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	effect_n	nature_n	1,689	5	5.4122	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28945	The Christian virtuoso shewing that by being addicted to experimental philosophy, a man is rather assisted than indisposed to be a good Christian / by T.H.R.B., Fellow of the Royal Society ; to which are subjoyn'd, I. a discourse about the distinction that represents some things as above reason, but not contrary to reason, II. the first chapters of a discourse entituled, Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity, by the same author.	Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Reflections upon a theological distinction.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity.	1690 (1690)	Wing B3931; ESTC R19536	74,134	240

acquaint us with many Surprizing Particulars that we should never otherwise have Discover'd or perchance so much as Dream'd of And peradventure it may be no Hyperbole to say that the Informations of a Plummet which reaches not to Some Depths and brings but a very slender account of Soils that lye in Any are not more short of those of a Diver than the Informations Philosophy gives us of some Divine things are of those compleater Ones that may be had from the Holy Scriptures And when I remember how many Opinions about the Submarine Parts that I among many other Men thought Probable I found cause to Change upon the Conversation I had with a famous Diver that sometimes by the help of an Engine stay'd several hours at the bottom of the Sea I find the less Reluctancy to suffer Opinions about Divine Matters that before seem'd probable to me to be Rectifi'd by the fuller Discoveries made of those things by the Preachers of the Gospel You may find some things applyable to the Confirmation of what has been newly deliver'd in an Essay which you may see when you please that considers the Bounds and Use of Experience in Natural Philosophy Wherefore remembring that before this late Excursion I was speaking of Miracles I shall now resume the Subject and proceed to tell you that I have the more insisted upon the Miracles that may be pleaded to recommend the Christian Religion because I thought that an Argument grounded on Them is little less than Absolutely Necessary to Evince that any Religion that Men believe to be Supernaturally Reveal'd and consequently that the Christian does really proceed from God For tho' the Excellency of the Christian Doctrine and other concurrent Motives may justly persuade me that 't is worthy and likely to be given by God yet that de facto this Doctrine comes from Him by way of Supernatural Revelation I can scarce be sufficiently Ascertained but by the Miracles wrought by Christ and his Disciples to Evince that the Doctrine they Preach'd as Commission'd by God to do so was indeed His being as such own'd by Him But these Miracles having been wrought when 't was most fit and needful they should be wrought in the first Ages of the Church We that live at so great a distance from them can have no knowledge of them by our Own Senses or Immediate Observation but must Believe them upon the account of the formerly mention'd Historical or Vicarious Experience which is afforded us by the duly transmitted Testimony of those that were themselves to speak once more in an Evangelist's phrase Eye-Witnesses and Ministers of the things they relate And since we scruple not to believe such strange Prodigies as Celestial Comets Vanishing and Reappearing Stars Islands founded by Subterraneal Fires in the Sea Darkenings of the Sun for many months together Earthquakes reaching above a thousand miles in length and the like amazing Anomalies of Nature upon the credit of Human Histories I see not why that Vicarious Experience should not more be trusted which has divers peculiar and concurrent Circumstances to confirm it and particularly the Death that most of the first Promulgators chearfully Suffer'd to Attest the Truth of it and the Success and Spreading of the Doctrine authoriz'd by those Miracles and receiv'd chiefly upon their account To which things some perhaps would add that 't is less incredible that the Author of Nature should for most weighty purposes make stupendous Alterations of the course of Nature than that Nature her self for no such end should by such Prodigies as are newly mention'd as it were throw her self out of her own Course Miracles being so necessary to the establishment of Reveal'd Religion in general it may be look'd upon as a farther Disposition in our Virtuoso to receive the Christian Religion that the Philosophy he cultivates does much conduce to enable him to judge aright of those strange things that are by many Propos'd as Miracles and Believ'd to be so For first the knowledge he has of the Various and sometimes very Wonderful Operations