Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	good_a	work_n	6,191	5	6.9192	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67626	The baptized Turk, or, A narrative of the happy conversion of Signior Rigep Dandulo, the onely son of a silk merchant in the Isle of Tzio, from the delusions of that great impostor Mahomet, unto the Christian religion and of his admission unto baptism by Mr. Gunning at Excester-house Chappel the 8th of Novemb., 1657 / drawn up by Tho. Warmstry.	Warmstry, Thomas, 1610-1665.	1658 (1658)	Wing W880; ESTC R38490	72,283	176

say but that God that sendeth his rain upon the just and unjust may also give admonitions by Dreams tending to the temporal good of those that are not gracious or unto the spiritual good of those that are yet wicked that they may be made gracious by embracing them or left inexcusable in rejecting them or for some other ends that are secret and known onely unto God at least not unto us or bringing unto such wicked men the menaces of judgement and destruction as the Dream of Pharaohs Baker and Nebuchadnezzar 5. When they come unto us being in an holy temper and disposition of spirit not being in intemperance or any other sinful distemper of mind 6 When they come in some great necessity or strait or in some extraordinary case or to admonish of some weighty matter tending to some end that is clearly excellent and good for God doth not use strenue nihil agere nor to use extraordinary means but to some great and extraordinary purpose or else in some great necessity 7. When it leaves as an holy and humble so a great and strong and certain impression upon the Mind moving it not upon carnal but spiritual Principles and motives for the Spirit may be known much by the Arguments he useth 8. When the Design hath nothing in it unmerciful or uncharitable nothing violent or rash not tending unto self ends or the satisfaction of a worldly or carnal mind 9. By the effect and consequent of it in the soul as Lessius hath it Vt si inde remaneat illustratio animi consolatio sive promptitudo ad ●bsequium Dei If there remain after an holy clearness and consolation in the Spirit an encrease of vigor and readiness to godly obedience and holiness A spiritual effect is a sign that the Spirit was at work 10. It may be known saith Lessius by a certain inward taste and relish in the Soul which I conceive is not to be expressed nor can be understood by those that have it not nor can well be described by those that have it But this Mark because it is hard to be discerned and may be counterfeited by him that knows how to appear in the form of an Angel of light is to be attended unto with great humility sobriety prudence and caution and is to be examined by the compliance that it hath with the former Marks Especially we must see that that taste and relish do not encourage us to any thing that is evil or sinful or discharge us from duty or carry us on in worldly or carnal designs or things that are frivolous and vain but where it agrees with the rest it may have the force of a strong assurance Aliter enim saith the Author before-named afficiunt mentem somnia divinitus immissa aliter aliunde provenientia 11. When all the rest being agreeable it agreeth with some work that God hath in hand and hath something in it that seems to be above humane invention and hath an excellent agreement in the several parts thereof presenting the same or several things is composed in a wise method and order and is approved by the event and exact consequence of things 12. And lastly When it comes unsought and unexpected nor hath any foundation in the fancies or apprehensions of him that dreameth it but presenting things above his knowledge or above his ordinary or usual affections Filliucus Quaest Moral Tract 24. c. 5. n 123 124. divides the Marks of Divine Dreams into two sorts 1. Those that may deceive 2. Those that are more certain Of the first sort are these 1. The truth of them in the success for the Devil may speak truth in some things that he may deceive in a greater matter 2. The profitableness of the matter of them 3. That they are of good acts and seem to induce thereunto for he doth sometimes transform himself into an Angel of light 4. That they signifie future contingencies or internal thoughts or mysteries of Faith for all these things the Devil may discover by conjectures out of the affections of men and out of the Scriptures Of the second sort are these 1. If no filthy or dishonest thing happen in the Dream 2. If it be probable that it proceeded not from natural causes 3. If it leave the mind well disposed to devotion 3. If the matter of the Dream induceth not to evill or to vanity or curiosity but to good 4. If the mind after the Dream be more apt and prompt unto good works 5 If it render the mind certain that it is from God In case of doubt he holds it safe to beleeve it to be from the Devil Secondly Those that proceed from the Devil and evil Angels are always evill at least in the design and end of them and are to be rejected Of these Baldwinus setteth down these several Marks Baldwin l. 3. c. 6. de cas cons circa divinationem whereby he would have them concluded to be from the Devil or evil spirits 1. When they tend to the investigation or discovery of things secret or future the knowledge whereof conferreth not to any profit or true or solid good but unto vain estentation of knowledge or to the commission of some evil then saith he we may well judge that such Dreams are infused by the Devil for the vanities of Science and evil designs or contrivances are the works of the Devil 2. When they tend to the leading of men from the holy Word of God to wicked doctrines or opinions which are painted over with the pretence or colour of Revelations and divine Visions when they are indeed the meer delusions of Satan transforming himself into an Angel of light Such saith he were the Dreams of the false Prophets of old tending to Idolatry and of the Anabaptists who excused their Seditions and absurd opinions and practises by Visions and Dreams and it were well that our Quakers and others that are carried away into strange Fancies and irregular practices in this our Age and Nation would try their pretended inspirations and Dreams by this rule See Deut. 13.1 c. 3. It is a sign that Dreams are from the Devil and wicked spirits when they are such as inflame and stir up men unto lust to hatred or revenge or the like evil affections whereby the Bodies also of those that sleep are defiled and wherby they are indisposed to prayer and the offices of piety to God or charity to one another 4. When Dreams come upon superstitious seeking and expectation of them Less de justitiâ l. 2. c. 45. dub 8. Quando quis saith Lessius divinationem per somnia quaerit certo modo vel ritu se componendo ad somnium hoc enim expresse est invocare Diabolum When any man doth purposely seek divination by Dreams composing himself thereunto by superstitious Rites or Ceremonies for this is expresly to invocate the Devil See Coelius Rhodig l. 27. antiquarum lectionum Thus saith he

