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
B20628	A letter to his worthy friend, D.B.M. from Dr. Connor, member of the College of Physicians and Royal Society	Connor, Bernard, 1666?-1698.	1696 (1696)	Wing C5890	4,281	4

A LETTER TO His Worthy Friend D.B.M. FROM Dr. CONNOR Member of the College of Physicians Royal-Society CONCERNING HIS Medicina Arcana de Mystico Corporis Humani Statu OR A Latin TREATISE in which he designs to Explain the MIRACLES relating to HUMAN BODIES by the Principles of PHYSICK SIR I Presume you have not forgot a late Discourse wherein you and I were engaged in the Defence of Miracles against the Objections of some Persons then present who pretended they cou'd not conceive either the Possibility or the Manner of them These Objections we looked upon as weak in themselves and seeming to imply That either the Divine Omnipotence cou'd do nothing but what their Faculties were capable to comprehend or that there was a necessity that to convince Unbelievers to confirm some Important Truth or to bring about some other great or weighty End it were requisite that God shou'd not only do a Miracle but also shew them the Way and Manner how it was performed We freely owned That such Operations as are looked upon as Miracles those especially recorded in Scripture cannot be performed by the Stated Laws of Nature but immediately by a Supream Being for some great Design This Answer as being undeniably true they cou'd not but admit and tho' where the Relaters were of an Undoubted Credit and Veracity they cou'd not but believe those Performances were Miraculous and Supernatural yet for their clearer satisfaction they desired our further Thoughts concerning the Manner of such Supernatural Effects This being above my Sphere which reaches no further then Physick or Nature in its ordinary Operations wherein however I find matter more than sufficient to employ all my Time and Thoughts and wherein I plainly see the Existence and can never sufficiently admire the constant Providence of a Deity yet being willing to comply with their Desires I promised I wou'd give them what satisfaction I cou'd therein This indeed was not the first time the very same Difficulties had been proposed in my hearing for I had formerly discoursed with others both in this and other Countries upon the same Subject and had some Years ago drawn up a rude Scheme of an Essay towards the clearing of this Point But if this or the like occasion had not put me upon reviewing this Paper I might have never given my self or any Body else the Trouble of Reading it But having thus unwarily engaged my self I resolved to revise this Design and to give those Persons a sight of it This I did accordingly and afterwards shewed it to your self and to some other Friends They owned the Notions I advanced and the Ways of Explication I proposed were new to them and might be so to others and tho' they were not nor cou'd be convinced that these were the very Ways of the Divine Proceedings in the effecting of such Operations yet they seemed inclinable to imagine that upon these Principles Miracles and the Operations of them were conceivable by such as know any thing of the Nature and Laws of Motion This Communication of my Thoughts gave occasion to others to discourse with me about them and to desire that if I did intend to publish them I wou'd in the mean time give them at least the general Heads of my Design This I was willing to have been excused in as having not digested them into that order I might at last publish them in and was willing to reserve to my self a Power of making what Additions or Retrenchments I shou'd afterwards think fit to make but the Plan of the Essay happening not to be fully represented and afterwards being worse understood and commented upon I at last resolved to draw up the following Account of the Particulars I therein consider I endeavour Sir to make it no longer a Difficulty to conceive and make evident by Reason and the Principles of Physick I mean the Principles of Nature all the Miracles related in Scripture concerning Bodies particularly the Human I mean supposing those Miracles to be true Matters of Fact and all Matters of Fact as well Natural as Supernatural to be immediate Effects of a Supream Being which must be granted it is as easie to conceive the Manner how this Infinite Power may be apply'd to Bodies to work Miracles as to produce the common Phoenomena of Nature By this I hope to convince our Scepticks in Religion the Deists who must give their Assent when they have the same evident Reason to conceive the Possibility and consequently to believe the Truth of such Miracles that are anthentically deliver'd to us as they have to conceive that Straw can burn in a flaming Fire The Foundation I go upon is the Structure of the Human Body which I have often taken to pieces by Anatomy and resolved into its Essential Elements or Minute Particles by Chymistry for I find it as necessary to be acquainted with its Fabrick to give an Account of the Miraculous States it is supposed to have been in Supernaturally as it is to explain the Natural Effects commonly produc'd in it For want of a sufficient Insight in this Matter several Divines of the latter Ages have given very gross Ideas of the Miracles they have pretended to explain and in several Places where I have been I saw them either through Ignorance or for Interest give out for Miracles Phoenomen● that were only surprizing Effects of Natural Causes which has given so great an Occasion to Scepticism and increate of De●s●● Having laid down for my Basis the Structure of the Human body as far as I cou'd discover from my Senses Anatomy ●i●e Microscopes and Experiments I proceed to examine and endeavour to explain the different ways its Natural State is suppos'd to have been Supernaturally alter'd by an infinite Power For ●●●ing that the Human Body is all Matter and that all this Matter is nothing 〈◊〉 an Union of Particles with Bulk Figure and respective ●●●ation I thought that all the alteration that cou'd Sup●●naturally happen to this Bulk Figure or Scituation would be conceiv'd But before I enter upon those ●●ce Subjects I find it first necessary to enquire into the Cause Nature and Laws of Motion because Motion is the only true Cause of all Natural E●●●●●s and the Suspensions of the Laws of this Motion are the only Causes of all Supernatural Effects or Miracles I conceive the Laws of Motion can be suspended three different ways and by one or more of those Laws of Suspension it is as easie to solve clearly all Miracles as it is to explain the most evident Effects of Natural Causes by the common Laws of Motion Though I mention That all Miracles whatsoever can be easily reduc'd to some of the three Laws of Suspension of Motion notwithstanding I do not design to speak of all sorts of Miracles but of such only as are most in dispute among the I earned Yet any understanding Man may easily make his Application and resolve all other Supernatural Effects into one or other