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	nature_n	power_n	3,155	5	5.1866	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05575	Tvvo bookes of constancie. Written in Latine, by Iustus Lipsius. Containing, principallie, A comfortable conference, in common calamities. And will serue for a singular consolation to all that are priuately distressed, of afflicted, either in body or mind. Englished by Iohn Stradling, gentleman; Iusti Lipsi de constantia libri duo.	Lipsius, Justus, 1547-1606.; Stradling, John, Sir, 1563-1637.	1595 (1595)	STC 15695; ESTC S120692	104,130	145

sticketh a thorne in my mind which also pricked the Auncients touching equallity of punishments For what Langius if that equal ballance of iustice if this sword of afflictions Doth often times let wicked men go free And slay such folke as good and harmelesse bee Why I say are some innocent people rooted out and the children and posteritie afflicted for the faults of their Auncestors This is a thicke miste in my eies which if you can disperse with the bright beames of reason Langius with a wrinkeled forehead yea younker quoth hee are you so soone gone astray againe I will none of that For as skilfull huntsmen suffer not their hounde to range but to follow one and the same deere So woulde I haue thee to treade onely in those foote steppes which I haue traced out vnto thee I woulde beate into thy brayne the endes of afflictions to the intente that if thou be good thou mayest thinke thy selfe to bee exercised if fallen to be lifted vppe if vtterly naught to be punished And now thou drawest me to the causes Wandring minde What meanest thou by this curious carefulnesse Wilt thou needes feele those celestiall fires They will melt thee like wax Wilt thou clime vppe into the Tower of prouidence Thou shalt soone fal down headlong As butter-flies and other little flies doo by night flutter so long about the candle till it burne them Euen so dooth mans mind dally about that secret celestial flame Shewe me the causes sayest thou why the vengeance of God ouer skippeth some and whippeth others Dost thou seek the causes I say most safely that I know them not For the heauenly Court neuer comprehended me nor I the decrees thereof Of this onely I am assured that Gods will is a cause aboue all causes beyond which who so seeketh another is ignorant of the efficacie and power of the diuine nature For it is necessarie that euery cause be in a sort before and greater then his effect but nothing is before nor greater than God and his will therefore there is no cause thereof God hath pardoned God hath punished what wilt thou haue more The will of God is the chiefe Iustice as Saluianus saith well and godly Yet ye say we require a reason of this inequality Of whome Of God To whom that is lawfull whatsoeuer him liketh and nothing liketh him but that which is lawful If the seruant cal his maister or the subiect his Soueraigne to account the tone may take it in contempt the tother as treason And art thou more bold with God Fie vpon such peruerse curiositie This reason cannot stand otherwise then if it be rendred to no man And yet when thou hast doone all that thou art able thou shalte not cleere thy selfe out of the darke mistes of ignorance nor be partaker of those meere mystical councelles and decrees It is excellently spoken by Sophocles Thou shalte neuer attaine to the knowledge of heauenly thinges if God conceale them nor of them all though thou bestowe thy labour euer therein CAPT. XIII Yet to certifie the Curious three old obiections are aunswered And firste touching euill men not punished Wee proue they are repriued and pardoned And that either in respect of men themselues or in regarde of Gods nature which is slow to punish THis plaine broad way Lipsius is onely safe here All others be deceaueable and slippery In diuine and heauenly matters it is the sharpest sight to see nought and the only knowledge to know nothing Yet because this cloud hath of old time and nowe doth compasse mens wittes I will wind thee out of it shortly if I can And will wash away that that sticketh by thee with this riuer here at hand O thou celestiall and eternall spirite there with he cast his eies on high pardon and forgiue me if in these profound misteries I vtter any thing impure or vngodly yet with a godly intent And first I may generally defend the iustice of God with his owne blow Yf God behould the affaires of men he hath care of them if he haue care he gouerneth them if hee gouerne hee doth it with iudgement if with iudgement how can it be without iustice which if it be wanting ther is no regiment nor gouerment at all but disorder confusion and trouble What hast thou to oppose against this weapon what shielde or armour Say the truth onely mans ignorance I vnderstand not saist thou why these should be punished and those not Well saide Wilte thou therefore ioyne impudencie to thy ignorance And because thou comprendest not the power of the diuine and pure lawe wilte thou carpe at it what more vniuste reason would be alleadged against iustice if some stranger should vtter his coniectures of the lawes and ordinaunces of thy cuntry thou wouldest bid him hold his tongue and be gone because he hath not the knowledge of them And doest thou An inhabitant of this earth rashly condemne the vnknowne lawes of heauen Thou creature thy creator yet goe to take thy pleasure I will close neerer with thee searching distinctly the thicke mists of these thy cauilles by