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
A70079	Golden remains of Sir George Freman, Knight of the Honourable Order of the Bath being choice discourses on select subjects.	Freeman, George, Sir.; Freeman, Sarah, Lady.	1682 (1682)	Wing F2167B; ESTC R21279	41,541	130

all outward things are more in appearance than they are in experiment and acutual probation the reason is because the Soul looking on them in their approach and doting on the gains which is coming towards her concludes they are as thick in substance as ravishing in their anterior fairness but after they have met and embraced she finds that they are both in haste to be gone and are but a bare frontispiece of Beauty like the Portraictures of Kings and Queens painted upon a flat which behind are nothing but dusty canvase Another thing which doth much lessen the pleasure of them is that the Soul in her reflex actions is still accusing her self and thus expostulating with her self Why am I thus conversant about transient things how long have I sought for true pleasure and satisfaction in them but cannot find it certainly I was design'd for matters of a higher concernment since I find I can look above them and beyond them how do I dishonour those noble Objects and injure my self in descending to these mean entertainments These and the like contrariant thoughts are a great allay to those imaginary pleasures and being mixt with the enjoyments give them a very disgustfull relish These circumstances well considered will I suppose very much shrink up that bulk of delight which to the abused fancy seems to be united to outward things before enjoyment even within the limits of Moderation when it is distinct from Virtue Let us now look into the third Postulatum or circumstance required to make up true pleasure which is the certainty of its Duration The death of all men is so confirmed to us by Arguments à parte ante besides the Physical reasons which are produced for the necessity of it that he that should question the continuation of it à Parte post may carry about him his Phantastick head to dispute it by himself till it be laid at rest in its own Grave to receive conviction Here then the question is Whether the Sensualist hath any firm ground of hope for a reversion of his pleasures after Death The Alchoran makes fair promises to Mahomet's disciples that they shall meet with sensual Pleasures again in the next world and if any Voluptuous man shall presume to urge the authority of it he is but that in profession now which he was before in Practice But I do assert the contrary that it is impossible that the Sensualist should be re-estated in the same Species of delight in which he solaced himself during his temporal life or in any other from reasons Physical Moral and Theological First then the body will most certainly at its re-union with the Soul exist after a manner as much different from this which is temporal as to be eternally durable differs from being dissoluble or in a state of corruption for eternal duration being that Divine Boon which shall be conferred upon the Totum Compositum the entire person of man both Soul and Body the Body which is the material part and which will be the Instrumental or intermediate cause under God the Efficient of its own duration being by the wisdom of God fitted with those affections and properties which shall be requisite to that great end of Eternal duration will in degrees proportionate to those future consequences differ from it self as it is now under a state of corruption For take any two different Effects in Nature and it will be found that the proximate and immediate causes of them do differ between themselves in the same degree that the Effects do Ex. Gra. Take a piece of Wood and a piece of Iron both of them smooth and of the same figure and bigness the Wood swims the Iron sinks proportionably to the speediness of the Irons sinking it must differ in solidity or closeness of parts from the Wood which swims This similitude is very Analogical and by the same reason the consistency of the Body in the state of Glory will as much differ from its consistency here as the consequences of duration and dissolution do these being likewise two Effects of two immediate causes Now then to come to the thing that is to be proved therefore the objects of Pleasure must be likewise disparate from if not adverse to what we meet withall here because these here are terminable of which nature there will be nothing after Death For the Body and the Soul being made durable to all Eternity it is most reasonable to think that all their Celestial Accommodations must be durable too for else there would not be a completion of happiness there being a discrepancy between the recipient and the object But to go a step farther That a Sensual man should meet with his old ones or any other sort of Pleasures after death is oppugnant to the precepts of Morality By a Sensual man I mean such a one as makes the attainment of corruptible things his ultimate end whether under a Notion of moderation or of excess and the word excess is to be taken in a double consideration either excess as to the quantity of the thing or excess as to the propriety of the thing First let us consider the person exceeding as to Quantity The Miser never hath pelf enough to satisfie his avaritious mind for he is alwayes coveting more while his thoughts and appetite do terminate in Gold and Silver as the ultimate object they aspire to therefore he loves nothing beyond that or above it for if he did the desire of that would in process of ●ime cease and he would desire something beyond it or above it since desire is a necessary effect of Love issuing immediately from it as from its proximate and contiguous cause if then he loves nothing beyond it or above it he sins against his natural Conscience which still presents the Deity to him as an object which only merits the whole stream of his affections for ignorance of which he hath no plea since the universal voice of nature proclaims a Divine power and in this every man is a Plato to himself Here then is a Moral Trespass or the Commission of an Act against the secret impresses of Nature Now the mind presently enters into consideration whether it ought to run counter to these infused habits or not if a thought propounds to it that it may it presently asks why then these Notions were Imprinted in it either they were given in vain or else that they should be practised If in vain that clashes with a Moral Axiome Natura semper agit propter finem if to be practised then an accusation of Guilt ensues and from thence naturally arises not an expectation of Pleasure but of Mulct from the Original Justice of that first Cause which fixed these Principles in the Mind So much then for excess in Quantity that I may avoid the surplusage of Argument In the next place I must take a view of the Person who exceeds as to Propriety Every Soul not obstructed