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	supernatural_a	1,915	5	10.5176	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43666	Ravillac redivivus, being a narrative of the late tryal of Mr. James Mitchel, a conventicle-preacher, who was executed the 18th of January last, for an attempt which he made on the sacred person of the Archbishop of St. Andrews to which is annexed, an account of the tryal of that most wicked pharisee Major Thomas Weir, who was executed for adultery, incest and bestiality : in which are many observable passages, especially relating to the present affairs of church and state / in a letter from a Scottish to an English gentleman.	Mitchel, James, d. 1678, defendant.; Hickes, George, 1642-1715.; Weir, Thomas, 1600?-1670, defendant.	1678 (1678)	Wing H1860; ESTC R10945	57,651	80

true this Hypothesis will never be able to solve those Diabolical Phaenomena in the Air. Some again think that the words and expressions of his Prayer were represented by the Devil upon the Stage of his Fancy after the same manner as when a man dreams he reads such a Letter or Book But he never was affected with any Consternations Tremblings or Abreptions of mind which both in true and false Prophets were the constant effects of such strong and violent impressions as were required to exhibit such unwonted representations upon the Imagination nor after his long Prayers were ended were his natural strength or Spirits exhausted as if his Devotion had been Visionary they must have been Others therefore considering him as an Apostate from God and as a Vassal and Apostle of the Devil think it very agreeable to Divinity to assert that he was immediately but yet without much violence inspired by the Devil and helped by him both in the Conception and utterance of his Prayers This they conceive the Evil Spirit might do like an assistant form by impregnating his Fancy with Enthusiastical conceptions and thereby rendring his Imagination very turgent and ready to swell above its banks which being done by the immediate Operation of the Evil Spirit the wretched 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could not fail to burst forth in flumine Orationis or a full Torrent of Prayer and likewise be affected with such moderate Raptures as yet left him in a condition to understand what he said Furthermore to prevent all possible objections they say That if God suffered the Devil to counterfeit Prophetical Visions or the true Spirit of Prophecy under the Law then they know no reason why it should be thought inconsistent with his goodness or disagreable to his infinite wisdom to permit him under the Gospel to counterfeit Inspiration or the true Spirit of Prayer But for my own part had not the Monster himself ascribed his fluency in Devotion to the assistance of the Devil I should have wholly ascribed it to the vigour of his own Enthusiastical Imagination without any Foreign Force For not only his fluency in Prayer but the moderate Raptures and little extatic fits into which he was Transported are explicable by the natural power of unassisted Imagination as I could make it out by many examples and where a natural cause alone is sufficient to account for any effect I am always sparing to joyn with it a supernatural Cause All the while he was in Prison he lay under violent apprehension of the heavy Wrath of God which put him into that which is properly called Despair a Despair which made him hate God and desist from Duty to him and with which the Damned Souls in Hell are reasonably supposed to be constantly affected In this sence he was desperate and therefore would admit neither Church nor Conventicle-ministers to pray for him or discourse with him about the infinite mercy of God and the possibility of the forgiveness of his Sins Much less could he endure to be exhorted to repent or be brought to entertain any thoughts of Repentance telling all the World that he had sinned himself beyond all possibility of Repentance and Pardon that he was already damn'd that he was sure his Condemnation to Eternal burnings was already pronounced in Heaven and that the united Prayers of all the Saints in Heaven and Earth would be vain and insignificant if they were offered to God in his behalf So that when some charitable Ministers of the City by name the present Bishop of Galloway and present Dean of Edinburgh were resolved to Pray before him for his Repentance and Pardon against his consent he was with much difficulty withheld from interrupting of them in their devotions and the posture he put himself in when they began to pray was to lye upon his Bed in a most stupid manner with his Mouth wide open and when Prayers were ended being ask'd if he had heard them and attended to them he told them They were very troublesome and cruel to him and that he neither heard their devotion nor cared for it nor could be the better for all the Prayers that Men or Angels could offer up to Heaven upon his account It was his Interest to believe there was no God and therefore to ease the torments of his mind he attempted now and then to comfort and flatter up himself into this absurd belief For he was sometimes observ'd to speak very doubtfully about his existence in particular to say that if it were not for the terrors which he found tormenting him within he should scarce believe there was a God Being with great tenderness and compassion besought by one of the City-Ministers that he would not so resolvedly destroy himself by despairing of God's Mercy which upon Repentance had been granted to Murtherers Adulterers Sodomists Bestialists nay to those that had denyed Christ he replyed in anger Trouble me no more with your beseeching of me to Repent for I know my sentence of damnation is already seal'd in Heaven and I feel my self so hardned within that if I might obtain Pardon of God and all the Glories of Heaven for a single wish that I had not committed the sins with the sence whereof I am so tormented yet I could not prevail with my self to make that single wish And were your Soul in my Soul's stead you would find your exhortations impertinent and troublesome for I find nothing within me but blackness and darkness Brimstone and burning to the bottom of Hell I have been told by very credible Persons that the Body of this unclean Beast gave manifest tokens of its impurity as soon as it began to be heated by the Flames and certain it is that after it was burnt a report was presently sent from hence to the Brethren in the West that the Malefactor who was burnt for such execrable crimes was not Major Weir but another Person who exactly resembled him and whom the wicked Prelates and Curates had bribed to personate the Godly Major who was said to be gone with a contribution to the exiled Brethren in Holland and call himself by his name This report was believed in the West for several Months till time discover'd that the Major was no more As for Jane this incarnate Devils Sister she was very insensible of her great sins and was so far from remorse of conscience for them and despairing of the mercy of God as she did that she presum'd too much upon it placing a great deal of confidence in her constant adherence to the Covenant which she call'd in her Brother Mitchel's style the Cause and Interest of Christ She confessed indeed as he did that her sins deserv'd a worse death than she was condemn'd to dye but she never shewed her self in the least concern'd for what might ensue after death When she was upon the Ladder she bespoke the people in the following words I see a great croud of People come hither to day to