Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	efficient_a	end_n	final_a	2,172	5	9.9792	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20943	A treatise of the knovvledge of God, as excellently as compendiously handled by the famous and learned divine, Peter Du Moulin, late minister of the Reformed Church in Paris, and professor of theologie in the Vniversitie of Sedan. Faithfully translated out of the originall by Robert Codrington, Master of Arts; De cognitione Dei. English	Du Moulin, Pierre, 1568-1658.; Codrington, Robert, 1601-1665.	1634 (1634)	STC 7321; ESTC S118646	41,950	94

indued them with abilities as to set forward God and helpe him in his worke So that of necessity we must stay at some one who wanteth not the ayde of any and from whom all things are who seeing that of nothing hee hath made all things cannot but bee of an Infinite Power since from Nothing to Something there is an infinite disproportion for sottishly profane is that ridiculous insolence of the Epicure Velleius who in the first Booke of Cicero Of the Nature of the Gods deriding the Creation demandeth what was the foundation what were the tooles what were the Leavers who were the Apprentices in so great a worke Besides the Mistery of Numbers convinceth plainely that there was a beginning of the World and therevpon that it was created by God for every Number ariseth from vnity when therefore dayes are numbred it must needes bee that there was one first Day and therevpon one first Conversion of the heaven for there is no number infinite in Act neither can there bee Dayes infinite in number for if any number were infinite the number of ten would infinitely fill vp that infinite number from whence it would follow that five would arise no oftner then ten and that one halfe would bee no lesse then twice as much nay in that infinite number there would be as many tennes as vnityes which surely cannot stand together and imply a contradiction Besides the terme of life and proportions of men so much contracted in respect of the vigour and the Stature of our forefathers doe not obscurely testifie that there was one first Man and one primary perfection from which by staires Generations haue descended for the Diminution of things cannot bee infinite for should wee runne them over in the Ages past vnto Infinitie wee should at length advance Man vnto a Stature higher then heaven it selfe The Scope of all this is that by Arguments borrowed from the light of humane Reason although but clouded and dusky wee may teach that as the beames of Light shed over all the World doe flow from one beginning namely the Sunne and as Numbers proceede all from vnity and in the body of Man as all the Arteryes and Vitall facultyes proceede from one heart so every Being doth depend and is sustained by one Chiefe and Soveraigne Beeing who should hee withold or but withdraw his Vertue and his Influence All things presently would dissolue and returne into their ancient Nothing No otherwise than if the Sunne being taken from vs whatsoever there is of Light would bee turned into Darkenesse Now if any should demand what moved God to put his hand vnto this Worke the answer is ready For God made all things for himselfe and was mooued with no other consideration than with his owne Loue For God is not onely the efficient Cause of all things but the finall also as the Apostle witnesseth in the second of the Hebrewes where hee alledgeth that God is for whom and by whom all things are All things are for God as hee is the End of all things and most Good all things are by God as hee is the efficient Cause of all things and most great Deseruedly therefore doe wee title God Most Good Most Great but first most Good before most Great for hee is most Good as hee is the End for the End is alwayes the foremost in the Intention and the Efficient Cause is but mooued by it Seeing therefore there is no Reasonable or Intellectuall Agent which vndertaketh any thing without proposing to himselfe the End which ever appeareth Good the most chiefe and Soveraigne AGENT could not worke but for the last and best End And seeing there is nothing better then God nay Seeing all things whatsoever are Good come from God God could not worke for any other End but for himselfe And seeing there is nothing that should bee rather pourtrayed or represented in a picture then what doth seeme most beautifull God who is the first Beauty and the first Light was pleas'd to draw his owne Picture and as in Phidias his Minerva the Artist himselfe hath imprinted in his worke an vndefac'd resemblance of himselfe But seeing now of things created part are Bodies part are Spirits and immateriall Substances among the Spirits the Angels are most eminent next vnto which are the Soules of Men among the Bodyes the first Heaven is aboue all most honourable Wherefore when God in all his creatures hath imprinted some tracks of his power and his wisedome the Spirits by a more speciall priviledge have ingraven in them the image of himselfe and that not drawne by a pencil as Painters vse expressing onely Colours and proportions but such an image as is beheld in a Glasse which represents euen our motions and our Actions For God hath powred into Spirits the Light of vnderstanding and knowledge of the Truth which is as a certaine sparke of the Diuine Light hee hath adorned their Wills whose faculty it is to mooue and produce Actions with Holinesse and Righteousnesse hee hath conferred on them Immortality and a liberty of choyce which are the Lineaments of the Diuine Image and Resemblances of God himselfe Which image of God as it is the most glorious ornament