Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	holy_a	scripture_n	word_n	2,805	5	4.1192	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29780	Miracles, work's above and contrary to nature, or, An answer to a late translation out of Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus, Mr. Hobbs's Leviathan, &c. published to undermine the truth and authority of miracles, Scripture, and religion, in a treatise entituled, Miracles no violation of the laws of nature.	Browne, Thomas, 1654?-1741.	1683 (1683)	Wing B5062; ESTC R1298	42,132	76

as an abettor of the contrary opinion Certissimum est says he à Divinâ Providentiâ pendere res omnes cujuscunque ordinis ab eâdem vera miracula edita esse It is I think a sufficient prejudice against the opinion which he produces these Authors to insinuate and patronize or at least his judgment in the choice of his Authors that two out of three declare flatly against him in that Point Yet 't is possible that as he produces them here they may both better consist with him and Spinoza than with themselves This therefore comes to be examined and will lead us gradually to give a particular Answer to each part of the whole Work We begin therefore with the Premonition to the Reader he there with Mr. Burnett What he takes from Mr. Burnett is out of the eleventh and last chapter of the first book of his Theory Mr. Burnetts Words are these In eâ sum equidem sententiâ Authores Sacros cùm de rebus Naturalibus Sermones habent c. Upon these the Translator thus varies in the first Words of his Premonition It is the judgment of most of the Ancient Fathers of the Christian Faith and of the most learned Theologues of the Moderns that the Authors of the Holy Scriptures when they speak of Natural things c. And so goes on with the rest of that Page which he translates more faithfully what he designed in this amplification whether to amuze his Reader oblige Mr. Burnet or to make a fair shew of his own great reading I shall not enquire The Summ of what he has out of Mr. Burnett is this That the Authors of the Holy Scriptures where they speak of Natural things design only to excite Piety and Devotion in us not to improve us in the knowledg of Nature That agreeably to this Design they explain the visible Works of God in a manner suitable to the received opinions of the vulgar they wrest the general causes and ends of the whole Creation in favour of the Peoples prejudices as if all things were ordained only for the good and benefit of mankind they do not make mention of the ordinary train of second causes in the productions of Nature but recur immediately to God himself the first Cause Author and President of it and compendiously refer all things to his immediate Power and to his irresistible Will and Command All Mr. Burnett's design in this is to excuse himself for giving a Philosophical and Mechanical account of the Deluge and other grand Effects in the Sublunary World as the Original of the Mountains Rocks Islands Ocean Rivers c. in the Terraqueous Globe The production of all these the Scripture immediately refers to God and Divines ordinarily speak of them as Effects supernatural and miraculous viz. That God by the same powerful Word whereby he created Heaven and Earth cast up the Mountains and cut out the Channels for the Rivers and that vast cavity for the immense Ocean commanded the waters into one place and made the dry land appear And by the like command when the wickedness of man was great upon the Earth and the end of all flesh was come before him opened the Catarrhacts of Heaven and broke up the Fountains of the Deep and destroyed all mankind except eight persons by a deluge of Waters To this Mr. Burnetts Answer is That it is in no wise necessary that these effects should be conceived to have been wrought by miracle For the Scripture that it does not appear that they are recorded for Miracles there because the Scripture immediately refers effects purely Natural to God and makes no mention of the train of second causes subservient to God in their production the design of the sacred Writers when they speak of natural things being not to instruct us in the knowledg of Nature by giving us a Philosophical account of their mediate causes but to excite in us Piety and Devotion by working in our minds a true sense of the Power and Providence of Almighty God to which all things owe their original This is the intent scope and drift of Mr. Burnett's Words as they stand at home in their proper place but here they are applied to far different purposes as appears by the Conclusion the Translator draws from them when he comes to speak himself viz. That these things considered 1. We are not to admire if we find in the Holy Scripture many memorable things related as miracles which notwithstanding proceeded from the fixt and immutable order of Nature c. 2. Which is but the application of the former We ought not rashly to accuse any Man of Infidelity only because he refuses to believe that those Miracles were effected by the immediate Power of God c. Which conclusion of his 1. Is just the quite contrary to Mr. Burnett's 2. Destroys the authority of Scripture and leaves us free to disbelieve any Miracle recorded in it for such 1. It is quite contrary to Mr Burnett's Mr. Burnett's way of Arguing is this The Scripture immediately refers to God things which are purely the effects of Nature Ergo we