Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	extraordinary_a	good_a	great_a	269	4	2.1091	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67026	The true originall of the soule proving both by divine and naturall reason, that the production of mans soule is neither by creation nor propagation, but a certain meane way between both : wherein the doctrine of originall sinne, and the purity of Christs incarnation, is also more fully cleared then hath been heretofore published / by H.W. B.D.	Woolnor, Henry, d. ca. 1640.; Palmer, Elias.	1641 (1641)	Wing W3526; ESTC R15696	103,271	336

person of our Lord Jesus Christ and that in the same moment that it was being by that union enriched w th supernaturall gifts and exalted above all men and Angels And thus also was his substance sinlesse although it was the substance of the sinfull Virgin And to conclude Ioh. 1.29 1 Pet. 1.19 thus is he the immaculate Lambe that taketh away the sinnes of the world 2. Why his conception was extraordinary Now all this was effected by the immediate working of the holy Ghost at the instant of his conception For it neither might nor could be performed after the manner of mans sinfull propagation 1. It could not be by man Because if man had ministred the matter of his humanitie after the ordinary way it should have been sinfull in part that is as man gave it to be a part of Christs person or indeavoured the subsistence of that nature in the person of the Son which nature alone would have made a person and consequently a sinner For by the law of nature in ordinary generation so much as man begets another person he begets another sinner which yet if the soule were immediatly created were so little as there could be no originall sin as we heard before So that by propagation the humanity of Christ which is the whol person so farre as man could in this cause have effected should have beene sinfull And though not meerely as humanitie yet as a nature sinfully propagated from man wherewith it was impossible the divine nature should be united Seeing therefore it could not be by man and the Virgin neither might nor could conceive alone for corruption must have no hand in it it was necessary therefore that it should be done by the supernaturall power of God And seeing it must be done extraordinarily by the immediate power of God no person was so fit for it as the holy Ghost whose office it properly concerns from the Father and the Son to consecrate and set apart for holy uses and especially to indue mens soules with supernaturall gifts therfore most of all in the incarnation of our Saviour Christ which was absolutely the most holy of all GODS externall workes And this as I am undoubtedly perswaded is the true doctrine of the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus Phil. 2.6 7 Heb. 4.15 2-6 who was like unto us in all things sin onely excepted made of the same substance both for soule and body and therefore true man and yet not sinfull He was in Adam in respect of his humanitie as well as we and yet sinned not in him as we did In the consideratiō of all which we may well say with the Apostle Without controversie 1 Tim. 2.16 great is the mystery of godlinesse Why this truth hath beene so long obscured Thus I hope I have sufficiently manifested both by Scripture and reasons drawne from them that soules are not immediately created of God of nothing but all mediately propagated from Adam yea Christs as well as ours though his after an extraordinary manner because he was an extraordinary man From all which it plainly appeareth that the holy Ghost hath not left us to wander in uncertainties concerning the soules originall but clearely enough revealed it had not men set up two false opinions one of which they thought must needs be true and neither having sure footing in the Scripture because both false the truth hath beene long obscured and both accounted doubtfull and almost curious because difficult to be knowne CHAP. XXV Naturall reasons proving the soules propagation The nature and validitie of naturall reasons HItherto wee have proved the soules propagation by testimonies and reasons drawne out of the Scripture and now wee are to proceed to naturall reasons which in worth and authoritie are to be regarded next the former they being the word of God wrought as the other is his written word the one we call the voice of nature the other the word of grace the one mediatly manifested in the creatures the other immediately revealed by himselfe For if nature be as is no lesse commonly than truly said ordinaria dei potentia the ordinary power of God as miraculous workes are his extraordinary power then by like reason it followeth that the voice of nature is the ordinary voice of God even as the divine Oracles are his extraordinary voice Now as this question chiefly concerneth nature so the resolution thereof ought chiefly to be fetched from nature whose sentence is therefore so much the more to be respected yea so much that though the Scripture said nothing yet natures testimony were in this of sufficient credit alone And if we will hearken to