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	good_a	great_a	3,277	5	2.6620	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34395	The principles of the most ancient and modern philosophy concerning God, Christ and the creatures ... being a little treatise published since the author's death, translated out of the English into Latin, with annotations taken from the ancient philosophy of the Hebrews, and now again made English / by J.C., Medicinæ Professor.	Conway, Anne, 1631-1679.; Crull, J. (Jodocus), d. 1713?	1692 (1692)	Wing C5989; ESTC R8533	67,596	178

Magnet thereof whence also God is above all the most to be loved because he is the best which Goodness is in some measure in Creatures either really or apparently wherefore such are loved of their Fellow-Creatures I Answer It must be granted indeed that Goodness is a great yea the greatest Cause of Love and the proper Object of it but this Goodness is not a distinct Cause from those before laid down but is comprehended in them Wherefore do we call a Thing Good But because it either really or apparently pleases us for the unity it hath with us or which we have with it Hence it comes to pass that Good Men love Good Men and not otherwise for Good Men cannot love Evil nor Evil Men Good Men as such for there is no greater similitude than between Good and Good For the reason why we call or esteem a Thing Good is this that it benefits us and that we are made Partakers of its Goodness and so here the First Cause of Similitude is still Militant So likewise when one Thing gives being to another as when God and Christ give Being to Creatures as from whom have every true Essence proceeded here is in like manner a certain Similitude for it is impossible that the Creatures should not in some Things be like their Creator and agree with him in some Attributes or Perfections This being supposed a Touch-stone we shall now return to our subject matter i. e. to examine whether Spirits and Bodies are of one Nature and Substance and so convertible one into another Therefore I demand What is the reason That the Spirit or Soul so loveth the Body wherewith it is united and so unwillingly departs out of it that it has been manifestly notorious the Souls of some have attended on and been subject to their Bodies after the Body was dead until it was corrupted and dissolved into dust That the Spirit or Soul gave a distinct Being to the Body or the Body to the Spirit cannot be the reason of this Love for that were Creation in a strict sence but this viz. to give Being unto Things agrees only to God and Christ therefore that necessarily comes to pass by reason of that similitude they have one with another or some Affinity in their Natures Or if it be said there is a certain Goodness in the Body which moves the Spirit to love it certainly this Goodness must necessarily answer to something in the Soul which is like it otherwise it could not be carried unto it yea let them inform us what that Goodness in the Body is for which the Soul doth so servently love it or in what Attributes or Perfections a Body is like a Spirit if a Body is nothing but a dead Trunk and a certain Mass which is altogether uncapable of any degree of Life and Perfection if they say a Body agrees with a Spirit Ratione entis or in respect of Being that is to say as this hath Being so that hath the same this is already refuted in the former Argument for if this Being hath no Attributes or Perfections wherein it may agree with the Being of a Spirit then it is only a mere Fiction for God created no Naked Ens or Being which should be a mere Being and have no Attributes that may be predicated of it besides also Ens is only a Logical Notion or Term which Logicians do call Genus generalissimum or the most General Kind which in the naked and abstracted Notion of it is not in the Things themselves but only in the Conception or Humane Intellect And therefore every true Being is a certain single Nature whereof may be affirmed such and such Attributes Now what are those Attributes of Body wherein it resembles a Spirit Let us examine the principal Attributes of Body as distinct from a Spirit according to their Opinion who so much dispute that Body and Spirit are so infinitely distant in Nature that one can never become the other The Attributes are these That a Body is impenetrable of all other Bodies so that the parts thereof cannot penetrate each other but there is another Attribute of Body viz. to be discerpible or divisible into parts But the Attributes of Spirit as they define it are penetrability and indiscerpibility so that one Spirit can penetrate another also that a thousand Spirits can stand together one within another and yet possess no more Space than one Spirit Moreover that a Spirit is so simple and one in it self that it cannot be rent asunder or actually divided into separate parts If now the Attributes of Body and Spirit are compared together they are so far from being like one another or having any Analogy of Nature in which nevertheless the true Foundation of Love and Unity doth consist as before