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
A53112	The complaint of English subjects delivered in two parts. First part, is the complaint, of the poor, middle, and meanest sorts of subjects, concerning their bodily assistance. Second part, is the true Christians complaint, against vice, and wickedness, for the good of their soul's health. Also, werein is set forth, the late prodigious growth, of atheism, errors, and vice: with a call to repentance. As also, how needful it is, in these times, for every one of us, first of all, to look into our own hearts, and endeavour to amend what is their amiss. And lastly, a brief discourse, concerning our late unfruitful, and cold summers: as also, what is thought to be the real causes of it, by way of opposition, to the opinion of astrologers. By Richard Newnam of Tiverton in Devonshire.	Newnam, Richard.	1700 (1700)	Wing N935; ESTC R218651	71,890	130

deemed and taken as if it were done to Himself as may be seen in the same 25th Chapter of Saint Matthew's Gospel aforesaid beginning at the 41 verse and so onwards to the 45th verse which 45th verse saith Verily I say unto you inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me And now again I say then consequently it must follow that whosoever shall see any of God's poor distressed People Hungry and give them no Meat Thirsty and give them no Drink Naked and cloathed them not Sick and in Prison and visit them not are guilty of the most highest Ingratitude For was it not God himself that first gave to every Man all that he hath Why then should any Man be so ungrateful as to deny God some part of his own when he thus requires it to be given to his poor distressed People especially seeing by that way God is willing to receive it as if it were given to himself And for the further proof of this look also in the 19 Chapter of Proverbs vers the 17. 't is there said He that hath pitty upon the Poor Lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again But these things few Men now do take into their Consideration for in this our Age Men are now come to that height and degrees of Cruelty that they then were who lived in the Days of the Prophet Amos as you may see in his 8th Chapter vers the 4th and 5th 't is there said Hear this O ye that swallow up the Needy even to make the Poor of the Land to fail saying When will the new-Moon be gone that we may sell Corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth Wheat making the Ephah small and the Shekel great and falsifying the Ballances by deceit And for better satisfaction you may Read the whole 8th Chapter of the Prophet Amos and there you may see what sore Judgments are threatned on such a People as so do And now last of all I Recommended and offer to the serious perusal of all Men the whole 28th Chapter of Deuteronomy and there may be seen what Blessings the great God of Heaven and Earth hath in store for such as do well as may be seen in the first verse of that Chapter and so onwards to the 15 vers of the said Chapter and then Read on to the end thereof and there you may see what Curses God will power down on the Heads of all those that will continually persist on in their Evil ways But again altho' in the Eyes of most Men the greatest loss and danger of those Mischievous Actions before-mentioned are past and over yet I am to believe that the most malignant part and direful effects of them are yet to come for by Observation of things past both in Natural and Supernatural Causes it hath been by experience found that when the Causes have been out of the sight of all Men and memory of some Men yet their Effects have been found and felt afterward And to make this more plain by way of similitude I say with my Eyes have I seen a fair flourishing Orchard with delicate Blossoms sprouted out with great Life and Vigour and very likely to produce much Fruit to the Owner thereof who seemingly upon the first sight of it did then depend upon having much Fruit that Year but then by the means of a few Frosty Mornings or with some Blasts of Lightning was either withered or Scorched and so lost and gone which when the Owner thereof saw it he did then within himself much contemplate about it altho to outward appearance it was not then to be discern'd by his countenance that he was so very much concern'd at his then present loss for after he had then well considered within himself he then said Come I have a good stock of old Syder left and for Apples I believe we shall not want them very much for I believe I shall have some tho' not so many as I was in hopes of yet enough I hope to make some Christmas-pyes to feast my Friends But then afterwards it so happened that this Gentleman 's Old stock of Syder was well nigh spent before Winter came on and when Christmas came he had no Syder to give to his Tenants and other Friends that then came to visit him nor Apples enough to make Christmas Pyes to feast them and then this Gentleman began publickly to lament the loss of his Blossoms and that because by means thereof he then could not