of the Intellctuall creature so there is nothing more vgly than the deformation of it which is occasioned when the Soule the eye of the vnderstanding beeing pulled out by Ignorance and the lineaments of this Image beeing soiled by Vice is turned into a Monster and beeing hated by God hath rendred it selfe so miserable by its owne default that it is not any wayes worthy of the Mercy of God For as the Image of a King stampt on siluer with much rubbing and often fretting against the Ground becomes defaced so in our soules the image of God is deformed addicted to earthly things and as it were wallowed in the mire they are turn'd away from divine contemplation and from the Love of God Nay and in the first body too which is heaven God hath imprinted certaine tokens I had almost sayd a certaine Image of himselfe For God hath turned it into a roundnesse an imitation of his diuine infinitenesse because this figure hath neither beginning nor ending and in the same first Body hee hath engraven no obscure resemblances of his immobility and eternall Rest a rest which is yet notwithstanding in continuall motion For although the Heaven is continually mooved by Parts while one Part doth succeede another so it is that the whole Body resteth neither is it mooved from its place Hee hath also placed in the heavens an imitation of his Power disposing of his Worke in such a method that the elementary bodyes are governed by the heavenly and superiour bodyes worke into the inferiour their powerfull influences And indeed most true is that of Aristotle in his second Booke de Gen. Cap. 10. That the perpetuall durance and continuance of things ought to be imputed to the simple daily motion of the Sun from the East into

eating of the Paschall Lambe the Israelites were to feed onely on the flesh and not to meddle with the bones so in the doctrine which instructs us in the knowledge of God wee must labour after those things which serue for the nourishment of our soule and abstaine from those which by their hardnesse would breake our teeth and turne the edge of our understanding then onely in the knowledge of God shall we obserue a meane betwixt an affected negligence and a sawcie curiositie when we shall referre all our knowledge and meditation to piety and manners and to the loue of God Le Sr de la Primaudaye en ses Quatrains L'aeuvre excellent des cieux l'entour le space Rendent leur Architecte admirable à tous yeux Mais sa divine loy restaurant l'ame en mieux L'esleue sur ce tout pour voire Dieu face à face The glorious Vault and fabricke of the skies Presents their wondrous Maker to all eyes Whose Law divine restoring soules by grace Mounts them o're all to see HIM face to face FINIS THE CHOICEST SENTENCES TAKEN out of this present treatise of the knowledge of GOD. In the collection onely whereof I have followed the Copy of Mounsieur Derelincourt Minister of the Hague which if they be thought either too tedious or impertinent it shall be some protection to me that I had so reverend an Example TRVTH is so affected to the Mind as Light unto the Eye Sect. 3. The true knowledge of God is the most absolute perfection of the mind Sect. 4. That in all Men is inherent an apprehension of a God it is manifest by experience and the testimony of all Ages amongst whom there is none so wild or barbarous that hath not received some forme of Religion and that established under most grievous penalties for this is no written but a natiue Law to which we are not taught but made not instructed by precepts but by the principles of Nature Sect. 7. From nothing to something is an infinite disproportion Sect. 24. As the beames of Light dispersed over all the World doe flow from one beginning namely the Sunne and as numbers proceed all from Vnity and in the Body of Man as all the Arteries and Vitall Faculties proceed from one heart so every Being doth depend and is sustayned by one chief and Soveraigne Being Sect. 24. God is not onely the efficient Cause of all things but the finall also as the Apostle witnesseth to the Hebrewes saying That God is for whom and by whom all things are Sect. 25. The End is alwayes the formost in the Intention and the Efficient Cause is moved by it ibid. Most true is that of Aristotle in his second booke de Gen. cap. 10. that the perpetuall durance and continuance of things ought to bee imputed to the Simple and daily Motion of the Sunne from the East into the West but that Generation and Corruption doth arise from the oblique course of the Sunne and planets through the Zodiack whiles according to their situation they change their Aspects and by their accesse neerer to us or recesse farther from us the Affections and the Qualities of the things doe differ Sect. 28 As the Essence of God cannot be exprest by words so it cannot be conceived by the Vnderstanding for a thing infinite cannot be comprehended by a thing finite and the inaccessible light of God doth dazle the understanding Sect. 39. From the diminution of the knowledge of God would arise a diminution of his loue and by the same contempt whereby the knowledge of the divine Nature is neglected the knowledge also of the divine Will would bee despised Sect. 42. The life of a Wise man is nothing else but a Returne to God and the way to God is by the study of Piety and Iustice Sect. 43. The Maker of time is before time and above it neither is his duration measured by it for as the infinitenesse of God doth not onely consist in this that hee is not circumscrib'd by limites but most especially in this that hee is all in every place so his eternity likewise consists not in this onely that he is without