of some Natural things especially when they are skilfully improv'd and dexterously apply'd by Art particularly Mathematicks Mechanicks and Chymistry will qualify him to distinguish between things that are only strange and surprizing and those that are truly miraculous So that he will not mistake the Effects of Natural Magick for those of a Divine Power And by this well-instructed Wariness he will be able to discover the Subtil Cheats and Collusions of Impostors by which not only Multitudes of all Religions especially Heathen but even Learned Men of most Religions for want of an insight into real Philosophy have formerly been or are at this day deluded and drawn into Idolatrous Superstitious or otherwise Erroneous Tenents or Practices And on the other side the knowledge our Virtuoso may have of what cannot be justly expected or pretended from the Mechanical Powers of Matter will enable him to discern that divers things are not produceable by Them without the intervention of an Intelligent Superior Power on which score he will frankly acknowledge and heartily believe divers Effects to be truly Miraculous that may be plausibly enough ascrib'd to other Causes in the Vulgar Philosophy where Men are taught and wont to attribute Stupendous unaccountable Effects to Sympathy Antipathy Fuga vacui Substantial Forms and especially to a certain Being presum'd to be almost Infinitely Potent and Wise which they call Nature For This is represented as a king of Goddess whose Power may be little less than boundless as I remember Galen himself compares it to that of God and saith that He could not do such a thing because Nature cannot and Censures Moses for speaking as if he were of another Mind The whole Passage is so weighty that I thought fit to direct you to it in the Margent tho' to comply with my hast I forbear to transcribe and descant upon so prolix a One and add to it divers other Passages that I have met with in famous Authors who for want of knowing the true Extent of the Powers of Matter and Motion left to themselves in the Ordinary Course of things Ascribe to Natural Causes as they call them such Effects as are beyond their reach unless they be Elevated by Agents of a Superior Order I know it may be objected that the hitherto-mention'd Dispositions that Experimental Knowledge may give a Man to Admit the Histories of the Miracles recorded in the Gospel and likewise to Expect that God will be able to perform the Promises and Menaces that are in his name deliver'd there may be countervail'd by this That those who are so much acquainted with the Mysteries of Nature and her various and strange ways of Working as a Virtuoso may well be may by that Knowledge be strongly tempted to think that those surprizing things that other Men call Miracles are but Effects of Her Power the Extent of which is not easily discern'd by ordinary Men

nor safely defin'd by Philosophers themselves But this Objection being plausible enough to make me think it deserv'd to be seriously consider'd I took an occasion that was once offer'd me to examine the validity of it in a Paper by it self And this being at your command I shall refer you to it And I hope that in the mean time it may suffice to say That to make it reasonable to judge this or that particular Performance a Supernatural One it is not at all necessary that it surpass the whole Power of Nature that is of Physical Agents provided it surpass the power of that Cause or that complex of Causes from which the Effect must in reason if it be purely Natural or Physical be suppos'd to have proceeded As for instance That a Fisherman or two should speak other Languages than their own does not at all exceed the power of Nature if they employ'd a competent time in learning them But that a great number of Fishermen and other Illiterate Persons should all on a sudden become Linguists and in an hour's time be able to speak intelligibly to a great number and variety of Nations in their respective Languages as the New Testament relates that the Apostles and their Companions did on the day of Pentecost That gift of Tongues I say was an Ability which in those circumstances of Place Time and Persons wherein 't was exercis'd may justly be concluded to have been Supernatural or Miraculous I fear you will think I have dwelt too long upon the Argument for Christianity drawn from that sort of matters of Fact we call Miracles tho' the uncommon way that my Design led me to represent them in would not permit me to make it out in few words Wherefore I shall now pass on to another Argument in favour of the same Religion that is afforded by Experience being drawn from the strangely successful Propagation and the happy Effects of Christianity in the World But having formerly had occasion to display this Argument in a separate Paper which you may