the cleere sunne of reason as thou requirest Thou obiectest three thinges That GOD letteth scape offendors That he punisheth innocentes That hee putteth ouer and transferreth his punishmentes from one to an other I will begin with the first Thou saist that the vengeance of God doth not well to ouerpasse the wicked Yea doth it ouerpasse them No I thinke rather it forbeareth them onely for a time If I haue greate deptes owing me and if it please me to exacte my due of one depter presently and to beare with another for a longer time who can blame me for it is at my owne good will and pleasure Euen so doth that greate God Of whome whereas all naughtie men haue deserued punishment hee exacteth it of some presently and beareth with others to bee payd afterwardes with interest What vnrightousnes is here except it be so y ● thou take thought for God feare least he be indemnified by this his bountiful forbearance But alas seely man Thou arte more affraide then hurt Neuer shall any man deceaue this greate creditor Whither soeuer wee flye we are all in his sight yea in bondes and fetters to him But thou saist I would haue such a tirant to be presently punished that by his death at this time satisfaction may be made to so many whom he hath oppressed So shal the iustice of God be made more manifest vnto vs. Nay thou bewrayest hereby thy blockishnes For who art thou that dost not onely appoint God how but al●o prescribe him when to punish Thinkest thou that he is thy iudge or onely a serieant or vnder-officer Goe leade him hence whip him muffle his face hange him vpon a cursed tree for so it seemeth good in my eies Fie vppon this impudencie Vnto God it seemeth

that followeth a firme and sure necessitie of euentes Howe auoyde you this blowe Or with what axe will you cut off this chaine For GOD and that eternall spirite may not otherwise be considered of vs then that wee attibute vnto it an eternall knowledge and fore sight We must acknowledge him to be stayed resolute and immutable alwaies one and like himselfe not wauering or varying in those thinges which once he willed and foresawe For The eternall God neuer chaungeth his minde saith Homer Which if thou confesse to bee true as needes thou must if there be in thee any reason or sense this also must be allowed that all Gods decrees are firme and immooueable euen from euerlasting vnto all eternitie of this groweth necessitie and that same DESTINIE which thou deridest The trueth wherof is so cleare and commonly receaued that there was neuer any opinion more currant among all nations And whosoeuer had anie light of God himselfe and his prouidence had the like of Destinie The most auncient and wisest Poet Homer beleeue me traced his diuine muse in none other path than this of Destinie Neither did the other Poets his progenie straye from the steppes of their father See Euripides Sophocles Pindarus and among the Latines Virgill Shall I speake of Historiographers This is the voice of them all That such and such a thing came to passe by Destiny and that by destinie kingdomes are either established or subuerted Would you heare the Philosophers whose chiefe care was to finde out and defend the trueth again●t the common people As they iarred in manie things thorough an ambitious desire of disputing so it is a wonder to see how they agreed vniuersallie vpon the entrance into this way which leadeth to Destinie I say in the entrāce of that way because I deny not but that they followed some by-path-waies which may be reduced into these four kindes of DESTINIE namely MATHEMATICAL NATVRAL VIOLENT and TRVE All which I will expound brieflye onelie touching them a little because that herehence commonly groweth confusion and errour CHAPT XVIII The three first kindes of destinie brieflie expounded The definition or description of them all The Stoickes sleightly and brieflie excused I Call MATHEMATIGAL destinie that vvhich tyeth and knitteth firmelie all actions and euentes to the power of the Planettes and dispositions of the Starres Of vvhich the Chaldeans Astrologians were the first authors And among the Philosophers that lofty Mercurius is principall and Abbettor who subtlelie and wiselie distinguishing PROVIDENCE NECESSITIE and DESTINIE saith Prouidence is an absolute and perfect knowledge of the celestiall God which hath two faculties neerelie allied vnto it Necessitie and Destinie Destinie truelie serueth and assisteth prouidence and also Necessitie But vnto Destinie it selfe the starres doe minister For neither may anie man auoide the force of Fate neither beware of the power and influence of the starres For these be the weapons and armour of Destinie at whose pleasure they doe and performe all things to nature and men In this foolish opinion are not onely the common crue of Astrologers but I shame to speake it some Diuines I call Naturall fate the order of naturall causes which not being hindered by their force and nature doe produce a certaine and the selfe same effect Aristotle is of this sect if wee giue credite to Alexander Aphrodiseus his interpreter Likewise Theophrastus who writeth plainlie That destinie is the nature of each thing By their opinion it is Destinie that a man begetteth a man and so that he dyeth of inward naturall causes not by violence or force it is destinie Contrarilie that a man should ingender a serpent or a monster it is besides Destinie Also to be killed with a sword or by fire This opinion is not verie offensiue for that indeed it