was said that they are plainly contrary yea nothing in the whole World can be conceived ●o contrary to any Thing as Body and Spirit in the opinion of these Men. For here is a pure and absolute contrariety in all their Attributes because Penetrability and Impenetrability are more contrary one to another than black and white or hot and cold For that which is black may become white and that which is hot may become cold But as they say that which is impenetrable cannot be made penetrable yea God and Creatures do not so infinitely differ in Essence one from another as these Doctors make Body to differ from Spirit For there are many Attributes in which God and the Creatures agree together but we can find none wherein a Body can any way agree with a Spirit and by consequence nor with God who is the chiefest and purest of Spirits wherefore it can be no Creature but a mere Non-entity or Fiction But as Body and Spirit are contrary in the Attributes of Penetrability and Impenetrability so are they no less contrary in Discerpibility and Indiscerpibility But if they alledge that Body and Spirit do agree in some Attributes as Extension Mobility and Figurability so that Spirit hath Extension and can reach from one place to another and also can move it self from place to place and form it self into whatsoever Figure it pleaseth in which cases it agrees with a Body and a Body with it To this I Answer Supposing the first that a Spirit can be extended which yet many of them deny yea most who teach that Body and Spirit are essentially distinct yet the Extension of Body and Spirit as they understand it do wonderfully differ for the Extension of Body is always impenetrable yea to be extended and impenetrable as pertaining to Body is only one real Attribute proposed in two Mental and Logical Notions or ways of speaking for what is Extension unless the Body wheresoever it is be impenetrable of its own proper parts But remove this Attribute of Impenetrability from a Body and it cannot be conceived any longer as extended Moreover also the Extension of Body and Spirit according to their Notion infinitely differ for

other beginning but Eternity it self § 2. BUT if any one will say Times are Finite then let us suppose the Measure of them from the Beginning to be about 6000 Years even as some do think that the whole Age of this World from the Beginning is of no greater Extent or with others who think that before this World there was another invisible World from whence this visible World proceeded let us suppose the Duration of this World to be 600000 Years or any other Number of Years as great as can be by any Reason conceived Now I demand whether it could be that the World was created before this time If they deny it they limit the Power of God to a certain Number of Years if they affirm it they allow Time to be before all time which is a manifest Contradiction § 3. THESE things being premised it will be easie to Answer to that Question wherewith Numbers have been so exceedingly perplexed Whether Creation was made or could be made from Eternity or from Everlasting If by Eternity and Everlasting they mean an Infinite Number of Times in this sence Creation was made from Everlasting But if they mean such an Eternity as God himself hath so as to say Creatures are Equal or Co-eternal with God and to have no beginning of Time this is false For both Creatures and Times which are nothing else but successive Motions and Operations of Created Beings had a Beginning which is God or the Eternal Will of God And why should it seem strange to any one that Times in their whole Collection or Universality may be said to be Infinite when the least part of Time that can be conceived contains in it self a kind of Infinity For as there is no Time so great that a greater cannot be conceived so there is no time so small but there may be a less for the sixtieth part of a Minute may be divided into sixty other parts and these again into others and so ad infinitum § 4. BUT the Infiniteness of Times from the beginning of Creation may be likewise demonstrated from the Goodness of God For God is infinitely Good Loving and Bountiful yea Goodness and Charity it self an infinite Fountain and Father of Goodness Charity and Bounty Now how can it be that this Fountain shall not always plentifully flow and send from it self Living Waters And shall not this Ocean perpetually abound with its own Efflux to the Production of Creatures and that with a certain continual Stream For the Goodness of God in its own proper Nature is Communicative and Multiplicative and seeing in him nothing is wanting neither can any thing be added unto him by reason of his absolute fulness and transcendent fertility And also seeing by the same reason he cannot multiply himself which would be all one as if we should imagine there were more Gods than one which is contradictory Now it necessarily follows that he did give Being to his Creatures from everlasting or Times without Number or else this Communicative Goodness of God which is his Essential Attribute would be something Finite and its