Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A37276
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An anatomy of atheisme a poem / by a person of quality.
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Dawes, William, Sir, 1671-1724.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing D453; ESTC R16785
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11,428
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40
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needs remain Unsolv'd and Death alone can make it plain A wise Man therefore would believe it here That after Death he may no Danger fear Our Faith is purchas'st at no mighty cost And we shall sleep securely if 't is lost But if the sad event shall prove a God Then will the Disbeliever feel his rod. Why then will Men their wisedom thus betray And by their folly cast themselves away In things of lesser moment and concern They can with ease the safest way discern But when th' Immortal Soul is made the stake With what contentedness the Fools mistake If we on Roads of War and Danger go And are not sure but we may meet our Foe Wisely we arm against the worst event Least made his Slaves we should too late repent This differs from our case in Terms and Name But in reality is just the same Belief of God our Souls securely arms And makes them proof against all future harms But if unarm'd we venture to appear And find a God 't will cost us very dear Darkness and Horrour Pain and Misery Will be our doom to all Eternity Belief like Weapons we about us bear To guard our selves from danger and from fear Thus arm'd we hope to find a God at last After a life in peace and quiet past If we succeed as there 's no doubt we shall We save our Ruine and Eternal fall If not the worst event that we can have Is to lye sensless in the silent Grave For the third sort who by their lives dethrone That God whom they for fashions sake will own These do more mischief in the World than those Who do with open force a God oppose 'T is much the better and the wiser way To disallow a God than disobey Better to own no Lord than this our Lord betray Some Men with fatal prejudices blind Seek for a Deity they cannot find And this is some though but a bad excuse And no way fit for Men of sense to use But they who in their sinful courses live And yet protest they do a God believe Speak contradictions and must either think That God will at their sin and lewdness wink Which plainly shows their thoughts are much amiss And that they had as good not own God is Or else they only play the Hypocrite And only say they do believe aright But in their hearts they sawcily defye The Pow'r and Justice of a Deity Of all the three then our last spark is worst And consequently will be most accur'st For him the flames of Hell if it can be Shall still be rais'd to a more quick degree As a reward for his Hypocrisie Thus have the Atheists been distinctly try'd The first for rashness Impudence and Pride For his abuse of Natures Sacred Laws And holding off when Reason prov'd the Cause The second for his want of Wit to chuse The safest way the dangerous refuse The Third for his prophane Hypocrisie And boldly telling a Religious lye The Tryal done I have no more to say Their next Appeal is on the Judgment-Day When to their shame God will his pow'r exert And in their ruine will himself assert Glory be to God Three sorts of Atheists The fu st sort confused The frame of the world proof of a God The world not made by chance The World not eternal Vide Bishop Pearson on the Creed page 58 59. Vide the same place Vide l. 5. De rerum naturâ Miracles another proof of a God See Dan. chap. 3. See Exod. chap. 7. See Exod. ch 14. See Dan. ch 6. See Joshua ch 10. See 1 Kings ch 18. As in our Saviours Passion Gifts of Prophecy another proof of a God See Gen 15. 13. 1 Kings 13. 2. Isaiah 44. 45. Vide Herod l. 1. Vide Herod l. 7. Vniversal consent our last proof of a God The Second sort of Atheists confuted The Third sort of Atheists confuted
the World corruptive is And since it is decay'd and wasts so fast This plainly shows it has not long to last Immortal things Immortal Beauty hold Unchang'd and sure of never growing old Whereas the World does almost ev'ry day Give us fresh Instances of it's decay Unhappy Naples more than half o'rethrown This dismal Truth unwillingly must own And Aetna's flames show by their constant rage The World is come into her latest Age. Nothing from ruine can her Fabrick save But nodding now she bends tow'rds her Eternal Grave Thus does the World most evidently prove The Being of that God who sits above For since from various reason's we infer The World's Nativity as plain and clear By reason cast the Atheists quit the Field And that the World is not Eternal yield If not Eternal then it once was made If made it certainly a Maker had Now all Men this must for an axiom take That nothing can it self produce or make For that this contradiction would implye At the same time to be and not to be Some outward cause we therefore must explore Either of Chance or an Eternal Pow'r The World 's too well proportion'd and design'd To be the Work of Chance ill-shap'd and blind God for her Maker she alone will own And throws her self at his Allmighty Throne Nor does