cannot justly conclude that what effects the Scripture immediately refers to God those it records for miracles Yes says the Translator upon the same grounds we may conclude that it records them for Miracles and this too we may conclude over and above that the Scripture records such effects for Miracles which really are the Effects of Nature 2. It destroys the authority of Scripture and leaves us free to disbelieve any Miracle recorded in it for such For first it makes the Holy Scripture guilty of Imposture and that not in a small matter but such whereupon depends the authority of all the revelations made therein by God to mankind for upon the truth of those relations in Scripture wherein these Miracles are recorded as matter of Fact depends the certainty of the Divine Mission of Moses and the Prophets our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles and consequently the authority of the Doctrine which they revealed 2dly It takes away the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we have to discern whether the effect it relates be a Miracle or not The only thing whereby we can know it is from the Scriptures manner of relating it if it relates one thing for a Miracle which is not all may be for ought we know of the same Nature And so farewel both the belief of Miracles and the Scripture it self I presume that he does not play with us in a matter of this importance i. e. That he does not mean by the Scriptures relating such things as Miracles onely that it relates the production of them in such Terms as Idiots and Illiterate Persons may from thence conceive that they are super-natural Effects for then all he says will be very true but withal very impertinent but that it sets them down for Effects Miraculous and Supernatural as much as

any in the whole Bible And if he means thus I have already hinted the ill Consequences of his Doctrine and how disagreeable his Conclusion from Mr. Burnett's Principles is to that which Mr. Burnett himself draws from them and shall proceed now to shew how unnaturally it is drawn from such premises I shall not stand to make any tedious Reflection upon each particular in the summary Account which I have given above of what he has out of Mr. Burnett but I shall apply my self chiefly to the Consideration of that whereupon he seems wholly to build his Conclusion All that I shall say to the rest is this Touching the design of the Sacred Writers when they speak of natural things I grant it to be such as is there suggested And That in subordination to that Design they may be conceived to explain the visible Works of God in a manner suitable to the received Opinions of the Vulgar i. e. To speak their Sense and Dialect about Natural Things when they do occasionally speak of them and to comply therein with their common prejudices as Moses seem to do Gen. 1.16 where he ranks the Moon with the Sun as the other great light i. e. the next or only one besides of considerable magnitude speaking there agreeably to the appearance of sense and the apprehension of the vulgar grounded thereupon Yet not that they are obliged to comply with all their prejudices neither For this is one That every considerable Effect in Nature is miraculous and supernatural And the Design of the Sacred Writers does not oblige them to condescend so far to the apprehensions of the vulgar as to relate every effect for Miraculous which they conceive to be so Their Design is Not to instruct us in the knowledge of Nature but to excite Piety and Devotion in us The utmost therefore that Design will oblige them to in this regard is to make no mention of the Train of second Causes in the Productions of Nature which effectually answers the first part of their Design and to ascribe all Effects to God as their Author which as fully answers the second and nothing of all this amounts to a Relation of the Effects of Nature for Miracles as will appear immediately To the next thing That they wrest the general causes and ends of the whole Creation in favour of the peoples prejudices as if all things were ordained only for the good and benefit of Mankind I deny that the Scripture wrests the ends of the Creation for this were to make the parts of the World be Created by God for other ends and purposes than he created them for All the Scripture does is that it mentions only those ends of Nature out of many for which it is ordained in the Divine Wisdome that relate to the good and benefit of Mankind as for instance those ends only of the Heavenly Bodies That they are for lights in the Firmament of Heaven and for Signs and for Seasons and for Days and for Years yet it does not deny but that there may be many other which to consider is not pertinent to its purpose But the Principle from whence he draws his Conclusion is in the last words of what he has out of Mr. Burnett viz. That the Authors of the Holy Scriptures make no mention of the ordinary Train of second Causes in the productions of Nature but recur immediately to God himself the first Cause Author and President of it and compendiously refer all things to his immediate Power and to his irresistible Will and Command Their recurring immediately to God himself and referring all things to his immediate Power is to be understood in this sense Not that the Scripture declares these Effects to proceed from nothing but the immediate hand of God for this is to declare them to be