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	world_n	worthy_a	13	3	6.0931	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57329	An abridgement of Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the world in five books ... : wherein the particular chapters and paragraphs are succinctly abrig'd according to his own method in the larger volume : to which is added his Premonition to princes.	Raleigh, Walter, Sir, 1552?-1618.; Echard, Laurence, 1670?-1730.; Raleigh, Walter, Sir, 1552?-1618. A premonition to princes.	1698 (1698)	Wing R151A; ESTC R32268	273,979	474

Linus Anaximenes Anaxagoras Empedocles Melissus Pherecydes Thales Cleanthus Pythagoras Plato and many others who found in the necessity of invincible Reason one Eternal Infinite Being to be the Parent of the Vniverse Whose Opinions tho' uncertain saith Lactantius shew that they agree upon one Lord Providence whether Nature Light Reason Understanding Destiny or Divine Ordination which is the same we call God For as all Rivers in the World tho' rising and running diversly fall at last in the Ocean So after all searches made by Human Capacity all Man's Reason dissolves it self in the Necessity of this Infinite Power Those who held the Matter of the World Eternal hardly deserve an Answer as giving part of the Work to God part to Fortune by which God found this Matter And were it Eternal it either fitted it self to God or he accommodated himself to it both which are foul Absurdities But suppose this Chaos or Matter had been too little for the Work God then Created out of nothing so much New Matter as was wanting or if the Matter were too much he must annihilate what was supersflous both which are alike proper to God only It could not therefore be caused by a less than an All-sufficient Power for to say it was the Cause of it self were the greatest tism Again if Matter were eternal of necessity it must be infinite and so left no place for infinite Form but the finite Form proves the Matter finite and so not eternal He who will believe the contrary eternal Death be his Reward for what Reason of Man not stupify'd by presumption hath doubted that That infinite Power of which we comprehend but the Shadow can want either Matter or Form for as many Worlds as there are Sands in the Sea if it were his Will which is the only limitation of his Works Can a finite Man a Fool and meer Dust change the Form of Matter made to his Hand and infinite Power cannot make a finite World without preexisting Matter The universal World has not shew'd us all his Wisdom and Power which cannot be bounded But others who hold the Worlds Eternity upon the ground of nothing nothing is made which is true where the Agent is finite may consider their Master Aristotle confessing That all the Ancients Decree a kind of Beginning and the same infinite and he farther saith There is no beginning of it but it is found the beginning of all things and embraceth and governs all things If we compare the universal World that Infinite it self we may say of the most unmeasurable Orbs of Heaven that they are neither quid quale nor quantum and therefore to bring Finite out of Infinite is no wonder in God's Power Therefore Anaximander Melissus and Empedocles call the World not Vniversal but a part of the Universality and Infinite Plato calls it a Shadow of God God's being a sufficient effectual cause of the World proves it not Eternal as he is For as his Sufficiency is free so is his Will no difficulty can hinder nor necessity force his Will in choice of Time Again tho' natural Agents which can work do it not 'till they are moved which argueth Change in them yet it followeth not that because God cannot be moved therefore he caused the World from Eternity For the same action of his Will which intended the World for ever from Eternity did also set down the time to effect it 'till which time he withheld it Others answer That the Pattern of the World was Eternally with God which the Platonists call the spiritual World but the Material World was not eternal but shall continue for ever which Christians understood of a new Heaven and Earth yet without new Creation of Matter They who deny the World shall have any End Reason from the Heavens which are neither Corrupted nor have any shew of Age. The little Change may argue Newness but not Perpeuity Yet to Answer Conjectures with Conjectures many of old held the Torrid Zone not habitable by reason of the Suns Heat nor the Sea Navigable under the Equinoctial Line but now we know the contrary which argueth that the Suns Heat is decayed And if little Change did prove perperuity then also many Stone-walls which have stood two or three Thousand Years and many things digged out of the Earth might seem to remain unchanged ever since the Flood and Gold probably held Created from the Beginning c. If Elementary Bodies shew so little Change no marvel if Celestial shew none And seeing inferiour Creatures are generated by help of Celestial and receive Virtue from the Sun their general decay argueth its decay also But if the World were eternal why not all things in it especially Man who is more Rational why did he not provide for his Eternity Again if there were no common order of the divers Natures how came that Difference who set the Earth in the Center the Sun and Celestial Bodies in their Courses