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	know_v	reason_n	2,948	5	4.7939	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23638	Judicial astrologers totally routed, and their pretence to Scripture, reason & experience briefly, yet clearly and fully answered, or, A brief discourse, wherein is clearly manifested that divining by the stars hath no solid foundation ... published by J.A. for publick good.	Allen, John, 17th cent.	1659 (1659)	Wing A1032; ESTC R14258	18,944	38

in vain since they are so manifestly cherished moved and governed by them That the Sun is the cause of light and heat and that by its accesse and recesse annually it doth introduce the Series and Vicissitude of seasons that it doth procreate Plants and Animals and in particular men according to that common saying Sol homo generant hominem that it doth extract Vapours from the earth which become the matter of rain of winds and the like That the Moon doth fill and empty all shel-fish the bones of animals the brains of Conies and hath great power over all moist bodies and especially the Sea whose Tides are conformed to her Motion Lastly That there are certain influences by which not only these two principal Luminaries but also the other lesser ones exercise their vertues upon sublunary bodies For since the stars ought not to be conceived idle and ineffectual and that there are some certain effects which cannot be referred to any other causes but them as the critical mutations of diseases and the inequality of seasons c. And this is the sum of what our Astrologers alledge for support of their pretence and whereby they study to endear their art and prepare the minds of men for the more smooth and easie admission of what they afterward impose with prodigious confidence and indeed what they urge concerning the Sun and Moon seems so plausible that judicious men at first are drawn diligently to listen unto what they say concerning that thinking they would proceed to prove the rest of their suppositions with the like evidence not suspecting that upon such specious foundations they should so soon erect nothing but ridiculous Fables and wild absurdities But alas how far are they from making the members of their artificial body respondent to the head of it but they have no sooner laid down this ground but with admiration we may see they instantly run out to such super-structures which have no solidity nor strength either from experience or reason Indeed I cannot but wonder and blush when I observe the first writers of this art Ptolomy Fermicus and Manilius after they have begun their discourses seriously and with gravity beseeming Philosophers and men professing the severity of reason in a moment to fall upon meer childish toyes and old wives dreams It is very dishonourable for learned men by the pretext of such Positions as are generally confessed so to impose upon the credulity of their Readers and would make them believe that these fopperies which they intend to foist in afterwards were of the same evidence and certainty with the premises Yea it is not only dishonourable but odious and detestable to delude men by drawing such a consequence as really is no consequence that the Sun doth vary the seasons of the year and the Moon fatten shell-fish in her Full and make them lean in her Wane this common experience will aver for a truth but doth experience attest the like of the twelve Signes in the Zodiack and of their several degrees and the Planets positions in the twelve Houses with their aspects one towards the other adding the influence of the fixed Stars to them Certainly no nor can any of our Astrologers by observation shew any one of the least effects that ought to be referred to this or that particular Constellation or Star rather than to any other cause that is sublunary What then have they any reason to flee unto No doubtlesse none at all since all reason resteth on experience and of that here can be none and all that can be inserted is this that each Luminary being a Lucid Body doth in proportion to his Orbe enlighten warm and work such effects as arise from such light and heat I add that forasmuch as the Stars are general Causes only in respect of sublunary things I may well demand a reason why any singular effect may not be ascribed to some singular cause here below where are such multitudes of natural and convenient Actives and Passives rather than to those remote ones the Planets and fixt Stars Instance When we give an account of the causes of odours in compound Ointments we refer one kind of smell to the Roses another to Jasmine a third to the Orange flowers and no particular smell to the Oyl which is the common matter of the composition and the cause of the fragrancy neither to one nor to the other of the Ingredients as for example in a Garden this Plant groweth here and not there and this there and not here we refer it to their seeds which were sown in those places where each one groweth not to the water where with they are irrigated which is only a general cause of the growth of the Plants and indifferent nourishment to each sort So are we to Philosophise concerning those effects that are ascribed to Heavenly Bodies For since the heat of the Sun for instance is general why it should harden clay and soften wax is to be referred to the different dispositions of those bodies not to any various efficacy in the Suns heat and why the Sun produceth a Plant in this place and not an animal an animal in another place and not a Plant this is to be referred likewise to the vertue of the seed which is plantary in one place and animal in another The same may be said of other things that arise from the influence of the Suns heat as for example the Sun raiseth Vapours from this part of the Earth and not from another because in one part is moisture in another none One year it raiseth more vapours than in another because one year yields more moisture than another one year the exhalations are healthy and good another infectious and Pestilential because of the different matter from which they are drawn Hence we learn that since it is besides all reason when there may be many causes of any particular effect without the concurrence of all which that effect will not follow for us to think it sufficient to our Prognostication of that effect absolutely and positively that we know any one of all these various causes that must concur to the production thereof it must be likewise besides all reason when besides the stars there are other the Inferiour causes that must conspire to the production of particular Effects for any man to foretell the contingency of those effects only because he knows but generally the influx of the stars but not any of the other inferiour particular causes that are required thereunto again when there are some effects which have no dependance at all or what is exceedingly obscure upon the stars but a manifest and necessary dependance upon sublunary causes I would willingly know what reason there is why we should not rather have recourse to those sublunary and particular causes than to those superlunary and general ones the stars thus when grounds manured and enriched by compost do yield more plentiful crops of come than before It