beginning and without end but rather in this that his life is not a motionary course but a perpetuall rest and in which there is no succession of parts Sect. 56. As to a man sitting on the banke of a Riuer only that water is present which is observed by him in that instant moment and poynt of time but that part of the River is not presented to his eyes which is not yet come to him or but now gone from him yet the same man were he exalted into the upper region of the aire might behold the whole River and at one aspect observe both the fountaine and the coruses of it so by the eye of God who is obove time together and in one moment is observed the whole flux of transitory things neither in him is there addition or subtraction because all things are present with him Se. 56. Those perfections which are diverse and scattered in the creatures in God are one and the same perfection Se. 57. God making the body of man of earth did conforme his mind to humility and a religious lowlinesse by remembring him of his descent and ignoble parentage Se. 67. The happinesse of men is not to be esteemed by the present condition of things but by the Counsaeile of God and last event of all things Sect. 71. It is necessary in the businesse of salvation to have God our leader and to make his word our rule Sect. 74. Because that man did fall by believing the words of the Devill it was fitting that man should be raysed from his fall by believing the Words of God for it was requisite that contrary Evills should bee cured by contrary Remedies Sect. 79. The Scripture teacheth that Man being first creaeted to the image of God indued with holinesse and righteousnesse revolted from God by his owne consent and the suggestion of the Devill whereupon sinne came into the world and by sinne death and malediction notwithstanding the image of God is not so deformed in man that there remains not certaine traces of it to wit a certaine apprehension of Divinity and some graines of Honesty and civill Iustice Sect. 95. Though God inhabits light which cannot be attained to yet in some manner he hath made himselfe visible in his Son who is the image of the invisible God and God with us whosoever shall endeavour to come to God by any other way he shall find him a Iudge and not a Father and the more he hasts the more he erres and headlong falls into a certaine ruine Sect. 99. Physicians doe rather suspect then see the inward affections of the Bodies and the causes of Diseases and hereupon it often comes to passe that in pretence of curing the diseased officiously they kill ihem Sect. 105. As there are may be gathered many and excellent fruits from the knowledge of God so this is above all the most principall that we cannot bridle in our vices or stop our desires in their careere with a stronger rein then with the knowledge of God for he that knowes God knowes him to bee a searcher into the secrets of the heart whose eyes cannot be curtaind with the flattering clouds of lying or hypocrisy to whom accounts are to be given of every idle word Sect. 111. To complaine of Gods providence as it is unrighteous so to oppose against is rash and dangerous Sect. 112. Without the knowledge of God it is impossible for us to know our selves for then the bubbles of our pride sinke downe and our plumes doe fall when we looke on God Sect. 114. Then only in the knowledge of God shall we observe a meane betwixt an affected negligence and a sawcy curiosity when we shall referre all our knowledge and meditation to piety and manners and to the love of God The End

the Ocean diue What stay In summer keepes the tardy Night away Hee wonders at the perpetuall glidings of the streames the growth and vertue of the Plants at the divers formes of living creatures at their motions their inclinations and instincts Finally at the great perfection of the Vniverse that the particular parts thereof are impediments to the contemplation of the whole As in an unfeld Wood the particular hight of every tree would bee remarkable were not the whole Forrest seene to be of an equall hight There is scarce therefore any so strongly dull who observing these will not acknowledge their Author and value with himselfe the greatnesse of the Workeman by the excellence of the Worke. If any Man should behold a Library well furnisht in which the shelues are faire and well set up the books rankt in order all things are kept neate and brusht and handsome Is it credible that any man can bee so sottish as to conceiue that this came done by chance and will not rather impute it to the industry of Man for Confusion comes by chance but Order is by Industry But there is no Library so aptly digested so full so beautifull that may any wayes compare with the perfection and structure of the fabricke of the World A man may carry in the skirt of his garment a promiscuous number of Printers Characters which his garment being shaken hee may also shake and scatter on the ground but will the Characters so aptly fall or will there be so fine an industry in the Chance that some elegant verses or neate Oration may be reade Surely there is no Oration so polite no Verse composed with so much art that may any wayes parallel the Artifice and Beauty of the World This is the first way whereby God affects even barbarous men with some touch of divinity drawing even the perversest understanding to a knowledge of himselfe by these dumbe Masters Psal 19. The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy Workes For the invisible things of him from the creation of the World are clearely seene being understood by the things that are made even his power and divinity