the World and its harmonious frame The being of a God alone proclaim But Moses by his wonder-working Rod Gives us another proof there is a God And each effect surpassing Natures Laws Bids us look out for a superiour Cause In vain Philosophers their Wisdom try And stretch poor Nature to Extremity To make her solve each wond'rous Mystery To Nature's Master they must often go If of Effects they would the Causes know How strangely must the Atheist look to see The fire renounce its burning quality And things which nat'rally increase it's rage Clam its fierce scorchings and it's heat asswage Yet thus it 's Nature did the fire foregoe For Shadrach Meshach and Abednego In vain the Tyrant did their Ruine threat And sev'n times o're his stubborn Furnace heat Safe in the midst o' the flames the Brethren stood And cool as Summer Breezes from the Wood. What pow'r of Nature can transform a flood Of Chrystal Waters into Scarlet Blood Or make the Sea without its Motion stand And in a moment turn to Solid Land Yet thus in Antient Days did Moses show The pow'r of God above by Miracles below What strength of Art can quicken and restore A Man when dead to what he was before Infuse new Life into his Frozen Veins And a new Soul to his forsaken Brains Yet this did our all-pow'rful Master do Who rais'd from Death himself and others too Can Nature say awake ye Dead arise Shake off your Sleep lift up your drowsie Eyes I will again once more your Corps inspire Kindle your Breath with my enliv'ning fire And give your Soul back to it 's Antient Friend Your Soul which when I please I take or lend No she with Modesty withdraws her head And Challeng'es no pow'r to raise the dead But owns she has a Lord whose awful sway She must not cannot dares not disobey When he commands she leaves her wonted way He makes the Water Earth and Air and Fire When he sees fit against themselves conspire Makes Lyons though by Nature fierce and wild Fearful and gentle as a new-born-Child He makes the tender Lambs securely sleep Whilst hungry Tygers do the Sheep-folds keep Let him but speak and Nature stops her course Abates her pace and slackens all her force At his command the Sun and Moon stand still And give his Servants light their Foes to kill A word from him makes the Clouds cease to rain Another Word makes them distil again Tho' Nature saith our Noons are always bright Yet let him speak and there shall be no light But Day it self shall be transform'd to Night Thus does each Miracle in Letters plain And at a mighty distance to be seen Show the great name of Nature's Sacred Lord By us with Love and Reverence ador'd To him the Atheist must his Tribute give From whom alone he borrows leave to live His being sure he can no more deny Of which so many Wonders testifie The Miracles stand fix'd in History Stamp'd by Traditional Authority To which no Man of sense will give the lie The Credit of the World is much too strong To be beat down by any single Tongue The facts he therefore cannot well disown Unless he has resolv'd to Credit none But what he sees to believe nothing told Or think no Truth but what his Eyes behold If not the Facts we take our strength from thence And thus we argue for our Consequence If Works are done which Natures pow'r exceed We in some higher pow'r these wond'rous works must read The Gifts of Prophecy as plainly show There must be one to whom those Gifts we owe. Man's knowledge is too shallow to foresee What shall to Morrow or the next day be Much more to tell a Thousand years events Which all depend on future accidents And lay those things before us bright and clear And just as if they were already here Which shall not come to pass till the next Age Shifts Scenes and brings a new one on the Stage Yet thus of old did Abraham foretell That his poor Off-spring should in Aegypt dwell And for the space of many a tedious year The toilsome Yoak of cruel Pharaoh bear Exactly did the sad Event agree With what had been foretold in Prophecy Thus was Josiah's Birth and Reign of old Some hundred years before they came foretold And thus Isaiah told as he foresaw That Cyrus to the Persians should give Law That by his Mighty Arm the Jews should rise And tho' then Slaves subdue their Enemies And that the matter might be free from doubt By Name he mark'd this Glorious Monarch out Thus all the Prophets did praesig nifie The Blessed Jesus his Nativity And laid each Circumstance so nicely down That by the Character the God was known If all these Prophecies are not fulfill'd We are content with shame to quit the field But if they are as justly we believe The Atheist must be damn'd beyond reprieve For they who shut their Eyes and will not see The pow'r of an all-knowing Deity Who looks with ease into futurity No Mercy must expect or Pity pray When the Great God shall keep his Judgment-Day Man they confess is of too short a sight To fee things future sown in depth of Night Some nobler pow'r they then of course must grant Which does no measure of fore-knowledge want This pow'r is God whom rashaly they deny They know not upon what account or why But some perhaps will call for Instances Out of Prophance and Common Histories Tho' without reason they this favour ask Yet I most willingly accept the Task And here the Antient Oracles afford