ascendeth not so high as the force of Fate or Destinie And doeth not euery one escape falling that keepeth himselfe from climing aloft Such a one is Aristotle almost euerie where writing ought of celestial matters except it be in his book of the world which is a golden treatise sauoring of a more celestiall ayre I reade moreouer in a Greeke writer that Aristotle thought Fate was no cause but that chance was in some sort an alteration or change of the cause of such things as were disposed by necessitie O the heart of a Philosopher that durst account Fortune and Chaunce among the number of causes but not Destiny But let him passe I come to the Stoickes my friendes for I professe to hold that sect in estimation and account who were the authours of VIOLENT FATE which with Seneca I define to be A necessitie of all thinges and actions which no force can withstand or breake And with Crisiopus A spirituall power gouerning orderly the whole world These definitions swarue not farre from the trueth if they be soundly and modestlie expounded Neither happilie their opinion generally if the common people had not condemned the same alreadie by a preiudicate conceite They are charged with two impieties that they make God subiect to the wheele of Destiny and also the actions of our will I cannot boldlie acquit them of both these faults for out of some of their writings fewe being at this day extant wee may gather those sayinges and out of some other wee collect more wholsome sentences Seneca a principall pillar of that sect stumbleth at the first blocke in his book of prouidence where he saith The verie same necessitie bindeth God an irreuocable course carrieth away both humaine and diuine thinges The maker and ruler of all thinges decreed destinies but now followeth them He commaunded once but he obeyeth for euer And that same indissoluble chaine and linking together of causes which bindeth all thinges and persons seemeth plainlie to inferre force or constraint But the true Stoickes neuer professed such doctrine and if by chance any like sentence passed from them in the vehemencie of their writing or disputing it was more in words than in substance and sense Chrysippus who first corrupted that graue sect of Philosophers with crabbed subtilties of questions cleareth it from depriuing man of free libertie And our Seneca doth not make God subiect to fate he was wiser than so but God to God after a certaine kinde of speach For those Stoickes that came neerest the trueth do call Destinie sometimes Prouidence and sometimes God Therefore Zeno when he had called Destinie a Power moouing about the same matter after one and the same manner he addeth which it booteth not whether you call it Prouidence or nature Likewise Chrysippus other where calleth Destinie the eternall purpose or decree of pouidence Panaetius the Stoick said That God himselfe was Fate Seneca being of the same minde saith When you list you may call the authour of nature and all thinges by this or that name You may iustly tearme him

the best and great Iupiter and thundering and Stator that is Stable or standing not so called as Historians deliuer because that after a vowe vndertaken he stayed the Roman Armie flying away But because all thinges stand by his free benefite therefore was he named stander or stablisher If you call him also Fate or destinie you shall not belie him For sith that destinie is nothing but a folded order of causes hee is the principall first cause of al wheron the residue do depend Which last words are so godlie spoken that slaunder it selfe cannot slaunder them In this point dissented not from the Stoickes that greate Writer to a greate King I thinke that Necessitie ought not to be called any thing els but God as a stedfast and stable nature And destinie that which knitteth together all thinges and holdeth his course freely without let or impediment Which sayinges if they haue any tast of temeritie in them yet not of impietie and beeing rightlie interpreted differ not much from our true fate or destinie I doe in good earnest giue this commendation to the Stoickes that no other sect of Philosophers auowed more the maiesty and prouidence of God nor drewe men neerer to heauenlie and eternall thinges And if in treading this trace of Destinie they went somewhat astray it was thorough a laudable and good desire they haue to withdrawe blind men from that blind Goddesse I meane FORTVNE The nature whereof they did not onelie mightilie hisse out of their companie but euen the verie name CHAPT XIX The fourth and true kind of Destinie expounded The name brieflie spoken of it is lightly defined and prooued to differ from Prouidence THis much may suffice touching the opinions and dissentions of the Auncients For why shoulde I ouer curiouslie search the secretes of hell as the prouerbe is I shall haue ynough to doe with true Destinie which now I propound and illustrate calling it AN ETERNAL DECREE OF GODS PROVIDENCE which cannot bee taken away no more than prouidence it selfe And let not any man cauill with mee about the name because I say there is not in Latine an other proper word to expresse that thing but FATVM What haue old writers abused it Let vs vse it and so inlarging this word out of the prison of the Stoickes let vs bring it to a better light It is called in Latine FATVM a fando of speaking neither is it any thing els properlie but The saying and commaundement of God And this is it which novve I seeke for I define it eyther vvith