spernatural and such then they are unquestionably But That it ascribes them only to God and makes no mention of any Train of second Causes subservient to him in their production For Instance the Scripture immediately refers the Effects of Nature to God himself in those places of the 147th Psalm where it says He giveth snow like wooll he scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes He casteth forth his ice like morsels He sendeth out his word and melteth them he bloweth with his wind and the waters flow So when God says to Noah I do set my bow in the cloud and to Samuel To morrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin These Instances are his and Spinoza's as appears p. 17th and 18th below in his Treatise And the Scripture refers these Effects immediately to God as it mentions him only as the Author of them and no other mediate cause not that it says that he alone Acts in the production of them for this were to relate them for Miracles This therefore being stated his way of Arguing will appear to be this The Authors of the Holy Scriptures make no mention of the ordinary Train of second Causes in the Productions of Nature but recur immediately to God himself c. Ergo they relate many things as Miracles which yet notwithstanding are the Effects of Nature The Connexion of this antecedent and consequent is by Vertue of this Proposition That the Authors of the Holy Scripture must be conceived to relate those Effects as Miracles which they immediately ascribe to God without mention of any second Causes subservient to him in their production The falshood whereof I shall evidently discover 1. By Instance 2. From the natural import of the words 3. From the reason of the thing it self 4. By shewing in some Instances what it is for the Holy Scripture to relate any thing as a Miracle 1. By Instance Infinite would be the number of Miracles Recorded in Scripture if this were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby we are to know what Effects are related therein as such The Scripture teaches us from the mouth of our Blessed Saviour to pray to God immediately for our daily Bread for our Food and Raiment for the annual increase of our Corn Wine and Oyle for the former and latter Rain in their Season It takes no notice of the ordinary way whereby Nature it self supplies us with these Necessaries how our Corn grows in our Fields how the Vine sends forth her Grapes how the Clouds drop Fatness But in a word refers all to God without any more ado He it says Visiteth the Earth and blesseth it He maketh it very plenteous he crowneth the year with his goodness In a word He openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenteousness Yet I suppose it were very hard to infer that the Scripture sets down all this as supernatural and miraculous That it obliges us to conceive not the Flood only but even the former and latter rain to come down by Miracle That it prompts us to expect as supernatural a

provision of our daily bread as the Israelites had in the Wilderness Elijah in Horeb when the Ravens were his Purveyours the Widow with whom he lodged whose Barrel of Meal was preserved from wasting or lastly the four or five thousand fed by our Saviour in the Gospel which I suppose was a work of Nature but related in Scripture as a Miracle because it mentions not how the Corn grew in the hands and mouths of them that did eat it 2. The Natural import of the Words disproves this conceit To be related as a Miracle is to be recorded for an effect of God's own immediate Hand and supernatural Power To be immediately refer'd or ascribed to God without mention of a Train of mediate causes is quite another thing There it is expresly or by consequence declared that the Work is above Nature here it is left in Medio without any determination from the manner wherein it is related whether it be a natural or supernatural effect of the Divine Power For instance the Scripture says in one place Thou makest Darkness and it is Night in another He sent Darkness and made it Dark In the former it speaks of the ordinary in the latter of the Egyptian darkness and both it immediately refers to God mentioning no natural causes of the one or the other Both of them it may thus ascribe to God though the one be the Effect of Nature and the other a Miracle and therefore to ascribe any Effect immediately to God is not to relate it as a Miracle 3. This will farther appear from the very reason of the thing it self The Scripture may justly ascribe to God all the Effects of Nature without mentioning any train of suborbordinate causes and yet cannot thereupon be justly concluded to relate these things as Miracles And this because first God is the Author of Nature by his Power and the Governour and President of it by his superintending Providence therefore every Effect in Nature may be justly ascribed to him as it's Author 2dly The Scriptures designs to speak of the Effects of Nature only with regard to the Power and Providence of Almighty God therefore it may justly ascribe them to him without mention of the train of natural Causes whereby he mediately produces them If then any Effect may be in this manner ascribed to God and yet he be no farther the Cause of it than as he is the Author and Governour of Nature by his Power and Providence if so then it is no just Conclusion That the sacred Writers relate any thing as a Miracle because