Adde unto these the naturall preservations and the seedes of honesty and equity and those pricks of conscience which gaule even the most obdurate with secret tortures for this is a confession of good authority whereby men professe that they acknowledge a Iudge to whom accounts are to be given and who doth looke into their manners and their actions Neither doe the Devils and malignant Spirits conduce a little to imprint in our minds a deepe perswasion that there is a God for seeing it is knowen by daily experience how great and hurtfull the power of the Devill is how they raise up tempests send forth diseases tranforme men into Wolues transport Groues and Corne which Pliny reporteth to haue happened in the PROVINCE of Marrucia how they affright men with visions and with perplexing Oracles illude those that craue their counsell and entangle them in errours Surely mankind exposed to the injuries of so many invisible enemies should haue perished nay and the fabricke of the World it selfe would haue dissolv'd did not these Spirits depend on the becke of a supreamer power who bridles their rage and barres them up in the limits of his eternall Providence These are but obvious and careles observations which fall into the vulgar even not mindfull of them But the Philosophers to the true knowledge of God haue gone the higher way for they make them bonds and links with Demonstrations by which they so chaine the understandings that they draw from them what they will Aristotle wrote eight bookes of naturall Philosophy the sixe last whereof containe no other subject but of Motion onely and the affections of it But the last doth end in the first Moover in him who is immoueable for seeing all things that haue motion are moved by some one thing and that againe by another and so forward In this chaine of things motionary wee cannot proceed to what is infinite but wee must needs stay at one first Moover who although hee moue all things is himselfe immoueable Even so in the body of Man the joynts are moved by the Arteries the arteries by the sinnewes the sinnewes by the Spirits animall the Spirits animall by the Spirits vitall the Spirits vitall by the soule which is not moved but by Accident or by Another that is by the motion of another as Wisedome walketh in a wise man or as the Governour of a ship sitting at the helme doth so rest that notwithstanding by the motion of the ship hee is moved himselfe But if there be any thing that moues it selfe it must bee compounded of parts and one part must bee moved of another But the First Being must needs be most purely simple and not composed of parts Besides it is easie to bee seene by evident demonstration that in the order of Efficient causes it is impossible to proceed unto what is infinite for if there was no chiefe and primary Cause there would be no second nor any third Cause and so of the rest so that by this meanes there would be no Cause at all besides wee should never arriue unto the last effect for before wee could travaile to it infinite Causes must be gone over now that is infinite which cannot bee gone through and of which as there is no beginning so there is no ending Neither doe the divers degrees of Goodnesse and wisedome by which Angels are better and wiser then men and men themselues differ among themselues availe a little to the knowledge of God and of divine perfection For this Axiome doth stand unshaken that qualities suppose Heate or Whitenesse are more or lesse imperfect according as they are neerer or farther off from the Soveraigne degree of perfection or are distant from the chiefe degree of Heate or Whitenesse Among creatures therefore that is the better which commeth most neere to the chiefe or primary Goodnesse But this Soveraigne Goodnesse what is it else but God who is Goodnesse it selfe For as in the order of efficient causes so in degrees of Vertue and Perfection there can be no procedencie to what is infinite but it must needs be that there must be some chiefe and primary Perfection Adde againe to this what all the World confesseth that it is impossible that any thing should make it selfe for if any thing could make it selfe wee must necessarily then conclude it to haue beene before it was for to doe doth presuppose to be since therfore the heaven could not forme it selfe it must bee formed by some one else who must truely be both of Soveraigne Power and of infinite Wisedome for to so great a worke he had neither patterne whereby to imitate no materialls ready wherewith to worke nor Iourneyman to helpe him For if these had then beene it would bee againe demanded who had created him his Matter or his Men who had

proportion betwixt a finite faculty and an infinite object yet those holy instructions are not to bee neglected which present themselues unto the creature concerning God or which the power of the understanding hath attained by meditation neither are the naturall Sparkes of the knowledge of God to be smotherd in us but to be awakened and blowen up that from them our loue to God might be inflamed For we loue not things unknowne but from the knowledge of good the loue and desire of enjoying it doth increase And although there be no Genus of God that is Synonimall or fully able to define him and although there be no specificall difference yet there is a Genus which is called Analogicall and a Difference too although but by way of Negation as when wee say that a Beast is a creature that is not reasonable both which Genus and which Difference being apprehended by the understanding as proper Qualities doe conduct our minds unto some knowledge of God I am of opinion