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	natural_a	produce_v	3,640	5	8.1636	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36110	A discourse, proving from Scripture and reason that the life of man is not limited by any absolute decree of God by the author of The duty of man, &c.	Author of The duty of man.	1680 (1680)	Wing D1617; ESTC R14478	40,954	140

fatal and necessary 2. Others upon the contrary extream have as groundlesly thought that it is altogether fortuitous and casual Amongst those who ascribe every thing to the dispensation of a sure and inevitable destiny the Stoicks have been always reckoned the chiefest combatants It is well known that those stupid and senseless Philosophers did teach that all effects were necessarily produced by the natural order and series of causes which were from the outgoings of Eternity inseparably chained together so that neither Humane industry nor the Divine power could alter what such a conjunction of causes was to produce That Humane Industry care and good menagery cannot alter the decree of Fate the Stoick moralist Seneca very fairly confesseth Fatis agimur cedite fatis Non solicitae possunt curae Mutare rati stamina fusi Seneca in Oedip. The same Seneca also affirms that the supreme being is so strictly tyed to the Sempeternal series and order of Causes that he must follow but cannot gain-say what is thus established Quicquid est quod nos sic vivere jussit sic mori eadem necessitate deos alligat irrevocabilis humana ac Divina pariter cursus vehit Sen. lib. de provid 5. There are two very dangerous Authors of great name and fame who amongst many other bad opinions have recalled this Stoical Dream which was long since rejected the one is the Famous Mr. Hobs the other the subtil Author of that Book entituled Tractatus Theologico policitus Both which I may perhaps have occasion to examine more particularly But if all things were thus established by a fatal necessity sound reason would suggest to sober Men that it were a needless thing for the Sick to call for the Physitians aid And indeed Cicer overy ingeniously confesseth this Si fatum tibi est ex hoc morbo convalesceri sive tu medicum adhibueris sive non adhibueris convalesces Si fatum tibi est non convalesces sive medicum adhibneris sive non convalesces alterutrum fatum est medicum ergo adhibere nihil valet Cic. lib. de fato And although Seneca thinks he has fallen upon a very good answer yet it is truly never a whit better Cum sanitas inquit videatur de fato debetur medica quia ad nos benificium fati per hujus manus venit lib. 2. nat cap. 35. By which means the Physitian is as fatally determined to prescribe the Cure as the Sick Mans recovery is Destinated The Ages in which these Men lived being dark and blind we ought as much to pity their case as correct and reprehend them It is our happiness that we are not left to the conduct of natural reason and would God our thankful acknowledgments were answerable to the greatness of this Blessing I shall not need to stand in rejecting this Dream I think the hazards this speculation hath exposed some of its favourites to will be forcible enough to affright others from embracing it I remember I have read of some whom this conceit had so far distracted that they did cast away their Swords and other weapons when their Enemies approached Saying If it be our Fate to dye to keep our Weapons will never preserve us from Death 'T is also reported of the deluded Mahumetans that in Battel they take courage from this that they are no sooner Born than Fate Seals upon their Foreheads how long they shall Live and what death they shall dye Alas who would not pitty Men thus infatuated and bewitched Surely as St. Augustin excellently speaks Si cor tuum non esset fatuum non crederes fatum Tract 37. in Joh. Next the Stoick stand the Star-gazers and Astrologers who attribute the shortness or extension of our Lives to the bad or benign Aspect and Conjunction of the Stars in the time of our Nativity Now although I deny not that the Heavens have an influence upon inferior things yet surely this secret and occult dominion Star-gazers plead for is so manifestly cross to reason and dayly experiences that no man in his wit will affirm it The Prophet hath long since advised us not to be dismayed at the signs of Heaven adding the Heathens they are dismayed at them Jer. 10.2 As if it had been only peculiar to the Heathen part of the World who were ignorant of Gods Providence to believe the vain predictons of Astrologers Babylon was upbraided for her trusting Astrologers Star-gazers and monthly Prognosticators Isa 47.13 These Men confidently presumed to foretell the time of Mens Death and the easily deceived multitude gave a ready assent to whatever they spake so easily a matter it is to impose any thing upon the belief of the vulgar The Palmaster as foolishly pretendeth that God hath sealed upon every Mans Hand how long he shall live and that observing men as they would have us believe they are can understand this by the lines and draughts in the palm of the hand And for proof of this they aledg Job 37.7 Where it is said he sealeth up the hand of every Man that all Men may know his work But from this place no such thing can be collected for Elihu is there taken up in expressing the greatness of Gods works and the Divine power in commanding the Snow and the Rain small and great to be on the Earth and he addeth he sealeth up the hand of every Man That is when Snow and Rain are upon the Earth Men cannot labor and toil their hand is sealed up they cannot work Epicurus and his followers could never be reconciled to this opinion but yet the acount they give of this matter is every whit as extravagant and irrational they being equally unhappy in the account they give of the beginning and Period of Beings The account these Men give of the original of Beings is so incredible that no rational Man can have any temptation to believe it but this belongs not to the present discourse I shall therefore only consider what they say of the Period of Beings and briefly their opinion is that it is no more but the casual and fortuitous separation of those particles of Matter that were united by a happy chance and hit This error is of an Old Date and had long ere now past prescription if it had not been so suitable to the humors of bad Men. The Saducees whose Religion it was to contradict the Pharisees were very great sticklers for this Dream Some Men have confined the Divine providence to the Stars and plucked out sublunary Beings from his immediate Rule and Dominion Cicero could not be perswaded that God had any knowledg of things contingently future Some to mend the matter confess God may know the general kinds of things but they will not allow that he knows every particular For this they think is inconsistent with the immutability of the Deity But others have been more illiberal in their concessions thinking it enough if they grant that God hath a care of Mankind