command a Sight of if I shall not have time to annex a Transcript of it to the later Sheets of this First Part of the present Essay I will refer you for more ample Proof to That Writing and content my self in this place briefly to touch some of the Heads and subjoyn a Reflection or two that you will not meet with in that Paper 'T is a notorious Matter of Fact that in less than half an Age the Christian Religion was spread over a great part of the then known World insomuch that in a few Years after it began to be preach'd the Apostle of the Gentiles could tell the Romans with Joy that their Faith i. e. profession of the Gospel was spoken of throughout the whole World And in the Second Century Tertullian and other famous Writers shew that the Gospel had already numerous Proselytes in a great number of different Kingdoms and Provinces But I forbear to mention what he and others have magnificently said of the Success of the Gospel because I had rather refer you to the plain Narratives made of it by Eusebius Socrates Scholasticus and other grave Authors being of opinion that mere Historians may give to a Philosophical Reader a more Advantageous Idea of the Efficacy of that excellent Doctrine than eloquent Orators as such can do This wonderful quick progress of this Religion being ascertain'd to our Virtuoso by a Thing he is so much sway'd by as Experience it does not a little dispose him to Believe the Truth of so prevalent a Religion For If he considers the Persons that first promulgated it They were but half a score of Illiterate Fishermen and a few Tent-makers other Tradesmen If he considers the Means that were employ'd to Propagate this Doctrine he finds that they had neither Arms nor External Power to Compel Men to receive it nor Riches Honours or Preferments to Bribe or Allure them to it nor were they Men of Philosophical Subtilty to intrap or entangle the Minds of their Auditors Nor did they make use of the pompous Ornaments of Rhetorick and fetches of Oratory to inveagle or entice Men but treated of the most Sublime and abstruse Matters in a most Plain and unaffected Style as became Lovers and Teachers of Truth If he considers the nature of the Doctrine that in little time obtain'd so many Proselytes he will find that instead of being suited to the Natural Apprehensions or the Receiv'd Opinions of Men and instead of gratifying their corrupt Affections or complying with so much as their Innocentest Interests it prescrib'd such Mortifications and such great strictness of Life and high degrees of Virtue as no Legislator had ever dar'd to impose upon his Subjects nay nor any Philosopher on his Disciples And this Doctrine was propos'd in such a way and was accompany'd with Predictions of such Hardships and Persecutions that should in those times be the portion of its sincere Professors as if the Law-giver had design'd rather to Fright Men from his Doctrine than Allure them to it since they could not believe what he said and foretold to be true without believing that they should be made great Sufferers by that Belief If our Virtuoso considers the Opposition made to the Progress of the Gospel he will find cause to wonder that it could ever be surmounted For the Heathens which made by far the greatest part of the World were deeply engag'd in Polytheism Idolatry Magical Rites and Superstitions and almost all kind of Crimes and some of these were shameless Debaucheries which oftentimes made a part of their Worship And the Jews were by the corrupt Leaven of the Pharisees and the impious Errors of the Sadduces and the General Mistakes of the Nation about the Person Office and Kingdom of the Messias and by their dotage upon their vain Traditions and numerous Superstitions grounded upon them The Gentiles I say and the Jews who were those that were to be Converted were on these and other accounts highly Indispos'd to be made Proselytes Especially when they could not own themselves to be such without exposing their Persons to be hated and despised their Possessions to be confiscated their Bodies to be imprison'd and tormented and oftentimes their Lives to be in as Ignominious as Cruel ways destroy'd And whilst the Secular Magistrates made them suffer all these Mischiefs the Venerated Priests the Subtil Philosophers and the Eloquent Orators persuaded the World that they Deserv'd yet more than they Endur'd and employ'd all their Learning and Wit to make the Religion Odious and Ridiculous as well as the Embracers of it Miserable Accusing the Martyrs and other Christians of no less than Atheism Incest and the inhuman shedding and drinking the innocent Blood of Infants These and the like Matters of Fact when our Virtuoso reflects on and considers by what unpromising Means as far as they were but Secular such seemingly insurmountable Difficulties were conquer'd He