Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	wonder_n	wonderful_a	work_v	17	3	5.9528	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70179	A blow at modern Sadducism in some philosophical considerations about witchcraft. To which is added, the relation of the fam'd disturbance by the drummer, in the house of Mr. John Mompesson, with some reflections on drollery and atheisme. / By a member of the Royal Society..	Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.	1668 (1668)	Wing G799; Wing G818; ESTC R23395	62,297	178

cast out Devils by Beelzebub in his return to which he denies not the supposition or possibility of the thing in general but clears himself by an appeal to the actions of their own children whom they would not task so severely And I cannot very well understand why those times should be priviledg'd from VVITCHCRAFT and Diabolical compacts more than they were from Possessions which we know were then more frequent for ought appears to the contrary than ever they were before or since But besides this There are intimations plain enough in the Apostles Writings of the being of Sorcery and VVITCHCRAFT St. Paul reckons Witchcraft next Idolatry in his Catalogue of the work● of the flesh Gal. V. xx and the Sorcerers are again joyn'd with Idolaters in that sad Denunciation Rev. XXI viii and a little after Rev. XXII xv They are reckon'd again among Idolaters Murderers and those others that are without And methinks the story of Simon Magus and his Diabolical Oppositions of the Gospel in its beginnings should afford clear conviction To all which I adde this more general consideration 3. That though the New Testament had mention'd nothing of this matter yet its silence in such cases is not argumentative Our Saviour spake as he had occasion and the thousandth part of what he did and said is not recorded as one of his Historians intimates He said nothing of those large unknown Tracts of America nor gave he any intimations of as much as the ●●●●…nce of that numerous people much 〈◊〉 did he leave instructions about their conversion He gives no account of the aff●●●s and state of the other world but only 〈◊〉 general one of the happiness of some and the misery of others He made no discovery of the magnalia of Art or Nature no not of those whereby the propagation of the Gospel might have been much advanced viz. the Mystery of Printing and the Magnet and yet no one useth his silence in these instances as an argument against the being of things which are evident objects of sense I confess the omission of some of these particulars is pretty strange and unaccountable and concludes our ignorance of the reasons and menages of Providence but I suppose nothing else Thus Sir to the FIRST But the other pretence also must be examined 2 Miracles are ceast therefore the presumed actions of Witchcraft are tales and illusions To make a due return to this we must consider a great and difficult Problem which is what is a real Miracle And for answer to this weighty Question I think 1. That it is not the strangeness or unaccountableness of the thing done simply from whence we are to conclude a Miracle For then we are so to account of all the Magnalia of Nature and all the mysteries of those honest Arts which we do not understand Nor 2 is this the Criterion of a Miracle that 't is concluded beyond all natural powers for we are ignorant of the extent and bounds of Natures sphere and possibilities And if this were the character and essential mark of a Miracle we could not know what was so except we could determine the extent of natural causalities and fix their bounds and be able to say to Nature Hitherto canst Thou go and no further And he that makes this his measure whereby to judge a Miracle is himself the greatest Miracle of knowledge or immodesty Besides though an effect may transcend really all the powers of meer nature yet there is a world of spirits that must be taken into our account And as to them also I say 3 Every thing is not a Miracle that is done by Agents supernatural There is no doubt but that Evil spirits can make wonderful combinations of natural causes and perhaps perform many things immediately which are prodigious and beyond the longest line of Nature But yet These are not therefore to be called Miracles for They are SACRED WONDERS and suppose the POWER to be DIVINE But how shall the power be known to be so when we so little understand the capacities and extent of the abilities of lower Agents The Answer to this Question will discover the Criterion of Miracles which must be supposed to have all the former particulars They are unaccountable beyond the powers of meer nature and done by Agents supernatural and to these must be superadded 4. That they have peculiar circumstances that speak them of a Divine original Their mediate Authors declare them to be so and they are alwayes persons of Simplicity Truth and Holiness void of Ambition and all secular Designs They seldom use Ceremonies or natural Applications and yet surmount all the activities of known nature They work those wonders not to raise admiration or out of the vanity to be talk't of but to seal and confirm some divine Doctrine or Commission in which the good and happiness of the world is concern'd I say by such circumstances as these wonderful actions are known to be from a Divine cause and that makes and distinguisheth a Miracle And thus I am prepared for an answer to the Objection to which I make this brief return That though WITCHES by their Confederate Spirit do those odde and astonishing things we believe of them yet are they no Miracles there being evidence enough from the badness of their lives and the ridiculous ceremonies of their performances from their malice and mischievous designs that the POWER that works and the end for which those things are done is not Divine but Diabolical And by singular providence they are not ordinarily permitted as much as to pretend to any new sacred Discoveries in matters of Religion or to act any thing for confirmation of Doctrinal Impostures So that whether Miracles are ceased or not these are none And that such Miracles as are only strange and unaccountable performances above the common methods of art or nature are not ceas'd we have a late great evidence in the famous GREATRAK concerning whom it will not be impertinent to adde the following account which I had in a Letter from the Reverend Dr. R. Dean of C. a person of great veracity and a Philosopher This learned Gentleman then is pleased thus to write The great discourse now at the Coffee-Houses and every where is about Mr. G. the famous Irish Stroker concerning whom it is like you expect an account from me He undergoes various censures here some take him to be a Conjurer and some an Impostor but others again adore him as an Apostle I confess I think the man is free from all design of a very agreeable conversation not addicted to any Vice nor to any Sect or Party but is I believe a sincere Protestant I was three weeks together with him at my Lord Conwayes and saw him I think lay his hands upon a thousand persons and really there is some thing in it more then ordinary but I am convinc'd it is not miraculous I have seen pains strangely fly before his hand till he hath chased