nature I doubt not to make it appeare that there is nothing more manifest in nature than this mediate manner of the souls propagation and when as well nature as divinite concludes for it I see not with what reason it can be gainsaid 1. Reason from the nature of reason The first naturall reason which I will produce shall be from the nature of reason it selfe which teacheth not to beleeve any thing for which wee have no reason Scripture nor experience Some things our senses teach us to beleeve as the vertues of the Loadstone for which we can render neither Scripture nor reason but only experience Some things reason teacheth us It hath neither Scripture sense nor reason 1. as that the whole conteines the parts which we would beleeve without Scriptures or experience onely by reason And some things wee receive from Scripture as the Trinitie in the Unitie which cannot appeare either by sense or reason but onely by faith 2. But none of these can manifest the soules immediate creation for it is confessed to be above sense or reason neither is there any Scripture to prove it For who ever heard of a soule newly created since the first in the beginning is it likely that God should continually do such wonderfull workes which the Scripture never spake of and whereof there can no example be given yea is it not contrary to all sense and reason that God should worke a perpetuall miracle and that the most omnipotent worke that can be and yet this onely among all the workes of God should be omitted in the Scripture If there were such a thing as this wee should neede none other Arguments to confute all the Atheists and Epicures in the world this therfore of all other should have beene revealed if it had beene so 2. From the order of nature Seeing therefore there is no divine testimony to warrant it there had need be strong reasons to make a man beleeve it Neither is it unreasonable onely but as it seemeth to me a most unnaturall opinion cleane contrary to the whole order of nature and end of all GODS extraordinary workes For although the supreame goodnesse of GOD would not content it selfe without producing more good for which cause he created the world

end and use of it is in all things naturally to worke mediately by the body For the soule is not such a strange nature dwelling in the body miraculously as some imagine but lovingly united by a sweet union and fit concordance in nature And therefore without question as the nature use end and all ordinary faculties and workes are naturally and mediately by these corporall natures so also is the originall and could not otherwise have such union and sympathy with the body But yet as the nature and workes also are some wayes extraordinary without and above all elementary natures so proportionably thereunto God hath an extraordinary and supernaturall worke in producing of it 5. The faculty of propagation seated in the soule Another reason that the soule is propagated may be because the faculty of propagation belongs as well to the soule as the body yea hath originally the chiefe seate in the soule onely For the body alone is but a dead instrument as the pen in the hand of the writer and therefore must needs be in the soule which is the first principle and principall cause of all actions unlesse wee should graunt more soules than one and disturbe yea destroy the uniforme government of nature by placing divers commanders in one body Now if the soule hath a part yea the chiefest power in propagation it were most absurd to say that all is spent in the producing of I know not what brutish thing which is neither nan not beast And seeing according to the rule of reason such as the cause is such also is the effect how can it be but the soule must produce a soule and cōsequently the whole man the whole man 6. The soule present in conception Adde hereunto that the soule doth accompany the seede and perfecteth the body from the very first conception which not onely the ancient Philosophers acknowledge as most agreeable to nature and reason whence it is that nothing is more cōmon with Aristotle Arist de● gen anim l. 1. cap. 3. than that the power of the soule is in the seed making its owne house fitly framing the bodily organs and bringing them to the highest perfection that the first constitution of the matter is capable of but even amongst our modern Philosophers and Divines it is acknowledged for such effects cannot be done without a soule as the most acute Scaliger abundantly proveth Scal. Exerc 6. Sect. 5. And if the soule informes the seede at the very instant of perfection when there are as yet no organs is it not more probable that it is mediately propagated with the seede than immediately created by GOD Yes doubtlesse Neither need any doubt how the rationall soule can 〈◊〉 the seede without organs know that the chiefe yea the only immediate organs of the soule are the spirits and these are as well in the seede as in the most perfect body The souls worke in the Embrio Although therefore there are as yet no eyes or eares for the soule to heare or see with yet there is worke enough for it to heate