Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	effect_n	evil_a	good_a	4,841	5	4.5571	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51787	The immortality of the soul asserted, and practically improved shewing by Scripture, reason, and the testimony of the ancient philosophers, that the soul of man is capable of subsisting and acting in a state of separation from the body, and how much it concerns us all to prepare for that state : with some reflections on a pretended refutation of Mr. Bently's sermon / by Timothy Manlove.	Manlove, Timothy, d. 1699.	1697 (1697)	Wing M454; ESTC R6833	70,709	184

delight when it hath found it Contemplative Persons know this to be true which makes them so unwearied in their Studies and pleased with any discoveries they can make for the advancement of Knowledge This made divers of the Ancient Philosophers travel into remote Countries that they might converse with Learned Men and glean up any Fragments of Knowledge where-ever they could find them So did Apollonius Plato Pythagoras Thales c. and the Queen of Sheba came from the uttermost Parts of the Earth to hear the Wisdom of Solomon Seneca thought that Man buried alive who lived without Books And Lipsius thought himself on the top of Olympus when he read Seneca Aristippus thought a Man had better be a Beggar than unlearned Laert. in Arist 50. And what unaccountable delight had Julius Scaliger in Lu●●● who ●●ought twelve Verses in him better than all the German Empire So ravishing are intellectual Pleasures Impressions from without are made upon the Organs of Sense various according to the variety of Objects and hence correspondent Ideas are formed in the Imagination and laid up in the Memory But there is something higher which sports it self with these Phantasms compounds and divides them at pleasure and makes new ones out of them as of Centaurs Syrens little Boys with Wings and what the Painter pleaseth which have no pattern in rerum natura to answer them What is it which abstracting from the individuating Circumstances of singular Beings forms universal Notions entia Rationis inadequate Conceptions of those beings and so rangeth the World of Entities under the several Species to which they belong by observing wherein they agree or differ from each other and considering their mutual Analogies and Respects What is that which withdraws the Imagination from attending the Organs of Sense insomuch that a Person intent upon his Studies is sometimes as if h● 〈◊〉 in a Dream though awake 〈…〉 not what you say to hi● 〈…〉 the Time goes on though the Clock strike near him What is it that from suitable Premises infers certain Conclusions and thus argues it self into a firm assent to many things above the discovery of Sense yea and contrary to sensible appearance Of which more hereafter And what say you to Mathematical Speculations how far are they beyond the reach of Sense or Imagination The Ingenious Descartes in his Sixth Meditation de Primâ Philosophiâ sets himself to examine the difference betwixt Imagination and pure Intellection and thus proceeds I can imagine a Triangle as distinctly as if I saw it and with some more difficulty a Pentagone but when I come to consider a Figure with a thousand or ten thousand Angles I can form no such distinct Idea of it in my Imagination and yet I can easily understand that such a Figure there may be as well as either of the other and so he goes on Thus you see how soon the Imagination is jaded and tired out but the Understanding can demonstrate the Properties of those several Figures and argue it self into a satisfactory assurance of many Mathematical Truths which at first seem extravagant and unreasonable And ho●e it spends upon its own 〈…〉 and deaves Sense and Imag●●●● 〈…〉 it and many of the Precepts of Geometry are utterly unimitable in the purest matter that Phansy can imagine And yet with what unspeakable satisfaction doth the Mind acquiesce in these Demonstrations so abstract from matter and incompetible to it And when it hath thus by abstraction as it were unbodied them it takes them for its own and hath a perfect understanding of them and makes both Sense and Imagination know their distance and if they will be too busy it silenceth and controlls them by its Sovereign Power and pursues its search with so much earnestness that it knows not how to give over Hence the Mathematical Sciences are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Purifications of the Reasonable Soul Archimedes was so intent upon it that when the City was taken he observed it not and when the Soldier that killed him came into the Room where he was busy at it he bids