that famous PICVS A ranke and order of causes depending vpon Gods counsell or vvith mine owne vvordes more obscurely and subtillie An immooueble decree of Prouidence inherent in things mooueable whi●h firmlie effecteth euerie thing in his order place and time I call it A decree of Prouidence because I agree not vvhollie vvith the Diuines of our dayes let them giue me leaue in the free studie of the trueth who in name and nature confound it with prouidence I know it to be a hard matter and full of temeritie to conceiue or restraine vnto certaine wordes that Super-naturall and super-celestiall essence I meane God or ought that belongeth to him yet vnto mans capacitie I defend and maintaine that prouidence is one thing properlie and the same which wee call fate or destinie another For I consider prouidence no otherwise then that it be A Power and facultie in God of seeing knowing gouerning all things A POWER I say vniuersal vndiuided guarded and as Lucretius speaketh vnited together But Destinie seemeth to descend into the things themselues and to be seene in the particulars of them being as it were a disposing and bestowing abroad of that vniuersall prouidence by particulars Therefore Prouidence is in God and attributed to him alone Destinie in the things and to them is ascribed You thinke I trifle and as it is saide bore holes in Millet seede No Lipsius I take this out of the talk of the common people among whome nothing is more vsuall than to say This was my good or euill d●stinie and likewise this was the fatall decree of this kingdome or that town But no man so speaketh of prouidence no man applyeth it to the thinges themselues without impietie and dirision Therefore I said well that the one of them was in God thother trulie from God and perceiued in the selfe thinges I say moreouer that though Prouidence be not really diuided from Destiny yet it is more excellent and more ancient Euen as we are taught in the schooles of the wise to say that the Sunne is more worthy than the light Eternity than time Vnderstanding then reason But to drawe into a short summe these curious not common matters Thou seest I haue iust cause both to vse this distinction and also to retaine the name of Destinie against the new Consistory of Diuines For why Those auncient famosed Fathers prohibite mee not but that I may vse in his right and true sense the word DESTINY But now that I may return to make plaine my former definition I sayd it was An inherent decree to shew that Destinie should be marked in the thinges to the which it commeth and not from whence it proceedeth I added In mooueable thinges signifying that although Destinie it selfe bee immooueable yet it taketh not away motion nor any naturall facultie from thinges but worketh easilie and without force euen as the markes and signes imprinted by God in each thing do require In causes secundarie I meane that be necessarie it worketh necessarilie In natural causes naturallie in voluntarie causes voluntarilie In contingent contingentlie Wherefore in respect of the things it doth neither force nor constrain But as euerie thing is made to doe or suffer so it directeth and turneth all thinges But if you recall it to his first originall I meane God and his prouidence I affirme constantly and boldly that all thinges are done necessarily which are done by destiny Lastlie I ioyned of the Order place and time establishing that which I saide before that prouidence was of things in vniuersality Destiny by distribution in particularities By ORDER I vnderstande the course and vniting together of causes which destiny limitteth By PLACE and TIME I meane that woonderful and incomprehenble power whereby all euentes or actions are tyed to their certaine places and moments of time It was destinitie that Tarquinius should be banished his kingdome Be it so but first let the adulterie bee committed You see the order of the causes It was destiny that Caesar should bee killed So But in the Senate by the image of Pompei You see the place That Domitian should bee murthered of his owne people Let him be murthered but yet at the very houre euen the fift which in vaine he sought to preuent Thus you see the time CHAPT XX. It is distinguished by foure Notes from Stoicall

Because in al external punishments God doth not onely beholde the time present but also hath respect to time paste And so by pondering of both those together hee poyseth euenly the ballaunce of his iustice I saide in all EXTERNALL PVNISHMENTS and I woulde haue thee marke it well For the faults of one man are not layd vppon another neither is there any confusion of offences God forbid that But these are onely paines and chasticements about vs not in vs And properly doe concern y e body or goods but not our mind which is internal And what iniury at all is there herein we will be heires to our Auncestors of cōmodities rewards if they deserue any Why should we refuse their punishments paines O Romaines ye shall suffer punishmēts for the offences of your predecessors vnworthely So said the Romain poet and he spake true but only in that he added vnworthely For it is most deseruedly because their fore-fathers had deserued it But the poet saw the effect only without lifting vp his consideration to the cause Notwithstanding as one and the selfe same man may lawfully abide punishment in his old age for som offence cōmitted in his youth Euen so in Empires and kingdomes doth God punish old sins because that in respect of outward