and coole moysten and dry and thereby to seperate and conjoine to thicken and thinne to extend and contract to make rough and smooth to harden and soften these and such other are the workes of the soule whereby it doth ordaine place number and forme the seede For though they be the prime and secondary qualities of the elements yet in such a naturall body all are do●● by the power of the soule and none of all can be done without it 7. God the efficient cause Lastly It appeareth that not nature but God is the efficient cause of the soules procreation because even elementary bodies cannot be produced without a more excellent efficient than themselves For wee see that all naturall things yea every plant that growes out of the earth besides the materiall cause the elements whereof it is compounded and the seede whence it receiveth the forme hath also an externall efficient cause which certainly is the influence of the celestiall Orbes who by causing motion gives it the first hint and power of growing And seeing the soule hath such similitude with these corporall natures that though they have not matter and forme as they have yet having a spirituall kinde of composition which for likenesse justly meriteth the name therefore as the spirituall matter and forme thereof is propagated from the parents by the seede so it must also have a spirituall externall efficient cause more excellent than it selfe which can be no other but the immediate power of God the father of spirits For as all naturall bodyes have an efficient cause correspondent to their natures which in course of nature cannot be good immediately with whose nature they have so small affinitie yea so great contrarietie but these heavenly powers with whom they have such sympathy being of the same corporall nature though of a more excellent temper so the efficient cause of our soules must needs be agreeable to their natures which cannot be the Starres which are far inferior but God who is also a spirit and of a more excellent nature than our spirits even as the Sunne is more glorious than these earthly substances betweene whom there is such sympathy that even as plants welke and fade without the force of their efficients that heavenly lampe the Sunne and the rest of those celestiall orbes but grow and flourish with them so how a soule seperated from God and one united unto his and injoying the beames of his grace is either miserable or happy we know in part but cannot perfectly comprehend CHAP. XXVIII Reasons from other considerations Rarenesse of humane conceptiō BEsides these arguments taken from the ordinary course of generation and the nature of the soule divers other probable reasons may be produced As first the often failing and indeed rarenesse of humane conception in comparison of other creatures as common experience teacheth Now if the soule be created after the perfecting of the body then the first conception and breeding beeing by the power of nature onely why shoud there not bee as much frequency and certainty in the propagation of mankind as of other creatures This rarenesse of humane conception doth intimate unto us that it is not by the power of nature alone that man is conceived in the wombe but that there is some more speciall worke of God in it than in the generation of other creatures And if it cannot be denyed but God hath such a speciall worke in the conception of man why should we not thinke that the soule hath its beginning then also rather than with reverence be it spoken to put God to a double labour and to set him twice on worke in every man generation 2. God shuld be tyed to nature And this may farther appeare not only by testimony of Scripture which makes conception to be a speciall worke of God and never mentioneth any extraordinary power in the

Why God made the world Why he instituted nature yet for as much as his essence is chiefly manifested in the vertues which are essentiall to himselfe onely and the end of all his workes is to manifest himselfe which as it is the greatest good is this greatest glory he therefore could not without disparagement to his own excellency worke alwayes immediately in the matters of his creatures as in creating new substances of nothing but onely in bringing to an higher perfection by qualifying them with his owne essentiall vertues so farre as the creature is capable and for this cause at their first creation he disposed all things in such order as they might persist of themselves without his immediate working any more in their matter or substance which order we call nature It breeds a disturbance in the course of nature Now seeing this is true in Angels and all other creatures that ever God created were it not unreasonable unnaturall too to disturbe the order of all Gods workes in exempting man onely Nay then let nature goe to wracke and every thing be done miraculously for the whole order of nature is broken and instituted in vaine And for my part I thinke that God would have rather created men together when he made Adam as he did Angels than thus to continue creating to the worlds end 3. From the end