him have a care of disordering his Figure It were easy to enlarge much on this Particular but I am very confident that no Mathematician who seriously considers what hi● 〈◊〉 ●●s when intent upon Demons●●●● 〈…〉 possibly persuade himself 〈…〉 a piece of folly as 〈…〉 ●●●●le Wheat-meal in two or three days time should become capable of such Speculations as these It were every jot as irrational as to conclude with the Comedian That if the Blood of an Ass was transfused into a Virtuoso there would be small difference between the Emittent Ass and the Recipient Philosopher Shadwell But follow me a little further and you shall see yet greater things than these The Understanding is not satisfied with the knowledge of lower or less important Truths but it riseth up from visible Effects to the invisible Causes and Springs of Action and resteth not till it come to the Ens Entium the Cause of Causes the Fountain of Being and so contemplates him who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One and Truth it self as Plato speaks Crit. pag. 57. It considers its Relation to God its Dependence upon him its Duty to him It understands moral Good and Evil Right and Wrong Vertue and Vice which fall not under the Laws of Matter and Motion It studies the Nature of Spiritual Substances ad intimas rerum Spiritualium quidditates penetrat aut penetrare contendit Scheibler's Metaph. ●●b ● ●●g 272. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈…〉 of the Understanding differ 〈…〉 sensible Objects as the I 〈…〉 ●om Sense Max. Tyr. Dissert 1. pag. 9. We have many abstracted Notions and Idea's of immaterial things which depend not on Bodily Figures And in what Subject can these Notions be lodged but in one that is Immaterial Therefore I say Si renunciatur tanto bono Immortalitatis c. If we renounce the Immortality of the Soul so great a good we must also renounce our Wit Reason and Mind by which we are Immortal Lud. Viv. de ver Fidei Lib. 1. pag. 147. And now let the whole Herd of our Epicurean Novelists who cry up the unconceivable power of Matter and Motion muster up their Forces and fairly deduce from the Principles of their Hypothesis a rational intelligible account of those Operations of the Intellect which are so spiritual and abstract from Matter What say you Can Matter and Motion contemplate the Glorious Attributes of God Can a Spiritual Object be apprehended without a Spiritual Act And can such an Act be produced without a Spiritual Power And can such a Power be radicated in meer Matter ●●●●●●r modified or moved Must 〈…〉 be an Analogy between the 〈…〉 the Object Can any Eye 〈…〉 ●●●h is spiritual and In●●● 〈…〉 ●ho is a Spirit and Invisible Can Matter and Motion contemplate that Perfection which excludes all Corporeal Imperfection Is not this to act extra Sphaeram Does not

to small purpose to talk of the Immortality of the Soul to such Persons who are resolved to gratify their Lusts though they lose their Reputations and Souls too in the Adventure Thus Bias the Philosopher being asked by some vain Fellows What that Piety he talked of meant Answered It was to no purpose to speak to a Man of those things which he never intended to practise See Laert. 22. Direct 5. Proceed orderly in your Studies and do not begin at the wrong end Lay down the most plain and certain Truths first and so ascend gradually to those that are more difficult Try those things that are uncertain by and do not plead them against those that are clear and certain unless you have a mind to bewilder your selves and to know nothing because you cannot know all There are many Questions concerning the Origine of the Soul its Union with the Body its moving of it and Direction of the Spirits its different Mode of Operation when it shall be separate from the Body its Reunion with the Body at the Resurrection c. which will puzzle you when you have done your best and peradventure yea peradventure no is very often the wisest Answer you can give to them To such matters the sayings of Xenophon in Varro is pertinent Hominis est haec opinari Dei scire God only knows them and we conjecture But must we therefore renounce or undervalue that Knowledge which is attainable What if I know not how the Child is formed in the Womb after all that Dr. Needham hath said de formato Foetu must I therefore deny that the Child is formed there at all This were ridiculous You may easily apply it Remember that which is greater cannot be comprehended by that which is less The Soul fetter'd in the Body is in some respect less and weaker than it self as Duplessis observes Shall we quarrel with the Almighty because he hath hidden some of the Secrets of