Duration consist of a certain Number of Years than which nothing is more absurd § 5. IT is an Essential Attribute of God to be a Creator and so by Consequence God ever was a Creator and ever will be a Creator because otherwise he would be changed And therefore Creatures ever were and ever will be but the Eternity of Creatures is nothing else but an Infinity of Times in which they ever were and ever will be without end Neither is this Infiniteness of Times equal to the Infiniteness of God's Eternity because the Eternity of God himself hath no Times in it nothing therein can be said to be past or to come but the whole is always present He is indeed in Times but not comprehended of them Although the Hebrews seem to speak somewhat different from this as appears in Kabbal denud Tom. 1. Part 2. pag. 29 30. and Philosoph Kabbal dissertat 3. Ch. 6 7. in Kab denud Tom. 1. Part 3. yet they do not contradict this Opinion because they allow an indefinite Duration of Times Confes Adumbrat Kabbal Christian Ch. 7. § 4 5 7. in Kabbal denud Tom. 2. Tract ult § 6. AND the reason hereof is manifest because Time is nothing else but the successive Motion or Operation of Creatures which Motion or Operation if it should cease Time would also cease and the Creatures themselves would cease with Time Wherefore such is the Nature of every Creature that it is in Motion or hath a certain Motion by means of which it advances forward and grows to a farther perfection And seeing in God there is no successive Motion or Operation to a farther perfection because he is most absolutely perfect Hence there are no Times in God or his Eternity AND moreover because there are no Parts in God there are also no Times in him for all Times have their Parts and are indeed infinitely divisible as before was said CHAP. III. § 1. God is the most free Agent and yet of all the most necessary § 2. Indifferency of Will which the School-men imagined to be in God is a mere Fiction § 3. God created the World not for any external necessity but out of the internal impulse of his Divine Goodness and Wisdom § 4. Creatures were created Infinite and there are Worlds Infinite § 5. The least Creature that we can conceive hath within it Infinite Creatures § 6. Yet that doth not make Creatures equal with God § 7. A refutation of those imaginary Spaces which the Schools did imagine to exist without the Creatures § 8. Successive Motion hath no place in God § 9. An Answer to the Objection § 10. All Creatures are united after a certain manner § 1. MOREOVER if the afore-mentioned Attributes of God be duly considered and especially these two to wit his Wisdom and Goodness that Indifferency of Will which the Schoolmen and Philosophers falsly so called have imagined to be in God will be utterly refuted and wholly turned out of Doors which also they have improperly called Free-Will for although the Will of God be most free so that whatsoever he doth in the behalf of his Creatures he doth freely without any external Violence Compulsion or any Cause coming from them Whatsoever he doth he doth of his own accord Yet that Indifference of acting or not acting can by no means be said to be in God because this were an Imperfection and would make God like corruptible Creatures for this Indifference of Will is the Foundation of all Change and Corruptibility in Creatures so that there would be no evil in Creatures if they were not changeable Therefore if the same should be supposed to be in God he must be supposed to be changeable and so would be like corruptible Man who often doth a thing out of his mere pleasure not out of a true and solid Reason or the guidance of Wisdom in

parts and that without end yet I would not hereby determine what the Absolute Power of God will or can do as some do vainly and grosly dispute but only hint what the Power of God probably may do or will do so far as he operates in and with his Creatures to wit in as much as in all Productions and Generations as also in all Resolutions and Divisions in the Nature of Bodies or the Creature he never divides nor never can divide any Body into such small parts that each of these is not always capable of a farther division for the Body of no Creature can ever be reduced into its least parts yea into such that it cannot be reduced back again either by the most subtile operation of any Creature or created Power And this Answer may suffice to our present purpose For God makes no division in any Body or Matter but so far as he co-operates with the Creatures and therefore he never reduces Creatures into their least parts because then all Motion and Operation in Creatures would cease for it is the Nature of all Motion to wear and divide a thing into subtiler parts for to do this would be contrary to the Wisdom and Goodness of God for if all Motion and Operation should cease in any particular Creature that Creature would be altogether unprofitable and useless in the Creation and so would be no better than if it were a mere non ens or nothing But as was said before God cannot do that which is contrary to his Wisdom and Goodness