Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	reason_n	4,119	5	4.6993	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67805	A short discourse of the truth and reasonableness of the religion delivered by Jesus Christ wherein the several arguments for Christianity are briefly handled ... : unto which is added A disquisition touching the Sibylls and Sibylline writings wherein the objections made by Opsopæus, Isaac Casaubon, David Blondel, and others are examined ... / by another hand.	Yelverton, Henry, Sir, 1566-1629.	1662 (1662)	Wing Y29; ESTC R31870	98,179	176

Ceremonies and desired to see even that which we enjoy were commanded to set apart so much of their time as a seventh part for Gods Service 't is not reasonable for us who have received more to do less but as we exceed them in mercies so we ought to exceed them in our Services Thus we may see the first Table contains in it nothing else but what he that will be ruled by reason must be forced to obey That which the second Table enjoyns us are duties that concern our selves so that these principles must appear rational even to Atheists and Scepticks because in the observation of them society is upheld propriety maintained and men are prevented for degenerating into Beasts These Commands are in number 6. the first an affirmative Precept the last 5 Negative The first five are so natural that I shall forbear to say any thing of them because he that considers them must know they are that Pale of Commutative and Distributive Justice which preserves Mankind from destroying themselves The last Thou shalt not covet seems to carry in it somewhat more then Nature teacheth but I think upon due examination it will appear otherwise For to desire another mans goods when we know we cannot have them must either put us upon unjust endeavours for them or else torture our minds that we cannot obtain them If now Nature it self teach us to do as we would be done to if we would not have others covet what we have we must not covet what is another mans The great Objection against the Naturality of this Commandment is from that Speech of the Apostle I had not known lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet I shall not repeat you many Expositions of the place Beza alone shall serve the turn What therefore saith he the Apostle addes Quid igitur subjecit Apostolus sese ex illo demum legis illius divinitus latae praecepto didicisse Cupiditatem esse peccatum non est simpliciter absolutè accipiendum sed duplici respectu viz. tam quatenus in illa divinitus latâ lege expressiùs omnis Cupiditas damnatur quàm illa naturali lege tum quod vitiofitas illa nostra Cupiditatem nostram quo apertiùs reprehendit co vehementiùs incendit that he at last learnt that Covetousness was a sin out of that precept of that divine Law is not simply or absolutely to be taken but in a double respect viz. as in that divine given Law all Covetousness is more expresly condemned then in that Natural Law then because our vitiosity by how much it openly reproves our Covetousness by so much it more vehemently enflames it But I need not press this nor any other Exposition if to love our Neighbours as our self be a natural Precept since the Apostle tells us in the same Epistle Rom. 13. v. 9. For this Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness Thou shalt not covet And if there be any other Commandement it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Thus briefly I have examined these Natural Precepts Our Saviour that great and most excellent Law-giver hath advanced them higher Now because these advancements are to be evinced out of Reason I shall not press their obedience upon the authority of the Law-giver I shall name the chief of them 1. The Commandement Thou shalt not kill Mat. 5. v. 21. to the 27. our Saviour hath advanced to this height that it prohibites the very being angry with our brother nay causless anger is forbidden though it go no further then the breast much more if it proceed to the tongue or fall into violent railings 2. The second Commandment that is advanced is Thou shalt not commit Adultery Now this our Saviour hath reduced to the very thoughts Mat. 5. v. 27.31 we must not have an adulterous thought Justin Martyr presseth the excellency of Christian Religion from this very Command 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ap. 2. p. 48. For he that indeed hath committed adultery is not only rejected by our Saviour but he that hath a desire to commit adultery he that hath but an adulterous thought 3. Another advancement is the taking away the Law of Retaliation and Revenge This doing good for evil is the excellency of Christian Religion And in this particular amongst other things Christianity vastly excelled the strictest Heathen Morality See what Aristotle saith of this point It is servile to suffer evil treating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 4. ad Nicomachum de moribus Cicero also in his Book de Inventione placeth Revenge amongst Natural Principles Ad Atticum he saith I hate the man Odi hominem odero utinam ulcisci possem Et in Antonium Sic ulciscar facinora singula quemadmodum à quibusque sum provocatus and will hate would I could be revenged And against Anthony So I will revenge every wickedness according to the manner as I am provoked Under these three heads are comprehended all the advancements our Saviour hath put upon this Moral Law and let us examine them and we shall find them highly reasonable and not only so but most excellent For that which makes the Subject most pure and most happy hath in it self the greatest reason to command obedience Now upon this foundation let us examine the two first which forbids murderous and adulterous thoughts as well as the actions Are not these thoughts the causes of the actions and is there any possibility totally to take away the effect if we remove not the cause Besides every man consists of a Soul and a body by actions the body is defiled the contamination that accrues tothe Soul is from the thoughts where every wickedness is hatched before it is produced to act Now is there not more reason to keep the Soul pure then the body in as much as it is the most excellent part of men and that if we keep out wickedness there we shall keep the body from acting it If Nature then commands us to abstain from such actions doth it not command us to abstain from the causes of them If Nature teacheth purity in the body the worser part doth it not require it upon greater reason in the more excellent part I can but touch these things The third is the taking away Revenge and not only that but a returning good for evil And is it not in it self the greatest victory to make our enemies acknowledge they have wronged us Injuries Tacitus tells us Agnitae videntur spretae exolescunt they are seen by our taking notice of them but vanish if we despise them Was this counsel for a Heathen and is it rational for a Christian to study Revenge Consider the nature of it Revenge is a desire to do another an injury because he served me so Very good reason Then if a wicked man hath robbed me I must