communication and societie they are but one selfe thing before God These distances of times doe not seperate vs in his sight who hath all eternitie inclosed in his infinite capacity Did those Martiall woolues in oulde time ouerthrowe so many townes and breake in peeces so many scepters scotfree haue they sucked so much bloude by slaughter and themselues neuer loste their bloud Then I will surely confesse that God is no reuenger Whoe both heareth and seeth whatsoeuer we doe But the ca●e standeth otherwise For it cannot be but they must at length euen in their posteritie receaue punishment though slow yet neuer too late Neither is ther with god this coniunction and vniting of times onely but of partes also This is my meaning That like as in man when the hands y e secreate partes and bellie do transgresse the whole bodie buieth the bargaine deerly So in a common multitude the sin of a fewe is often required at the hands of all Especially if the offenders be the worthiest members as Kinges Princes and Magistrates Well said Hesiodus and out of the bowells of wisedome For one mans faulte the cittie suffreth paine When one committeth sacriledge or wrong From heauen God makes tempestes downe to raine Or pestilence or famishment among So the whole Greekish Nauie perishd for one mans offence euen the furious outrage of Aiax Oileus Likewise in Iewry seuentie thousand men were iustly consumed with one plague for the vnlawful lust of the king Somtimes it falleth out contrarilie that whereas all haue sinned God chooseth out one or a fewe to be as it were a sacrifice for the common crime Wherein although he decline a little from the straight leuell of equallitie yet of this inequallitie a newe kind of iustice ariseth And the same which in a fewe seemeth to be rigour is a certaine merciful righteousnes towards many Doth not y e schoole maisters ferruler correcte one among a multitud of loytring ●chollers Doth not a generall in the warres punish his mutinous Armie by drawinge the tenthe man And both the●e do it vpon good aduise for that this punishment inflicted vpon a fewe doth terrifie and amend all I see Phisitians many times open a veine in the foote or Arme when the whole bodie is distempered What know I whether it be so in this case For these matters be misteries Lipsius They be very deepe misteries If wee bee wise let vs not come too nighe this sacred fire whose sparkes and small flakes we men perchaunce may see but not the thing it selfe Euen as they which fix their eies too seriously vpon the sun do lose them so wee extinguish all the light of our mind by beholding earnestly this light My opinion therefore is that wee ought to abstaine from this curious question so full of danger And be resolued of this That mortall men cannot rightfully iudge of offences nor ought not to attempt it God hath an other manner of ballaunce and an other tribunall seat of iustice And howsoeuer those secret iudgements of his be executed we must not accuse but suffer and reuerence them This one sentence I would haue thee to bee throughly perswaded off wherewith I will shut vp this matter and stop the mouthes of all curious busibodies The moste parte of Gods iudgements are secrete but none of them vnrighteous CAPT. XVIII A Passage to the last place which is of examples It is shewed to be a matter profitable oftentimes to mix some things of sweete tast with sharper medicines THus much Lipsius I had to say in defence of Gods iustice against vniust accusers which I confesse was not altogither pertinent to my purpose and yet not much besides it Because doubtlesse wee shall the more willingly and indifferently beare these greate publike miseries when we are fully perswaded they bee iustly inflicted vpon vs. And heere surceassing our communication a whiles Langius sodenly brake out into these wordes it is well I haue taken breath a little And being now passed beyonde all the dangerous rockes of difficulte questions it seemeth I may with full sailes strike into the hauen I behold here at hand my fourth and last troupe which I intende willingly to bringe into the field And as marriners being in a tempest when they see the two twinnes appeare together do receaue great hope comforte So fareth it with me vnto whome after many sturdy stormes this double legion hath shewed it self Let me lawfully terme it so after the auncient manner because it is forked or twofold And by it I muste manfully proue two seuerall things that these euills which nowe we suffer are neither grieuous nor new and vnaccustomed In certaine of which fewe matters that are behind vnhandled I pray the Lipsius shew thy selfe willing and attentiue vnto me Neuer more willing Langius then now For it pleaseth me very well that wee haue passed through the pikes And I long earnestly for some pleasant and familiar medicines after these sharpe and bitter pilles And so it appeareth by the title that the disputation ensuing wilbe You say true quoth Langius And euen as the chirurgians after they haue seared and cut as much as liketh them do not forthwith dismisse their patient but apply some gentle medicines and comfortable salues to asswage the pain So I hauing sufficiently seared and purged thee with the rasors and fire of wisedome will now cherish thee againe with some sweeter communication wil touch thee with a milder hand as the saying is I wil descend from that craggie hill of philosophy leading thee awhiles into the pleasant fieldes philology And that not so much for thy