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	final_a	material_a	2,518	5	8.7678	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59239	Of devotion By J. S.	Sergeant, John, 1622-1707.	1678 (1678)	Wing S2585A; ESTC R220098	48,774	178

nothing but true deliberate or reflecting Reason teaches that Contraries belong still to the same Subject and therefore Devotion being an Affection of the Will Sloth must needs be so too And besides 't is evident that all Intellectual Vices are defects of the Understanding-Power that is Error or Ignorance as on the contrary all its Perfections are Knowledges of Truths But there is no kind of shew that Sloth should formally consist in Ignorance or Error or Devotion in Knowledge since they who have much Knowledge may withall be very Slothful and those who have very little may be very Devout very ready and very constant in the performance of all Christian Duties to their Power § 2. Hence follows in confirmation of the former Doctrine that as long as the Intention to pray persevers sincere there can be no sin of Sloth nor ground of scruple of not having pray'd as one ought For so long the Will is not faulty and so there is no moral defect nor sin at all in a Prayer no better performed but all the imperfection in it springs either from Nature or circumstances indisposing the Fancy or perhaps from want of skill or information in the Understanding Power how to go about one's Prayer which is so far a fault as there is negligence in the will to use due means to attain so requisit a Knowledg Wherfore in case any one doubts whether he have behav'd himself negligently carelesly or distractedly in his prayer he must consider well whether he intended that carelesness or those distractions For if he did not 't is evident it happen'd besides his Intention and so was no moral fault § 3. But yet this word Intention is equivoral and may be mistaken There are who think they do great matters if for Example they make as they call it an Intention in the morning of spending the following day in vertue and the service of God when perhaps they never think of God or vertue after This is but deceipt and 't would be no better to use the formality of making an act fancy'd to be an Intention of praying before Prayer and then spend the time of Prayer in a free and uncheckt entertainment of distractive suggestions § 4. To understand the business we must remember that every Action has a Finall as well as an Efficient or Material and Formal cause and that a man can no more act without a Why then a What. This End when we know what we do is foreseen and the Actor means or intends it So that the Intention is woven into the Action and a kind of part of it as if I go down or up stairs I intend to be at the bottom or top nor can it happen otherwise if the action be rational and accompany'd with Knowledg And if any action be done otherwise as when people walk or do other things in their Sleep or with a perfect Inadvertence it is not counted a Human Action In this sence as no Action can be without an Intention no more then without an End so neither can the Intention be without the Action For 't is as I said before a kind of part of it and we should laugh at him who would perswade us he had an Actual Intention of being at the bottom of the stairs yet voluntarily stay'd at the top But as the understanding sees things to come as well as past and present it may see what is like to follow from an Action before the Action it self and from that sight resolve or reject it and may resolve for the future as well as present time and so intend before she acts And in this sence Intention may be both before and without Action which before it come to be executed the Intention may possibly change Intention is taken in this notion by those who amuse themselves with making artificial Intentions before hand For plainly they intend for the future and when the time comes do nothing often-times of what they intended and remain deluded Now I understand Intention in the former sence that is for such an Intention as accompanies the Action and needs no formal endeavours on our part to make it Since nature will joyn it to the Action though we should endeavour never so much the contrary For it is altogether as idle to imagin he who knows what he does can have a not-Intention to go down Stairs who actually goes down as that he has one I mean for the present who stays above Wherfore since this kind of Intention cannot be sever'd from the Action 't is cleer that who thus intends to pray truly prays though never so many distractive thoughts interrupt and confound his Action Neither are they unless he voluntarily admit and mean to think of such things properly Actions of his but rather Passions or Sufferings For as the Eye cannot chuse but see what is represented to it nor hinder it self from transmitting to the soul what it sees nor the soul from perceiving what is transmitted so neither can the soul hinder her self from receiving the impressions made by the inward stroaks of fluttering Fancies nor those impressions from having their Effect but is in both cases more passive than active and doth not so much do any thing as hath somthing done upon her SECT 3. Remedies against Sloth § 1. TO return to the matter in hand All that can be said of this dryness and disgustfulness in Prayer caused by the not complying of the inferior part of the Soul with the superior is this that 't is a Disposition and indeed Temptation to the sin of Sloth § 2. By that Tediousness It first tires then discourages and after frights us till at last it gains so much upon us as to make us yeild our selves over to a neglect sometimes omission of customary decent or ohligatory Prayers and the same may be said in some proportion of our yeilding to those Difficulties which oppose our exercising other devout Acts. Here then it is that a devout Christian soul must faithfully fight Gods Battel and never consent for want of gust or for feeling disgust to omit her Devotitions § 3. One of the best weapons she has to defend her self is upon consideration of what has been and more what will be said to settle a firm judgment that this state of Distraction is no ways faulty This judgment would be made not at the instant of Prayer for then 't is to be put in practise and the Prayer exercised by it and so is needful to be had already not then to be gotten but at some fit season before hand when the Fancies are most calm ' and the soul can act with most cleernes and force And when 't is once made let the soul be sure to act steadily according to it and pray on how strongly soever Disgust or Dryness or whatever Engin the Devil chuses to imploy may tempt her to the contrary A little Resolution will compass this assisted with the Reflexion how unreasonable it is to