or any of his Attributes Mathematical Division of Things is never made in Minima but Things may be Physically divided into their least parts as when Concrete Matter is so far divided that it departs into Physical Monades as it was in the first State of its Materiality Concerning the Production of Matter see Kab denud Tom. 1. Part 2. pag. 310. following and Tom. 2. the last Tract pag. 28. Numb 4 5. then it is again fit to resume its Activity and become a Spirit as it happens in our Meats § 10. MOREOVER the consideration of this Infinite Divisibility of every thing into parts always less is no unnecessary or unprofitable Theory but a thing of very great moment viz. that thereby may be understood the Reasons and Causes of Things and how all Creatures from the highest to the lowest are inseparably united one with another by means of Subtiler Parts interceding or coming in between which are the Emanations of one Creature into another by which also they act one upon another at the greatest distance and this is the Foundation of all Sympathy and Antipathy which happens in Creatures And if these things be well understood of any one he may easily see into the most secret and hidden Causes of Things which ignorant Men call occult Qualities CHAP. IV. § 1. Whether God Created all Creatures together orin Succession of time § 2. That in the Man Christ all things consist and have their Being § 3. That Christ according to his Humanity is the First Born of all Creatures § 4. But no Creature can ever reach so far as to be equal with him § 1. FROM what hath been already said it is easie to Answer to that intricate Question viz. Whether God Created all Creatures together or one after another If the Word Create hath respect to God himself or the Internal Command of his Will it is made altogether but if unto Creatures that is done successively for as it is the Nature and Essential Attribute of God to be unchangeable and without succession so the Nature of Creatures is to be changeable and successive But if the Word Create respects the Universals Seeds and Principles of all Things which in subordination to God who is the Principal Beginning of all Things are as it were Springs and Fountains from whence Creatures did flow in the order of their succession so it may be said all Creatures were Created together and especially if regard be had to the Messias or Christ who is the First Begotten of all Creatures by whom all Things are said to be made as John declares it and Paul expresly affirms that by Jesus Christ all Things were made both visible and invisible § 2. JESUS CHRIST also signifies whole Christ who is God and Man as he is God he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Essential Word of the Father as he is Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word expressed or brought forth the perfect and substantial Image of that Word which is in God and eternally or for ever united with him so that this is its Vehicle and Organ as the Body is in respect of the Soul of which Word brought forth which is the Wisdom of God mention is made in divers places as well of the New as of the Old Testament as Prov. 8. 22. 31. and Prov. 3. 19. Psal 33. 6. Psal 22. 2. Psal 110. p. 1. Joh. 11. 1 2 3 c. Ephes 3. 9. Col. 1. 15 16 17. Which place viz. of Col. 1. 15 16 17 contains in it an Explication of the former to wit that by Son by Word or Wisdom or by any of his Attributes God is not simply and nakedly understood for how can any of his Attributes be called the invisible Image of God seeing this is equally as invisible as himself whence Image denotes something that is brought into visibility and which after a peculiar manner reveals and represents the invisible God more than any Creature § 3. AND for the same reason he is called of Paul in the place above-cited the First Begotten of all Creatures wherein is signified the relation he hath to Creatures which were all in their Primitive State as it were Sons of God whereas he is the First Begotten of all those Sons who as I may so say are as it were the Sons of this First Begotten Son of God And therefore in him all Things are said to consist or have their Existence for that they did arise from him as Branches from the Root yet so as that they still remain in him after a certain manner § 4. NOT as though they were equal to him or of the same Nature with him because then none of them could ever have degenerated and been changed from Good into Evil wherefore they are of a Nature far inferior in respect of the First Begotten so that to speak properly they can never be changed into him nor he into the Father The highest pitch they can reach unto is this that is to become more like unto him as the Scripture declares Whence our Sonship who are but mere Creatures is called Adoption CHAP. V. § 1. That the Ancient Cabbalists acknowledged such a First Begotten Son of God whom they called the Heavenly Adam the First Adam and great Priest § 2. That Christ is a Medium between God and all Creatures § 3. That there is such a middle Being is as demonstrable from the Principles of sound