accommodate his Tenants and other of his Friends so well as otherwise he would have done if his said Blossoms in that Spring-time before had come to their full Perfection as to have produced good and well ripened Fruit For this Gentleman whom I mean I say he is a true generous spirited Gentleman and such a one as is willing to oblige all Men and to do right to every one is my real belief of him Again I say there was a certain Rich Man who had in his Possession several Mannours of Land which were all well stockt both with Horses Cattle and Sheep and also he had by him much Treasure and to mannage these his Temporal Affairs he had many Servants under him some of those Servants were very faithful to him but others of them were as unfaithful to him and yet so smooth and subtil in their way as that they could not be by any way discerned from them that were faithful Servants to him tho' at the same time by a fair and Friend-like smiling kind of way they did Clandestinely take from him much of his Treasure Which Losses the said Rich Man could no way discover or avoid ●hem in along time after he had received them But at last in process of time this Rich Man ●ound that his Treasure was much wasted and ●hen he called his Servants to account for it and ●hen they all of them both Good and Evil the Faithful the Unfaithful gave in their Accounts which seem'd to the Rich Man all Plain and Just and yet at the same time He the Rich Man well knew that some of them were Unfaithful faithful to Him But how to distinguish them one from the other he could not tell but much troubled he was about it and Cause enough he had for it for he then felt the Effects of such Losses as Time had almost worn quite out of mind But now upon the whole of this matter what can I say more of it than this such Evil-doings as these sometimes will be and yet no Man can help it And therefore if any Man knows himself to be abused and cannot help himself so well as he would yet nevertheless I think 't is but Prudence in any such man if he doth endeavour by all manner of Lawful Means to help himself as well as he can or may in any Equitable Way And now in reference to this matter I cannot

Chinks of a Door that encloseth a dark Room And indeed and in truth I may very well now say that such evil Men as aforesaid do always delight to be in dark Rooms and they do not love Light nor do they any way desire that the Son of Righteousness should ever shine into their Rooms amongst them for then they know that all their black Deeds will be as plainly seen by all men as Earthly Atoms are seen in a dark Room by the Power and Strength of the Sun-beams when they are so contracted together and sent through such little Holes Chinks or Craneys of such a Door as it is before-mentioned Again I say Evil Examples are very malignant in their own Natures and that many ways as by woful experience it hath been oftentimes found for when the Father is a common Drunkard the Son often-times doth prove to be the like and indeed according to the course of Nature it is not much to be admired at for Custom is a second Nature and some men do by Custom bring up their Children so to do as they love to do themselves for when the Son goes to call his Drunken Father home from the Ale-house or Tavern he will then make his Child drink several times perhaps much against his Stomach and then when the Lads squemish Stomach loathes the taking in of so much Liquor then the drunken Father saith How Sarrah can't you drink what you dont know what 's good for your self Come drink it all up Boy and I 'll make you love good Liquor as well as my self for I find it to be a great Comfort to my Heart And this way the Drunkard in time makes his Son to become as common a Drunkard as himself But again sometimes if so comes to pass that the Son of a Debauch Lascivious Father in the days of his Infancy makes some observations of his Father's lewd Actions tho' at that time perhaps for want of Reason he is not capable to think it to be in his Father any way Immodest or Evil But then after that when he the Son comes to see more Years in the World and is then somewhat more Ripened in Age and his own wanton desires begin to display themselves within his own Brest Then perhaps he begins to recal to mind the former Actions that he had oftentimes seen by his Lascivious Father and then thinks he within himself Why may not I my self do the like And thus through want of good Examples he is prone to all manner of Evil and then he the Son presently le ts loose the Reins of his Will to run into all manner of Wickedness And thus such Evil Examples are oftentimes the chief secondary Causes that have corrupted so many Thousands of our brave Vigorous Young Men so as that thereby at last many of them have paid the Debt which they owed to Nature with their untimely Deaths and instead of a Christian Burial in the Church-yard they have been thrown into a most shameful Grave under the Gallows Again the same may be said concerning Mothers and Daughters for if the Mother throughout her whole Life and