of GODS workes But it pleased the wisdome of God to make choice of this course not onely for the former reason namely because it was most fit for the excellency of his nature 1. This is a disparagement to God which might worke no more in the substāce of his creatures than needs must but also for the meanness of ours which require his working by meanes after a naturall order 2. Unfit for us proportionable to that reason he hath given us which onely our nature was capable of the better to manifest himselfe unto us 3. Against the order of grace Againe that so he might propagate his Church of mankinde successively by course of nature 4. A vaine worke against nature who thus according to his decree might and did all fall most fitly and justly in one Adam by nature as they are restored againe most fitly and justly in another Adam Christ Jesus by grace And lastly that he might not work perpetuall miracles which onely manifest his power one of the meanest of his attributes which yet is so fully manifested without it in the first creation of all things of nothing and still preserving them that it should be in vaine for him to doe so at the best and therefore certainly he doth not Arist De Caelo lib. 1. cap. 4. according to the Rule Deus natura nil frustra faciunt CHAP. XXVI Reasons from the nature of generation Man can father no more than he begets NOw by this mediate manner of Gods working I meane the rules of nature and that order which God instituted for all creatures in the beginning it is impossible that Adam should be our father and we his children if wee have not our whole man as well soule as body from him For if we receive onely the least part of our selves that is our bodies from him then he doth not beget a man that is to say a reasonable creature but onely I wot not what formelesse matter or dead carkase for such an uncouth thing is the body without the soule and though a soule comes afterward from another Obj. Ans that 's nothing to the parents for they beget onely the former and I trow it is unjust to make them father that which they never begate So that by the course of nature if man doe not beget the whole man he cannot possibly be said to be a father to the whol man No father without giving the forme This farther appeareth for that by the law of nature it is not the giving of the matter alone much lesse the matter of the body onely that makes a father for that is of the elements in the conveyance whereof the father is as it were an instrument onely but the forme is properly and immediately his which if he doe not propagate to his of-spring he can no more be a father to his children than to fleas or lice that breed of his matter but without his forme than which what grosser absurditie can be in nature 3. Else he cannot be a father to the body Besides man should then be so farre from being a father to the whole man that he could be father to no part of him For he can be but partly a father that begets but part of a creature and so not a whole father to any part And if fatherhood consists especially in giving the forme and that comes only from God he onely is a father to the whole man rather yea is not there much more reason to say God onely is our father because the soul the more noble part comes from him than that Adam is because the baser part the body and yet not the body neither but something like the body comes from him I suppose any reasonable man will graunt it without any farther reason 4. Else he can beget nothing And thus he cannot be father to our bodyes unlesse to our soules also yea it is impossible in nature that he should beget any thing without the soule For there can be no naturall body without forme and no forme of a humane body but the soule If therefore man doth not propagate the soule together with the body he cannot propagate any thing but a meere nullity viz. nothing at all 5. Else he cannot beget at all Moreover I say he cannot propagate at all for generation is not of parts but of creatures the matter and forme simply considered cannot be said to be generated but the creature consisting of matter and forme and therefore when I say the soule is generated or produced it is to be understood joyntly with the body because the whole is otherwise neither can properly be said to be generated but rather congenerated so that if man begets not both he begets not at all 6. Else man shall be inferior to beasts Againe If man cannot beget man he is by nature herein inferior to brute beasts yea even the basest creatures who yet can propagate their like both in regard of soule and body And to make man herein inferior to beasts Ob. Ans what can be more absurd Neither is it not any disparagement so long as his soule comes from an higher principle for it is not onely an indecorum and a grosse deformity in nature that man should be left destitute of that power which is given to brute beasts in so maine a thing yea even the highest degree of naturall perfection but also it casts an aspersion upon GOD himselfe as if he were overseene in endeavouring to make a creature subject to the lawes of nature of so high