Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	divine_a	faith_n	formal_a	1,432	5	11.4042	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52440	Two treatises concerning the divine light the first, being an answer to a letter of a learned Quaker, which he is pleased to call, A just reprehension to John Norris for his unjust reflections on the Quakers, in his book entituled, Reflections upon the conduct of human life, &c., the second, being a discourse concerning the grossness of the Quakers notion of the light within, with their confusion and inconsistency in explaining it / by John Norris ...	Norris, John, 1657-1711.; Norris, John, 1657-1711. Grossness of the Quaker's principle.	1692 (1692)	Wing N1276; ESTC R2996	64,661	150

it that he might have something to expose and harangue upon For is it in the least to be imagin'd or does Mr. Vickris in his Conscience seriously think that I who in this very Book and in these very Articles he reflects upon as well as in the whole Course of my other Writings upon this occasion do all along earnestly contend that this Internal Light is no other than the very Essence and Substance of God whose Omniformity is exhibitive of all things and is the immediate Object of our Conception that very Truth which we conceive And that I who make this the ground of Difference between my Principle of the Light and that of the Quakers that they do not make it the Substance of God but only something communicated by or from him whereas I expresly do I say can it be imagin'd that after all this I should so far forget my self as to make this Divine Light to be the very same thing with Human Understanding and so confound as he pretends the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Man's Reason and Conscience Sure I should be fitter to pick Straws in Bedlam than to write Books should I be so senseless as to make Truth and Understanding Object and Faculty God and Creature all one But as this is too gross to be my real Meaning so the Scope and Antithesis of the Article do plainly shew that it was not 'T is plain from thence and no candid Reader would have understood me otherwise that my Meaning tho for Brevity's sake not so explicitly worded was no other than what has been already suggested viz. That whereas the Quakers represent their Light as something extraordinarily superadded to the natural way of Understanding as supposing two distinct Lights in the Soul and so not absolutely necessary to Understanding as such which according to them may be without it I on the contrary making but one way of Understanding in all suppose this Light to be so far from being such an Extraordinary Superaddition that 't is so requisite to the Natural and Ordinary way of Understanding that there is no Understanding without it And so when I say pag. 77. This is Reason this is Conscience 't is plain enough that I mean no more than that this namely the Light is that whereby I perform Acts of Reason and Acts of Conscience not that it is my very reasoning Faculty but that whereby I reason and discourse as furnishing me with Idea's for my Contemplation And if this be the Natural and Necessary Sense of my Words as I believe Mr. Vickris must needs be sensible that it is then his whole following Harangue about my confounding the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Man's Natural Reason and Conscience is quite spoil'd and from a piece of Rhetoric becomes a most trifling Impertinence or to borrow a Stroke of Oratory from him Insignificant and like an Arrow shot at Random Exception against the Third Article IN thy Third Section thou com'st in with a Salvo Errore If I mistake not the Quakers confine their Light within to some certain Objects namely Moral and Spiritual Truths in Order only to the Direction of Practice How shouldst thou do otherwise but mistake the Principles of others seeing thou art so confused about thine own However I must tell thee it is no small Fault at such an Uncertainty to expose Peoples Principles and 't is an Abuse to say that the Quakers confine the Light within It is Divine Supernatural and Uncircumscribable in it are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg Where have the Quakers taught otherwise Have they not testified and declared the Light and the Spirit of Truth are one and the same in being which will guide into all Truth John 16. 13. The Quakers believe this Divine Light to be the Quickner of their Understandings to Know and of their Wills to Love and Practise all Truth and that it assists the Natural Faculties of the Soul in the Attainment of necessary Arts and Sciences as well as capacitates it to Know and Practise Moral and Spiritual Truths Thou may'st read what the Author to the Book of Wisdom says on this Subject in the 9th and 10th Chapters And whereas thou sayst the Quakers make the Light within a Supplement to Scripture which they say is not sufficient without it nor indeed any more than a meer dead Letter I answer These Words Supplement to Scripture are thy own not ours and this seems to be a Composition of thy own Notion of the Quakers Faith concerning the Holy Scripture without any Quotation of their Words or Writings and as 't is an Objection is built upon thy mistake in thy former Section viz. The Quakers represent this Light within as a sort of extraordinary Inspiration Which hath been already Answer'd proving the Universality of the Divine Light in Man which consider'd there is no just Cause for this as an Objection against the Quakers assigning the Scriptures to be insufficient without the Light because the Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures cannot occur to the Understanding without it and the Formal Reason thereof is its Presence and Manifestation The Quakers believe that Christ Jesus by his Divine Light within doth in these Days as in the Days of his Flesh expound fulfil and open to the True Believers the Holy Scriptures which according to the Apostles Exhortation to Timothy Chap. 2. 3 15. are able to make wise unto Salvation Note through Faith which is in Christ Jesus The Word Supplement in this Sense I hope will be found no Error but according to thy Construction of the Quakers representing the Light within as a sort of Extraordinary Inspiration Sect. 2. or special Priviledg of a certain Order of Men their own Party as in Sect. 4. And then making them to say the Scriptures with relation only to the Direction of Practice as thy Lines import Sect. 3. are not sufficient without it nor indeed any more than a meer dead Letter is to render the Quakers not only singular and erroneous in their Principle of the Light which shall be more duly observ'd in its place but also contemptuous of the Holy Scriptures as useless and insufficient to all but themselves which is a great and hainous Abuse of a Society of People without Cause and Provocation and contrary to their Public and Known Assertions both by Word and Writing who believe according to the same Apostle to Timothy Cap. 2. 3 16 17. that all Scripture c. And this shall suffice for an Answer to thy Third Section The Answer IF I deliver'd my self with more than ordinary Caution and Reservedness in this Article it was because of my abundant Concern lest I should injure those whom I was representing by a false Charge tho I think it is too much for Mr. Vickris to condemn me for misrepresenting them and yet to upbraid me with my Tenderness in doing so at the same Time But I find upon further Examination that I needed