Conversation be Vitiously given to all manner of Lewdness and Wickedness Then 't is a rare thing to see the Daughter of such a Woman truly Vertuous tho' sometimes now and than 't is known that Wicked Parents have had good Children and good Parents have had Wicked Children but much more often 't is known that good Education and good Examples hath often times changed the corrupt Natures of many so as that by mean● thereof they at last have become tollerably good that otherwise would have been most notoriously Evil and by this also may be seen what Effect Good or Evil Examples can produce The like also concerning Good and Evil Examples may be said between Masters and Servants for if the Master be a common Swearer 't is much if the Servant is not also tempted to break out now and than with an Oath altho' originally he was otherwise taught by his Honest Parents for did not good Joseph learn to Swear by the Life of Pharoah after he had been but a little while in the Egyptians Court and it may be he had heard many of the Egyptians oftentimes so to swear see Genesis the 24th Chapter verse 15. But farther concerning Evil Examples I must say the greatest danger of them all is when they are found in Magistrates and Ministers for they hereby do not only corrupt single Persons or peculiar Families but whole Cities Towns and Villages But again The next thing that will come in this my way of Discourse I think will be to endeavour to set forth the sad and direful effects of such Evil Examples And now I farther say the Evil Examples that have been to frequently shewn in this our Age by almost all sorts of People of all Sexs and Ages have been the only secondary Causes that hath infused into our Hearts this now general reigning Corruption by means of which many ways we have highly offended God And therefore I now believe that the Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth now forth with doth expect from every one of us a true and hearty Repentance with the amendment of our Lives and Restitution made to those whom we have any way wronged or otherwise we may for ought I know to soon feel the weight of God's Wrath powered down upon us but yet nevertheless by experience it hath been found that before the Almighty God hath pouered down the Viols of his Wrath upon the Heads of the most Wicked and vilest Sinners he out of his great Mercy hath hitherto always given them warning before hand by the Signs and Tokens of his displeasure made manifest unto them both in Heaven and on Earth And if I mistake not I think the manifestation of such Tokens of God's displeasure against a Nation have or might of late Years been plainly seen in England But however when God is displeased with any Nation and People that it is then his Good will and Pleasure to give Warnings before he strikes is plainly to be made manifest and to prove this I need not use many Arguments for both Divine and Moral Histories are full of such Presidents And the first of them that I shall offer to you for the proof hereof shall be that of Josephus in his Moral History concerning the City of Jerusalem who if I mistake not therein saith That a Flaming Sword for a considerable time appeared over that City before the Destruction of it And if the Impenitent Jews had then at the sight thereof truly Repented who can tell but God might have had Mercy upon them But they did not Repent and therefore at last they felt the sad Effects of it But 2dly Divine History saith That the Wickedness of the Old World caused the Flood to be brought upon them and yet God in his Mercy then gave them One Hundred and Twenty Years to Repent as you may read

be and otherwise they cannot be And this I take to be the Opinion of our Astrologers in this cause now stated Again the like also they say of any man's Nativity That from the Influences of the Stars all things are ordained and appointed out for them and what shall betide them here in this World and therefore whether it be good or evil they say Men must be contented with their Fate And so it appears by their Opinion that every one by the Influences of the Stars must be either Good or Evil more or less in their several Degrees and Qualifications of their Minds as well as Rich or Poor in Fortunes for I do not understand that they do any of them make any exception in these things and if so then those Astrologers make room for Atheism also And indeed great pity it is that so many Wise Men in Worldly Affairs should be so ignorant in that point as to put any Confidence in such Lying Fops as many of them are whose very Predictions give themselves Contradictions by which any Man may see that they all of them err in their Art or Judgment in such high degrees as that the best of their Predictions deserve to be despised and contemned for thereby they do pretend to know the very Secrets of God himself which is impossible for any Man to know and I question whether the Angels in Heaven do know what shall betide every Man on Earth until God himself is pleased to reveal such things to them when he sends them forth