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	good_a	work_n	5,591	5	6.3844	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42819	Philosophia pia, or, A discourse of the religious temper and tendencies of the experimental philosophy which is profest by the Royal Society to which is annext a recommendation and defence of reason in the affairs of religion / by Jos. Glanvill ...	Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.	1671 (1671)	Wing G817; ESTC R23327	57,529	244

by dividing all substances into body and spirit without the admission of middle natures the Real Philosophy gives demonstrative force to those Arguments for our Immortality that prove our souls are not bodys and so Sadducism is ruined by it These things I have thought fit to advertise not out of design to carp at any particular way of Philosophy but for the security of my discourse And though I have made a little bold with the Peripateticks here yet the great name of Aristotle to which they pretend is not concerned for I am convinc'd that he taught no such doctrine of substantial Forms as his later Sectators and Interpreters have put upon him who indeed have depraved and corrupted his sense almost in the whole body of his Principles and have presented the world with their own fancies instead of the genuine doctrines of that Philosopher But I proceed CHAP. IV. Philosophy assists Religion against Superstition both as it expresseth it self in fond over-value of things in which there is no good and panick fear of those in which there is no hurt It inlargeth the mind and so cures Superstition by bett'ring the intellectual Crasis It removes the causless fears of some extraordinary effects in nature or accident It is an Antidote against the Superstition of vain Prodigies It 's Antipathy to Superstition one cause of the charge of Atheism against it SECT I. III. THE Real Philosophy that inquires into Gods Works assists Religion against Superstition another of its mortal Enemies That I may prove this it must be premised That Superstition consists either in bestowing Religious valuation on things in which there is no good or fearing those in which there is no hurt So that this Folly expresseth it self one while in doting upon opinions as Fundamentals of Faith and Idolizing the little models of fancy for divine institutions And then it runs away afraid of harmless indi●…erent appointments and looks pale upon the appearance of any unusual effect of nature It tells ominous stories of every meteor of the night and makes sad interpretations of each unwonted accident All which are the products of ignorance and a narrow mind which defeat the design of Religion that would make us of a free manly and generous spirit and indeed represent Christianity as if it were a fond sneaking weak peevish thing that emasculates mens understandings makes them amorous of toys keeps them under the servility of childish ●…ars so that hereby it is exposed to the distrust of larger minds and to the scorn of Atheists These and many more are the mischiess of Superstition as we have sadly seen Now against this evil Spirit and its Influences the Real experimental Philosophy is one of the be●… securities in the world For by a generous and open inquiry in the great Field of nature mens minds are enlarged and taken off from all fond adherences to th●…ir private sentiments They are taught by it that certainty is not in many things and that the most valuable knowledge is the practical By which means they will find themselves disposed to more indifferency towards those petty notions in which they were before apt to place a great deal of Religion and so to reckon that that which will signifie lies in the few certain operative principles of the Gospel and a life suitable to such a Faith not in doting upon questions and speculations that engender strife and thus the Modern experimental Philosophy of Gods Works is a remedy against ●…he notional superstition as I may call it which hath been and is so fatal to Religion and the peace of mankind Besides which by making the mind great this knowledge delivers it from fondness on small circumstances and imaginary models and from little scrupulosities about things indifferent which usually disquiet in narrow and contracted minds And I have known divers whom Philosophy and not disputes hath cured of this malady And indeed that remedy is the best and most effectual that alters the Crasis and disposition of the mind For 't is suteableness to that which makes the way to mens judgments and setles them in their perswasions There are few that hold their opinions by Arguments and dry reasonings but by congru●…y to the understanding and consequently by relish in the a●…ctions so that seldom any thing 〈◊〉 our intellectual diseases throughly but what changes these This I dare affirm that the Free experimental Philosophy will do to purpose by giving the mind another tincture and introducing a sounder habit which by degrees will at last absolutely repel all the little malignities and setle it in a strong and manly temperament that will master and cast out idle dotages and effeminate Fears The Truth is This world is a very Bedlam and he that would cure Madmen must not attempt it by reasoning or indeavour to shew the absurdity of their conceits but such a course must be taken as may restore the mind to a right Crasis and that when 't is essected will reduce and rectisie the extravagances of the distemper'd brain which disputes and oppositions will but inslame and make worse Thus for instance when frantick persons are fond of Feathers and mightily taken with the employment of picking Straws 't would signisie very little to represent to them the vanity of the objects of their delights and when the Melancholido was afraid to sit down for fear of being broken supposing himself made of Glass it had been to little purpose to have declared to him the ridiculousness of his fears the disposition of the head was to be alter'd before the particular phrensie could be cured 'T is too evident how just this is in the application to the present Age Superstitions fondness and fears are a real degree of madness And though I cannot say that Philosophy must be the only Catholick way of cure for of this the far greatest part of men is absolutely incapable yet this I do that 't is a remedy for those that are strong enough to take it And the rest must be helped by that which changeth the genius which cannot ordinarily be done by any thing that opposeth the particular fancy SECT II. HOwever I must say that the sort of Superstition which is yet behind in my account and consists in the causless fear of some extraordinaries in accident or nature is directly cured by that Philosophy which gives fair likely-hoods of their causes and clearly shews that there is nothing in them supernatural the light of the day drives away the Mormo's and vain images that fancy forms in obscure shades and darkness Thus particularly the modern doctrine of Comets which have been always great bugs to the guilty and timorous world hath rescued Philosophers from the trouble of dreadful presages and the mischievous consequences that arise from those superstitious abodings For whatever the casual coincidencies may be between those Phaenomena and the direful events that are sometimes observed closely to attend them which as my Lord Bacon truly notes