obscurities both of the greater and lesser World but because it is that business of our life which is least understood by us and of which we are least the Masters and therefore since Ars est de difficili bono The proper subject of Art is that which is useful and difficult It requireth some skill to state this question aright And first it will be requisite to know what these Dreams are Methinks I may call them certain Meteors of the lesser World which appear in the humane night of the Microsm or little World of man Some kind of stragglings that the faculties of life have with the chains of slumber under which they are bound and as it were some breakings out from the Prison of sleep some agitations of the mind within it self raised either by some strong impressions that the Memory hath received which are so bright that they break through the cloud of sleep to the illumination and stiring up of the Fancy or imagination or by some earnest or active affections that are in the Appetite or Iraescible Faculties of the Soul which draw as it were the Pictures of those things upon the table of the imagination wherein they delight or wherewith they are moved clothed either with their hopes or fears which make their Dreams either pleasing or terrible or by some either natural or diseased and accidental predominancy of some humors The vapours whereof arising with some violence and thickness dispose themselves as it were into some kinde of figure like the clouds in the Heavens according to their several tempers and complexions or by the influence of the Heavens or temper of the Air or by the operation of evill Spirits or by good Angels or by the influence of God by his holy Spirit And this will lead us in the second place to the consideration of the several kinds of Dreams distinguished by the several causes thereof Which are thus distinguished and that very well I think Less de justitiâ l. 2. c. 45. dub 9. by Lessius in the Book before cited de Justitiae Some saith he proceed from the singular providence of God to which those may be reduced that are by the operation of good Angels Some from the procuration of the Devil or evill Spirits Some from the constitution of the Heavens or disposition of the Air. Some from previous cogitations in which I shall include those that proceed from the Affections or inclinations of the Mind And some from the affection as he calls it or as I had rather say from the temper and complexion of the Body Those that proceed from God either immediately or by the ministration of his good Angels are good and true and move to good and are sent unto good purpose and though these were more frequent and eminent in those times that went before the perfecting of the Canon of Scripture as were also Apparitions and extraordinary Inspirations yet there is no cause to doubt but that there may be and are sometimes as extraordinary divine inspirations So divine Dreams whereby God is pleased to impart himself either immediately or by the ministration of his Angels unto his people either to discover some secret or future things unto them or to encourage or give approbation unto some good things which they have in hand or design or that he would set them upon or to admonish them to avoid some things that would be hurtful unto them or displeasing unto him and these Dreams must needs be of great concernment and consideration Lessius de justitiâ l. 2. c. 43. dub 8. Deus saith Lessius illa nunquam immittit nisi ad aliquid significandum quo hominem moneat vel instruat And as they are of great concernment and consideration so it is a point of great wisdom to know them The Marks or Characters whereby they may be discerned are observed and observeable to be these 1. When they bring with them either some certain declaration of words whereby God declareth his will or that which he would reveal or admonish a man of or some certain representation which hath some likeness or analogy unto the things whereof the mind is to be informed or whereunto it is to be disposed thereby which if it do clearly and perspicuously present that which the Dream intends it is called saith Lessius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Vision if obscurely and enigmatically it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Dream So that from hence we may collect indeed three sorts of Divine Dreams First By word or clear declaration as was that of Ioseph wherein he was admonished not to forsake the holy Virgin Mat. 1.20 Matth. 2.13 19. and was warned to fly into Egypt and to return from thence Secondly By clear presentation of the object or by Vision as was that of Paul Act. 16 9. Thirdly By way of Typical or Enigmatical representation Gen. 37. Gen. 40. Gen. 41. Dan. 2. as were the Dreams of Ioseph Gen. 37. of the Butler and Baker of Pharoah Gen. 40. of Pharaoh Gen. 41. of Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 2. c. Indeed some may seem to be compounded of two Gen. 31.10 or of all these as the Dream of Jacoh Gen. 31.10 And yet this Mark of it self is something too wide to distinguish this sort of Dreams from others of the worser sort For there is none of these ways but Satan and evil Angels may by Divine Permission make use of but this will shut out confused headless extravagant Dreams from being of this sort 2. The second Mark therefore is this when they move unto that which is truly and eminently good or from the contrary evill and have nothing in them that stands opposite to the Truth or Holiness of the Word of God or sound Reason nor that addeth any thing to Gods Word as a new way of righteousness or salvation nor inclineth to exceed the limits or bounds of a mans Calling or Vocation unless in some extraordinary case and warranted by some extraordinary evidence I accumulate all these together for brevity sake Act. 16.9 See how S. Paul gathered his Dream to be from God Act. 16.9 3. When they are of a wise sober of a just and orderly frame and composure without any tincture of lightness gingling or vanity in them or in the analogy that they have unto the things which they seem to imitate or represent 4. When they come unto those that are good people Judg. 22 c. Gen. 20. Gen. 31.24 or unto others in the behalf of them as they did unto Balaam on the behalf of Israel and unto Abimelech on the behalf of Abraham and unto Laban on the behalf of Jacob as also to Pharaoh Nebuchadnezzar c. Yet I do not say that this is proprium quarto modo But it is that that when it is present concurs to the probability of the Dreams coming from God although the contrary is not concluded by the absence of this Mark for we cannot