examining the Sybilline Verses those things which immediately before we have spoken of do sufficiently shew Thus he Concerning this diligence of Augustus about the Sybilline Verses I shall omitting many others make use only of Suetonius his Authority who in the life of Augustus hath these words Postquam vero Pontificatum maximum quem nunquam vivo Lepido auferre sustinuerat mortuo demum suscepit Quicquid fatidicorum librorum Graeci Latinique generis nullis vel parum ideonis auctoribus vulgò ferebatur supra duo millia contracta undique cremavit ac solos retinuit Sybillinos hos quoque delectu habito condiditque duobus forulis auratis sub Palatini Apollinis basi Sucton in Octavio cap. 31. Something to this purpose hath Tacitus in the fifth Book of his Annals After that he had taken upon him the High Priesthood Lepidus being dead which whilest he lived he could not endure to take away Whatsoever Books of Prophesies whether Greek or Latine that were published abroad either with none or very unlikely Authors having got together above two thousand he burnt them and only kept the Books of the Sybills and of those too choice being had he hid them in two golden presses under the Basis of the Pillar of the Palatine Apollo I have set down this the larger that every eye might perceive whether he may upon reason judge this relation of Nicephorus true however I have obtained from it what I aimed at to shew you the real reason why this Oracle ceased To proceed That the Oracle of Daphne ceased we have several sufficient Authorities of Eminent Writers who lived after the Birth of our Saviour I will begin with the Satyrist Juvenal who in the sixth Satyr of his second Book hath these words which I shall translate as near as I can reserving the sense Quicquid Dixerit Astrologus credent à fonte relatum Hammonis quorum Delphis Oraculacessant Et genus humanum damnat caligo futura What Th' Astrologer sayes because from Hammon's he Relates it as they think they presently Believe for the great Oracles do cease At Delphis and are forc'd to hold their peace Thus Mankind is depriv'd of joyful light And stands condemn'd to a perpetual night What Juvenal saith of the famous Oracle at Delphis Lucan speaks of all the Gods in the general Excessere omnes adytis sacrisque relictis Dii quibus Imperium steterat The Gods by whom this Empire stood alone Have left their Temples and from hence are gone Celsus the Epicure confesseth that the Oracles of Claros Delphos and Dodonaea are ceased Julian the Apostate saith as much for Aegypt And S. Austin in his nineteenth Book de Civitate Dei gives us out of Porphyry the answer of an Oracle which though not then ceased yet seems to intimate the lasting of it not to be long For saith Porphyry to one asking the Oracle by appeasing what God he might call back he wife from Christianity Interroganti inquit quem Deum placando revocare possit uxorem suam à Christianismo deinde verba Apollinis ista sunt Fortè magis poteris in aqua impressis literis scribere aut inflans pennas leves per aera ut avis volare quàm semel pollutae revoces impiae uxoris sensum lib. 19. de Civit. Dei Cap. 23. Apollo gave this answer By chance you may more easily write letters in waters or stretching out thy wings flye as a bird through the air then to call back the sense of thy wicked and once polluted wife These words are worth our noting they are as S. Austin says in Porphyry's Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And what a sad condition must the Devil that gave that answer suppose himself to be brought to when he says it is impossible to bring back to Heathenisme one Christian woman He could not but imagine his Dominion short that was not able to give a better satisfaction to one of his worshippers then that it was out of the power of the Gods or rather Devils to bring about a Christian to Idolatry And certainly the ruine and decay of this Oracle could not but be obvious to the eye of Porphyry from this very answer by which he might see the God that gave it saw his condition desperate and without remedy Plutarch hath written a whole Book of the cause why the Oracles ceased and because it is conducing to the Subject I have in hand I shall give you contracted the Contents of the whole Book The sum of this whole Book seems to be a conference between Demetrius and Cleombrotus which they entred in when they were at the Temple of Apollo at Delphos For one of them having rehearsed a wonder of the Temple of Jupiter Hammon moved thereby a further desire of Disputation and after some by-discourse they came to the main point namely why all the Oracles of Greece excepting that only of Lebadia ceased To which demand Planetiades another Philosopher there answered That the wickedness of men was the cause of it Ammonius another Philosopher attributeth all unto the Wars which had consumed the Pilgrims that had used to resort thither Lamprias proposeth one opinion and Cleombrotus inferring another they fall into a Discourse touching Daemons whom he verily ranketh between God and men disputing of their nature according to the Greek Philosophy Then he proveth that these Daemons have the charge of Oracles but by reason they departed out of one Country into another or dyed they ceased And to this purpose he telleth us a notable story of the death of great Pan. Ammonius confutes the Epicureans that say there are no Daemons Demetrius demands why they have this power to govern Oracles and they all agree with the Platonick Philosophy of the principal efficient and final cause of those things that are effected by reason and particularly of Divination and Praediction In fine Plutarch attributeth all to Exhalations from the Earth which breathing out hath touched the understanding of men with such efficacy as to cause them to foresee future things That as some grounds are more fertile so some places of the Earth do naturally ingender and incite Enthusiastick and divining Spirits and that this power is divine but not eternal or perdurable but by process and succession of time doth diminish and decay and that this great number of Spirits are not at once ingendred neither proceed they forward or retire backward continually but that this vertue of the Earth moveth by certain Revolutions and by that means is puffed up and after that in time it hath gathered new vapours it filleth the caves and holes so full until they discharge themselves and send them up again Whereupon it cometh to pass that the Exhalations stirred in the said Caves and desirous to issue forth after that they have been beaten back again violently assail the Foundations and stirre the Temples built upon them in such sort as if being shaken by Earth-quakes more or