as his Messengers to execute his Will either in Mercy or Judgment to good or evil Men whilst they are here upon the Earth And therefore if such Secrets are not known to Angels how came they to be known to such Men as call themselves Astrologers who are in themselves some of them almost as bad as Devils and I had no need to have said almost as bad for the very Devils themselves believe and tremble But such Men as do pretend to this great Art in Astrology some of them have as I have been told deny'd the very Being of God himself But however I will always own and honour all such Men as have this great knowledge of the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies provided they do not go beyond their Last or Station for they are very useful to us all to know the Times and Seasons of the Year And I hope some of them do believe in the one and only true God and also do allow him to be the only whole and sole Creator of Heaven and Earth and that he can and doth many times alter and change the Courses of those Heavenly Bodies for to serve his own purpose how and when he pleaseth or otherwise it would be very sad if all of them should be Atheistically minded But I have more Charity for some of them than so to think of them but for any of their absolute Predictions I take them to be very vain and foolish and think it great Folly in any one to fear them or any way in the least to depend upon them for certainly no Man can tell what shall betide a Child by his knowing the very Minuit of the Hour that he was born into the World for such things as these are Secrets which are known to none but God himself and I do aver it that it is above and beyond the Art of any Man in the World to foretell punctually every thing that shall betide any Man here in this subluminary World And such things as these some Astrologers pretend to foretell and some Men there be now living that do put too must trust in them and seem to plead for the certainty of their knowledge for say they Some of them do ramble very right in some of their Predictions To which I answer The greatest Fool in Nature may sometimes by chance answer aptly to some Questions but 't is very rare that they do so and it is altogether so rare a thing to see or know any of their Predictions to fall out so patly to their purposes as Fools do sometimes by chance so patly answer the Questions put to them But as to the truth of any of their Predictions they are very uncertain things and much more uncertain than any Lotteries whatsoever for in them there are certainly some Prizes for the many Blanks that do belong to them But there is no certainty at all for the very truth of any of the Astrologers Predictions whatsoever that they shall really come to pass as they predicted it But however for Argument-sake I think it fit to compair their Predictions to be somewhat like unto Lotteries as to the uncertainties of them for a Man may loose much Money to a Lottery before he may get one Prize and yet notwithstanding that now and than by the turn of an accidental Die after many throws there may at last turn up a Prize And so amongst so many of their Predictions now and than accidentally some things may happen to fall out to be somewhat like what they had before predicted in such dark Problems as they usually utter them which have also in them a very large relation to many other common Accidents that usually do fall out many times But then if any of these Accidents agree with their Predictions then the whole World is not untold of it by themselves altho' at the same time those Astrologers by their foreknowing Skill knew nothing of the reality of such things that it should certainly come to pass But their Predictions are so variously exprest that they will bear several Constructions And by that way Chance-medlee may bring to pass now and than some little things something like to what they predicted which the Astrologers will be sure to catch at and will say That that was the thing they meant in their Predictions when perhaps 't was never in their thoughts bfeore only they will allow it to be so when any such thing so falls out to serve their turn But again if I mistake not the very Foundation of all their Art is grounded on no better bottom than from the observation of Antient Astrologers who did then in their days both quote and chronicle the several Positions of the heavenly Bodies and the Effects which ensued in their time and so have left it down to our Posterity That it was their Judgments that when the heavenly Bodies should be at any time after their time in the same Positions that they were then in their time that then the same like Effects would follow again that did happen to be and fall out in their time whilst they were then living which president is to me no sufficient Reason nor can it as I think be a sufficient Reason to satisfie any rational Man for li●●e Causes have not always their like Effects as may be seen in many things throughout the whole Course of Nature and in such things too as is plainly within our selves known for