath to the Creature or on the contrary As also to that Creation which is mediate whether it be so in regard of the Efficient or in regard of the Effect And what absurdity is there in all this Compil But why in this definition dost thou omit that which we call the formal reason of Creation viz. that it is done out of Nothing Cabb Because the Particle Ex out of does only denote or properly belong to matter nor can it Properly belong to Spirit which yet is the most proper Subject of Creation properly so called and of this Spirit it can no wise be said that it is or is not Ex out of another but only that it is ab or from another just as we say not that an Idaea or conception is made out of the Soul or out of the Mind but from the Soul or from the Mind or that the beams or rays of a Created Spirit are made out of its Centre unless peradventure with regard to place but from the Centre or that the Hands or other formal Members of an Angel when he appears are made out of the Angel but are made from him Compil But thus thou seemest to shut out matter from Creation Cabb No but only from such a Creation as is immediate For these are our Positions 1. That the Creator first brings into being a spiritual Nature 2. And that either arbitrarily when he pleas●d or continually as he continually understands generates c. 3. That some of these Spirits for some certain cause or reason are slipt down from the state of knowing of Penetrating or of moving into a state of impenetration 4. That these Monades or single Beings being now become spiritless or dull did cling or come together after various manners 5. That this coalition or clinging together so long as is remains such is called matter 6. That out of this matter● all things material do consist which yet shall in time return again to a more loosned and free state No contradiction is involved in all these Hence the Creator may also be said to be the efficient cause of all things materiated or made material although not immediately Comp. After this rate the Creature would be co-eternal and co-existent with God Cabb No otherwise than as the beam or light is said to be co-existent with the Sun a Conception Idaea or thought with the mind a Mode Manner or Accident of a Being is coexisient with its Being a thing dependent with that on which it dependeth the effect with its positive actual efficient cause and a many such like For thus may Vnity be alwaies better conceived to be in God because thus he will alwaies have Pluralities as his oppo●ites In like manner will his Goodness be better thus conceived by reason of his incessant communication to his Creatures Also that he is the supream Act because he will alwaies actuate other B●ings Also that he is the Beginning and the Cause because he will alwaies influence his Creatures as their cause Also that he is the Subject because he will alwaies have Adjuncts Also that he is the Measure because he will alwaies commensurate others Also that he is Priority because he will alwaies have all else to be Posterior to or after him Also that he is the Substance because he will alwaies bear up all things Also that he is the Crown because he will encompass or comprehend all others And so of all the Rest of his Names and Numbers and therefore also belongeth to him the No●ion of a Kingdom because he will alwaies have Subjects Comp. Why thus it will follow that God did Create by intrinsecal necessity Cabb There will be no absurdity in that if Creation be understood to be immediate in regard of its Subject and therefore to be only of a spiritual nature which in a certain respect is immanent or working within its own self just as motion is from Fire Cogitation or thinking from the Soul Volition or Willing proceeding from God whence also Creation is very little different from Conservation according to the Sentiments of our People But in that Creation that is Mediate or Transient or working ad extia without himself he acteth freely so that for Example he one day creates out of the Chaos or confused mass the Heavens another day the Earth another the Stars Compiler But how I pray after this manner will the Effect be posterior to or after its cause Cabbal In the order of Nature though not in the order of Time Compil But at this rate Spiritual