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	necessary_a	produce_v	6,956	5	9.5140	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62643	The unreasonableness and mischief of atheism a sermon preached before the Queen at White-Hall on Friday the 30th of March, 1694 / by W. Talbot ...	Talbot, William, 1658 or 9-1730.	1694 (1694)	Wing T127; ESTC R10300	17,166	33

THE Vnreasonableness and Mischief OF ATHEISM A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN At WHITE-HALL On Friday the 30th of March 1694. By W. Talbot D. D. and Dean of Worcester Published by Her Majesty's Command London Printed for Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1694. Psal XIV Ver. 1. The Fool hath said in his Heart There is no God THAT there is no God no infinitely Wise Powerful Just and Good Being that at first made this World does still administer and govern it and will finally judge the rational part of it That there is no First Cause of all things which is of it self but that either there has been an infinite Succession of Natural Causes or they have produced one another in a Circle that is to say according to the former There have been infinite Men in the World before there was ever a one and according to the latter That David was not only the Father of Solomon but the Son of Solomon also nay mediately and remotely the Father and Son of himself Or if there were a First Cause that 't was a necessary brute and unthinking Cause which yet has produced rational free and thinking Agents Effects which have Excellencies in them which were no way in the Cause from whence they proceeded Or that this World was produced by a fortuitous concourse of Atoms That this Vast and Noble Beautiful and Regular Structure wherein all things are made according to Weight and Measure all act orderly and constantly for some end wherein appears the wisest Contrivance both in the Fabrick of the several Parts and of the whole and the disposal of all for the attainment of their several Ends is the Work of blind Chance which can neither see nor Design nor dispose Or if there were an Intelligent Being that first created it that he abandon'd it as soon as he made it and having once shut it out of his Hands took no farther care but left the Administration of it to Fortune or Fate Or if he does concern himself in the Government of it will never rectifie those Abuses which he sees and permits in it That he has no Rewards in store to bestow hereafter on those who love and obey him whom he yet suffers to be evilly intreated and miserable here and many times so for his Sake and Service nor will ever call to account or punish those who daily affront and provoke him who yet meet with no other Returns for their Villainies here than Security Prosperity and the good Things of this Life These are things so irrational and extravagant that one would think it hardly possible to find any that are Fools enough to believe or say them and would not expect to meet with any Discourses against such for the same Reason that there have been no Laws made against some Crimes which have been of so heinous a Nature that none cou'd be supposed capable of committing them But the Scripture supposes there are and may be such Fools and our own unhappy Times afford too many Instances of them who ridicule a God and Providence and Judgment to come either deny his Existence or allow him to be no better than the Gods of the Heathens that have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not One to whom Elijah's Sarcasm concerning Baal may be applicable that he is Talking pursuing in a Journey or peradventure he sleeps when he should observe the Actions of Men or attend to the Services of his Votaries who having vilified their Maker no wonder debase his Workmanship believe themselves to be made up only of Matter that as they live they shall die like Beasts their Bodies shall moulder into Dust their Souls be dissolved into soft Air and there 's an end of them Who have not only defaced in themselves all Notions of Spiritual Beings but make it their business to blot out all such Impressions in others and as they have debauch'd and corrupted their own Reason and Faith to assert and believe those wild Opinions which their Lusts and Appetites suggest and to acknowledge nothing in being besides Matter and Motion so labour to make a Party and gain Proselytes to their absurd Opinions and Practices They conceive Wickedness and when they come abroad they tell it it rests not in their hearts but with their tongues they spit about their Poison and with their infected breath endeavour to spread the deadly Contagion where ever they go Who to gain reputation and followers pretend to be the only free and impartial Reasoners the great Abettors of the Liberty of Humane Nature that have no other end to serve but the discovering the Weakness and breaking off of those Chains wherewith designing and interested Men had inslav'd it Now if Fools will be setting up for the only Masters of Thought If the most absurd Notions shall be vented for Oracles of Reason If not content to have fool'd themselves in a Matter of the greatest Concern they are industrious to delude others and like the great Abaddon restlesly endeavouring day and night to bring others into the same Condemnation with themselves It is certainly an Act of the greatest Charity to them as well as others to make their Folly manifest to the World to shew that they are the most unthinking Creatures that live in it and that whatever specious Characters they aspire to or would be known by there 's none so justly belongs to them as that which the Spirit of God has given them in the Text And the attempting this is my present Province I shall not go about to shew the Folly of disbelieving a God and Providence by proving That they are or by answering the Objections to the contrary not that the former are not fairly demonstrable or the latter too formidable to be encountred but I think too frequent Undertakings to consute these are too great an honouring of them and make them look more considerable than they really are as too frequent Attempts to prove those may possibly be not of the best Consequence to Religion And besides the Doctrines that assert them have been so firmly establish'd and the contrary Whimsies so shamefully baffled both by Ancient and Modern Christians and particularly in some Discourses publish'd in our own Language That whosoever can now complain for want of Evidence and Conviction and call for more will still do so after the utmost that can be given him and plainly declares he will not be satisfied And if Men are so resolv'd resolv'd to be sceptical as long as they can start any little Cavil and ridiculous Scruple and to submit to no Conviction but such as the things to be prov'd are not capable of If they will not believe a God unless we can demonstrate him à priori Nor acknowledge an Eternal Independent and Self-existing Being unless we can prove him from his Causes If they will not believe Matter of Fact which happen'd long before their Time without Evidence of Sense If they will not believe