most aptly and as farre as Mans capacitie is able to conceiue that God may be thus defined God is the first the most chiefe and most perfect Being from whom there floweth and dependeth all Entity and Perfection For other things which are his Attributes as his Eternity his Simplicity his Wisedome and of like Nature are all contayned under this word of chiefe Perfection I say that not onely every Being proceeds from God but every Entity doth ever and altogether depend on him for God doth giue unto his creatures both their Being and their life after the same manner as the Sun doth communicate his beames which doe so flow from him as they are alwayes depending on him who should he but a little hide his face incontinently the Light would cease and his beames vanish away which the Psalmist doth imply If thou hidest thy face they are troubled if thou takest away their breath they dye and returne unto their dust Psal 104. Moreover although wee cannot in mind conceiue or in words expresse the divine perfection neverthelesse wee may after a manner shaddow it forth This word Perfect is taken many wayes commonly a Worke is said to be perfect when it is finished or accomplished as a house where the Workeman hath no more worke to doe or a booke to which the Author hath put his last hand God is not said to be perfect in this manner for this perfection proceeds to perfection from imperfection of which there never any was in God That also is said to be perfect that wanteth nothing by which it may attaine the end to which it was ordained In which sense all the workes of God are in their kinds perfect and Momus himselfe can find nothing in them that he might taxe either for excesse or for default neither is God said to be perfect after this manner for he is not ordained to any particular end who is himselfe the chiefe End of all things But so wee doe say God is perfect as no perfection is wanting to him for every thing is said to bee imperfect which is in potentiâ passiuâ in a passiue power to some Act but God is a pure Act and in him there is no power that is passiue Wherefore it must needs ensue that whatsoever perfection and vertue there is in the creatures it must not onely flow from that primary perfection which is in God but must also bee included in it For as the reasonable soule comprehends the vertues of the soule Sensitiue and Vegetatiue and all the power of inferior Magistrates is included in the power of the Prince and as humane Discourse is contained in the Angelicall Intellect so all the perfections of the Creatures are inclosed in the perfection of the Creator But those Perfections of the Creatures are excepted which are either the remedies of euills or the Helps and Aydes of Imperfections for to attribute such perfections to God is rather a reproach then Praise as for example The motionary faculty whereby the liuing Creature mooues it selfe by a locall Motion is a perfection in the Creature which is not a perfection in God because this perfection is but the crutch of imperfection for because the Creature cannot bee in the same time in many places the motionary faculty is given to him which in some sort doth remedy this imperfection for by it successiuely at least and in diuerse times the creature may bee in diuerse places This perfection must not bee look'd for in God for seeing hee is every where there is no place for him to mooue vnto So to discourse and frame a Sillogisme is a perfection indued by God into the mind of Man a searcheresse out of Truth and by things more knowen working out a Way to things vnknowne this perfection seing it is the remedy of Ignorance and a helpe vnto our weakenesse it would bee prophane to look for it in God who disputeth not nor makes it his labor to find out the truth nor collecteth one thing by another for all things are knowen to him alike and hee vnderstandeth all things in one pure and simple thought there is no need that God should turn the eye of his Vnderstanding to those things which hee would know for he but beholds himselfe and finds in his owne mind the eternall Modell of all things and in his will the efficient Cause of all Events And as a man that had his whole body beset with eyes or was all one eye had no need to turne his body or his eyes to behold the things that are about him for in one and the same point of time whithersoever hee casts his eye all objects round about him present themselues vnto him with an equall viewe so seeing that one thing cannot bee more present to God then another there is no need that he should turne about the eye of his vnderstanding or behold things in a succession of order or should bring a new intention of the mind to attaine new knowledge for there is not any thing that is or can bee new vnto him So the memory of things past and foresight of things to come are the Vertues and Perfections of a Man that is borne in time and whose Actions and Duration are measured by time which vertues God hath endowed him with that hee might preserue the instructions receiued and eschew things hurtfull These perfections seeing they are the remedies of Imperfections and the aydes of our Infirmities cannot bee attributed to God but vnproperly and what in this Subject wee attribute to God which belongs to man it must bee vnderstood in a sense most agreeable to the Majestie of God for neither the memory of things past nor the conjecture of things to come can bee said to bee in God because all things are present to him the maker of Time is before time and above it neither is his duration measured by it for as the Infinitenesse of God doth not onely consist in this that hee is not