they immediately refer it to God without meniion of the train of natural Causes subservient to him in the Production of it 4. But to give as full satisfaction as may be in this Point and withal to shew that all this notwithstanding there are some Effects so related in the Holy Scripture as that it may be justly conceived to have recorded them for Miracles I shall state What it is for the Scripture to relate any thing as a Miracle It is not enough as we have seen already that it ascribes the Effect to God as its Author nor that it immediately ascribes it to him without mention that it is produced by the mediation of second Causes For every thing proceeds from him whether it be by the course of Nature or a Work of his supernatural Power and therefore is to be ascribed to him and the Scriptures ascribing of it to God without mention any other Cause does not necessarily imply that no other Cause had any hand in the Production of it But to relate a thing as a Miracle is to relate it for an Effect of Gods own immediate Hand or an Effect above beside or contrary to Nature And this may be done two wayes 1. By express Declaration 2. By relating it in such a manner and with such circumstances as from thence we may rationally conclude the Effect to be miraculous For the first there may seem to be very few instances if any wherein we can certainly assure our selves that the Holy Scripture declares any Effect to be a Work above Nature For though it may and often does use the Word Miracle yet that being Ambiguous it may still be uncertain whether it be to be taken for any thing more than an Effect Wonderful and Surprizing indeed yet purely Natural All which notwithstanding in some places we may truly vouch the express declaration of the Holy Scripture that such and such Effects are miraculous Joh. 2.11 After the relation of our blessed Saviour's Turning the Water into Wine the Text says This beginning of Miracles did Jesus So also John 4.54 after the Cure of the Nobleman's Son This is again the second Miracle that Jesus did In these two places the Scripture does in a manner reflect upon the Works it had related and declares them to be supernatural But by the Word Miracle may possibly be meant no more than an Effect Strange and Wonderful not a Work above Nature unless we can give some certain proof of the contrary And I think this one Consideration may be sufficient to evince it The Design of the Scripture in relating these Works of our blessed Saviour is to propound them to us as undoubted Evidences of his Divine Mission Now Evidences of that they could not be unless they were Works above Nature because an Effect of Nature cannot prove Gods immediate power and presence nor consequently confirm the truth of any Prophets Commission from Heaven to reveal his Doctrine For the Scripture therefore to relate these Works of our Blessed Saviour as undoubted Evidences of his Divine Mission will argue that the Scripture where it stiles these Works Miracles Signs and Wonders must mean strictly such as exceed the power of Nature Otherwise it would impose upon our belief and oblige us under pain of Damnation to embrace a Doctrine as Divine upon such Evidences as are in no wise sufficient to confirm the Authority of the Person that reveals it And upon this Ground we might discover many more instances of Effects expresly declared in Scripture to proceed from God's immediate extraordinary Power For it holds as well in the Miracles of the Apostles as our Blessed Saviour's and in Moses's too the Scripture relating them as wrought to evidence his Commission from Heaven to institute the Law as well as those of our Saviour and his Apostles to evidence their Authority to Preach and Plant the Gospel But if there were no such express Declaration in the Holy Scripture there are yet 2. Many relations of Matters of Fact couched in such Terms as that we may justly conclude from thence that the Effects there spoken of are related as Miraculous and Supernatural As 1. Where the Effect is related as done without the use of Means So in our Saviours curing Diseases and indeed Working most of his Miracles by the Word of his Mouth turning the Water into Wine by the internal

Saviour to the Eyes of the Blind and Tongue of the Dumb-man The mention whereof in the account of these Miracles if it prove that they required Natural Causes then these were the Causes requisite these they had and these immediately produced the Effects This they could not by the force of Nature therefore by Miracle and so his Argument destroys it self But farther what if many are produced without any Circumstances at all but purely at the Word and Will of the person that works them This he says we cannot be assured of from the Scripture because there may have been some though not mentioned there he refers to Exod. 14.27 compared with Ex. 15.10 But what if the Scripture does not only not make mention of any but in a manner declares there were none So in our Saviours stilling the Storm the very Reflection that his Disciples make upon that Miracle proves that it was wrought by his bare Word and not by the Application of any Means much less Natural Before he draws his Conclusion from these Arguments he answers an Objection from Scripture viz. That Famins are said to be caused by the sins of Men and the like and Rain and Plenty restored by their Prayers c. His Answer is that the Scripture