his Workmanship from us Or like froward Children cast away what is given us because we may not have all we would desire though never so unfit for us Plurimorum enim infelicium ingeniorum inde orta est ruina quod dum nota necessaria plane negligunt an t sensualitate vitiorum mole obruunt absconditis inutilibus enixè student idque ingenio superbiente caliginis suae non satis conscio quando frustrà se non patefacta quaesivisse comperiunt fatigati desperantes de certis etiam necessariis dubitant ipsam animorum immortalitatem negant In tanta scilicet mala stultos perversus studiorum ordo praecipitat Method Theol. Part 1. pag. 155. In order therefore to your satisfaction in this Point give me leave to recommend to you the following Method 1st Digest well those Arguments which demonstrate the Being and Perfections of the Deity That there is a God and that the Souls of Men are Immortal are Truths so nearly link'd together that he who denies the one may justly be suspected of a Disposition to deny the other Atheism and Sadducism spring from the same Root and must both be attacqued together The invisible Things of God are clearly seen by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead What think you Can there be an Effect without a Cause Could this glorious Fabrick of Heaven and Earth be rear'd by Chance Could the Sun Moon and Stars have any Light but from the Father of Lights Could the Earth be hung upon nothing but by him who upholdeth all things by the Word of his Power Is it not demonstrable that something must needs have been Eternal If you should suppose a time or space call it what you will in which there was nothing will it not necessarily follow that there never could have been any thing because nothing could have produc'd nothing Moreover there can be no excellency in the Effect which is not some way or other in the Cause and therefore since so much Power Wisdom and Goodness shines forth in the Greatness Order and Usefulness of the several Parts of the Creation and their Aptitude and Tendency to the Beauty and Perfection of the whole and so much that is unsearchable in the meanest Creature and since in the Enumeration of Causes 't is absurd to run in Infinitum you must needs come up to a first Cause Eternal and of Incomprehensible Perfection who has more Excellency than all subordinate Causes put together for they have none but what he gave them and it is not possible any Creature should be so perfect as he that made it 2dly Study well the Doctrine of Divine Providence and consider what full and clear Evidence we have that the World is ordered and govern'd by it Epicurus denied That God was the Creator of the World Eximendum imprimis est à sollicitudine ac labore Mundi extruendi Divinum Numen Gassend Syntag. Philos Epicur 72. And upon the same account he denied Providence Non enim cum felicitate congruunt negotia sollicitudines irae gratiae c. 78. The like you have in Laert. pag. 285. In Epicur pag. 300. And Lucretius treads in the same Steps Now this is in effect to deny the Being and Perfections of the Deity or to measure his Perfection by our Imperfection and to leave both the Creation and Government of the World to blind Chance or to that empty Nothing which they call Nature And yet they speak contemptibly of Fortune too though they say the World was made by Chance Gassend Syntag. 49 50. So ill do the Principles of this Philosophy hang together How much better is it to say with Cicero Deo nil praestantius ab eo igitur necesse est mundum regi De Natur. Deor. And again Whoever doubts of Providence may as well doubt whether the Sun shine or no Ibid. 'T is all one to a Being of Infinite Perfection to regard the Motions and Actions of every Creature as if he had but one to mind God has not made a World greater than himself and it is dishonourable to him to suppose that he is only an unconcerned Spectator of the Affairs and Transactions of his Creatures Besides 't is Nonsense to think that the Creatures can either Subsist or Act without him His Name is I A M and all created Beings compared with him are but Non-Entities as Plato observes Id solum esse quod est aeternum immutabile caetera potius non esse quam esse In Timaeo And 't is observable how Nature it self prompts us to look unto him for relief and help in Exigences and to lift up Hands and Eyes to Heaven when we know not what to do Thus it bears witness to the Divine Providence And the Checks of Conscience for secret Sins in like manner evince That there is an All-seeing Eye upon us And so Natural Light prepares for Supernatural 3dly See that your Souls be possest with awful Apprehensions of so great a Majesty