And so long as I make all Men in some measure to consult it tho I do withal say that they are enlightned by it only when they consult it I do not thereby deny that all are actually enenlightned by it For this does not deny the Universality of Actual Illumination but only determins and specifies the way and manner of it So that here is no Contradiction but all things are Uniform and Confistent Exception against the Fifth Article THE Fifth I take in the First Part of it to be the same in Substance with thy First differing in Form of Expressions viz. The Quakers by their Light within understand some Determinate Formed Dictate or Proposition expresly or positively directing or instructing them to do so or so as in thy first thou calledst it some Divine Communication or Manifestation only Where didst thou learn this Definition of the Quakers Faith and Doctrin of the Light within The Quakers believe the Light of Christ within to be God's Divine Oracle of Wisdom in the Soul the Former Dictator and Determiner of Heavenly Propositions them directing and instructing what to chuse and what to refuse as the Original Cause of the Knowledg and Love of Truth which are its proper Effects Now wherein is the Quakers Light as thou term'st it inferiour to that of thine except in the differing Character thou givest it They own the Real and Substantial Truth of God the Life of the Word the Light of Men as Christ said of himself I am the Way the Truth and the Life That this Divine Light which is the Light of Men is always in some Degree and Measure present in the Soul by which it is upheld either in God's Love or Anger the Quakers believe and that in him we live move and have our Being tho with respect to Operation after a different manner and measure and passing the Understanding of Man And whereas thou say'st Thy Light is only the Essential Truth of God This is an high Presumption about which I have already shew'd thy Confusion in other places calling it Reason and Conscience and a Man's Natural and Ordinary way of Understanding Consider Mat. 6. 22 23. The Light of the Body c. If therefore the Light that is in thee be Darkness c. So may I say if that Doctrin and Principle thou recommendest to the World for Truth and Excellency be erroneous and faulty how great is that Error and Fault Again thou say'st Thy Light is always present to thy Understanding and intimately united with it still Sect. 5. which in thy Sense of the Light is to say thy Soul is never without thy Reason and Conscience I wish they were both reform'd that thou may'st be no more guilty of these and such like false Aspersions That the Light supposing it to be what really it is a distinct Principle from the Soul is always present to the Undestanding which implies its Operation upon the Natural Capacity or Organ the ordinary means of knowing I conceive is more than can be safely or experimentally said because the Organ may be hurt and the Understanding in that Sense interrupted and consequently no fit Medium or Receptacle either for the Soul or its Light Besides the Soul may be absent from the Natural Understanding by the Interposition of Spiritual as well as Natural Causes and yet present with the Light in its Spiritual way of Understanding But to say as thou dost that Thy Light is only the Essential Truth of God and that it is always present to thy Understanding and intimately united with it and yet that it does not formally enlighten or instruct it but when carefully attended to and consulted seems to discover a Contradiction in its self and to the Formal Reason of its Being and Presence and Sufficiency in the one Act of the same Principle as well as to the State and Nature of Intimate Union For how can any thing be intimately united to its Principle and not partake of its Nature and Influences which is the Reason and Manner of its Union And how can this be and not carefully attended to and consulted Is not this manifest Confusion That the Presence of the Light does enlighten and instruct all in some Sense and Degree is sufficiently proved by Scripture By thy Word Formally Enlighten I apprehend thou intendest the Operative Exercise as in Pag. 17. and as here applied to Light signifies no more than actually to enlighten ex parte Objecti I grant such as do not carefully attend to and consult this Divine Light do not witness the Increases of it unto the Redemption and Salvation of their Souls It is the Path of the Just that is as the shining Light that shineth more and more unto the perfect Day If the Light as thou assertest doth not formally enlighten or instruct but when carefully attended to and consulted how then should it quicken and raise the Soul from Death to Life according to the multiplied experience of Holy David And how doth God speak once yea twice yet Man perceiveth it not Job 33. 14 15 16 17. and Isa 65. How frequently doth the Lord complain by his Prophets of his calling to his People to return and repent but they would not answer Note the Call of God is not without Instruction read Mic. 6. 8 and Prov. 1 from 20 to the end And see what Wisdom does also in Nehemiah how they rebelled against God notwithstanding he gave his good Spirit to instruct them The Testimony of John the Evangelist the 5th and 21th Ephes 2. 1 4 5. 2 Cor. 4. 6 7. These and many other Texts abundantly prove that God quickens and enlightens Man before Man can turn unto him The Answer I Have given my self the trouble to set down this Exception at large not because I intend to answer it all but that it may appear to the Discerning Reader that there is a great deal of it which I need not answer as being either answer'd already or so very impertinent and remote from the business that it deserves no consideration But in the first place I cannot but admire at the singular Happiness of his Fancy in imagining the former part of the Fifth Article to be the same in substance with the First and to differ only in form of Expression In the First it is said that the Quakers usually talk of the Light within as of some Divine Communication or Manifestation only that is as it has been explain'd that they represent their Light not as God himself but only as a divine Communication or as something communicated or exhibited by God In the Fifth it is said That the Quakers by their Light within that is as Directive understand some determinate formed Dictate or Proposition expresly and positively directing and instructing them to do so or so That is that they make the Direction of the Light or the Light as Directive to consist in Dictates or Propositions ready form'd and presented to the view of the