does here speak ad hominem and with the same Propriety as when it says that God is angry sorrowful repents or the like and that it is not true that any of these are the Causes of the Effects ascribed to them Here 1. Methinks he is wary in his Answer He might have granted that Famine is sent for the sins of Men and Rain and fruitful Seasons for a return to their Prayers and Repentance and yet have denied that either of these is wrought by Miracle For Nature is ordered and directed by the Wisdom and Providence of Almighty God as well as preserved and upheld by his Power and therefore his Wisdom may so direct it as often even by the Course of Nature to execute his divine purposes whether of Judgment or Mercy He sees our Actions and hears our Prayers from all eternity and therefore may as he has the whole Order of Nature before his eyes direct and determine the certain and necessary Events of it to their proper Seasons and make them Instrumental to the accomplishing of his purposes whether of shewing favour or executing wrath upon the Sons of Men. Thus therefore he need not be so strict as to deny any possibility of God's punishing us for our sins in the Order of Nature for fear lest it should betray him unawares to the concession of a Miracle Natural Causes indeed our Sins or P●ayers are not of these Effects nor yet Supernatural neither but moral only and meritorious as God upon view of either determines to punish or reward us But suppose it were not so 2. He gives but a very mean Solution of the difficulty that the Scripture speaks improperly here and in condescension to the Capacities and Opinions of the Vulgar as it does when it says that God is angry sorrowful or repents We grant the Scripture may be conceived to be obliged to speak in this manner concerning the incomprehensible Nature of God and such of his Perfections the modes whereof it is not necessary we should have explained to us how they are and act in him but yet it is not necessary that it should speak of every thing in the same manner or that every thing that it says should be shuffled off by this or the like suggestion Nothing is more natural and easie to be conceived than that God does punish or reward our good or bad Actions and that in this life and that his Justice and Wisdom will oblige him to do it as he takes upon him the Government of the World though it be very hard for the Vulgar to conceive how he does it without anger or displeasure and the contrary affections Therefore the Scripture may be conceived to speak of the one in condescention to our Capacities though yet no reason why it should be presumed to speak of the other in like manner I proceed to his fourth and last undertaking viz. To treat of the manner of interpreting the Scripture Miracles and what things are chiefly to be observed in the Relations about them Or as the Translator to shew that most Men have erred in their way of interpreting the Miracles recorded in the Holy Scripture To set us right he directs us in the reading of the Scripture-narrations about Miracles to enquire into two things 1. The particular Opinions and Prejudices of the Relator 2. The Idioms Phrases and Tropes of the Hebrew Tongue The first because generally all Historians relate the events they speak of suitable to their own Conjectures Opinions and Prejudices The other because otherwise we may from the Scripture-Style conceive some things to be related for Miracles which really are not For the first he instances in Joshua 10. v. 12 13. where the Account of the extraordinary length of that Day is given according to the common opinion of the Sun 's and not the Earth's motion For the Second in some allegorical places out of the Prophets Zachariah 14. v. 7. Isa 13. v. 10.48 v. ult By these two insinuations he would elude the force of all the clear and plain narrations about miracles in Scripture To the first and the instance he brings for it I answer the truth of the Miracle which Joshua relates is not at all prejudiced though it were true that the Earth moves and not the Sun for the course of Nature was stopped whether in the motion of the Sun or the Earth and therein consists the truth of the Miracle As to the relation of it it was not necessary either that Joshua should himself be so great a Philosopher or so far instructed by an extraordinary Revelation as to put up his request to God that the Earth should stand still and not the Sun or that the Account of it which he gives should be otherwise than according to the appearance of sense and the apprehensions of the Vulgar grounded thereupon To the second the truth of the Scripture-Miracles depends not upon any allegorical expressions in the Prophets but upon the naked Relations of matters of Fact in the Historical Writers so that though in the former we are to proceed with some Caution and not to take every thing for Miraculous which is spoken of in an high strain of expression yet in the latter we find no such danger of being imposed upon by the Tropes and Figures of the Hebrew Tongue all things being delivered in the Historical part of Scripture with the greatest plainness and simplicity I have run through the main of Spinoza's Chapter which consists in the proof of his four Propositions at first laid down What is behind is 1. An account of his different Method in this Chapter from that which he takes in his first and second Chapters about Prophecy and