c. If those keep their Course of their own accord to do good to the inferior Bodies they are then eternal Love yea so many Gods c. And if they be limited to their Course there is an efficient Cause which hath bounded them Now as to Nature As Aristotle hath by the Ambiguity of the Name recommended Errors and obscured God's glory in the Creation and Government of the World so his best Definition of it is but Nominal only differencing natural Motion from artificial which yet the Academicks explain better calling it Seminary strength infused into Matter by the Soul of the World and why give they the first place to Providence the second to Fate and third to Nature But be Nature what it will it cannot be the Cause of all things if it hath not both Will and Knowledge said Lactantius Nature cannot but work if Matter be present and then also it can but produce the same things except she have divers Matters to work upon said Ficinus But Nature could not chuse diversity of Matters without Understanding and Will Reason and Power why then is such a Cause call●d Nature rather than God All Men assign the highest place among all their Gods to One by Aristotle's confession de Coelo and Reason teacheth us to Acknowledge and Adore the most Sublime Power I account it therefore monstrous Impiety to confound God who disposes all things according to his own Will with Nature which disposes of nothing but as the Matter wherein it worketh will permit Nature existeth not of her self but as a Faculty infused into things existing by the supreamest Power who therefore is to be Worshipped for creating such a Nature in all things as without understanding what or how it worketh yet bringeth all things to perfection If therefore Men will rest upon that ground which all Antiquity held That there is a Power infinite and eternal all things deliver'd in Holy Scripture do as easily flow to the Proof of it as the Waters to that of a running

of Misraim in Egypt and before Iupiter Belus Son of Saturnus Babilonious or Nimrod As for the latter Grecian Iupiter he was a little before the Wars of Troy § 7. The Philosophers opinion of God Pythagoras Plato Orpheus c. believed not the Fooleries of their Times though they mingled their Inventions with Scripture Pythagoras hung Homer and Hesiod in Hell forever to be stung with Serpents for their Fictions yet Homer had seen Moses as Iustine Martyr ●heweth in a Treatise converted by Mirandula Plato dissembled his Knowledge for fear of the Areopagits Inquisition yet Augustin excused him He delighted much in the Doctrine of one God though he durst not be known of it or of Moses the Author of it as may be gathered out of Iustin Martyr Origen Eusebius and Cyril though he had from Moses what he writ of God and of Divinity as Ambrose also judged of Pythagoras Iustine Martyr observed that Moses described God to be I am he who is It is as hard to find out this Creator of the World as it is impossible if he were found to speak of him worthily said Plato who also said God is absolutely good and so the Cause of all that is Good but no Cause at all of any thing that is Evil. The Love of God is the cause of the Worlds Creation and Original of all things Apuleius saith The most high God is also Infinite not only by exclusion of Place but also by dignity of Nature neither is any thing more like or more acceptable to God than a Man of a perfect Heart Thales said God comprehended all things because he never had a Beginning And he beholdeth all the thoughts of Men said Zeno therefore said Athenodorus All men ought to be careful of their Actions because God was every where present and beholding all things Orpheus calling Men to behold the King of the World describes him to be one begotten of himself from whom all things spring who is in all beholds all but is beheld of none c. Who is the First and Last Head and Middle from whom all things be Foundation of Earth and Skye Male and Female which never dyeth He is the Spirit of all of Sun Moon c. The Original and End of all in whom all things were hidden 'till he produced them to Light Cleanthes calls God Good Iust Holy possessing himself alway doing good and Charity it self Pindarus saith he is one God and Father most high Creator and best Artificer who giveth to all things divers proceedings c. Antistbenes saith God cannot be likened to anything and therefore not elsewhere to be known but only in the everlasting Country of whom thou hast no Image God said Xenophon shaketh and setteth all things at rest Is great and mighty as is manifest to all but of what Form he is none knoweth but himself who illuminateth all things with his Light God saith Plato is the Cause Ground and Original of the whole nature of things the most high Father of the Soul the eternal preserver of living Creatures and continual framer of the World a Begetter without propagation comprehended neither in place nor time whom few conceive none can express him Thus as Ierom said We find among the Heathen part of the Vessels of God But of them all none have with more Reverence acknowledged or more learnedly expressed One True God and everlasting Being all ever-causing and sustaining than Hermes the Egyptian But of all these see Iustin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus Lactantius Eusebius Du Pless Danaeus § 8. Hethanism and Iudaism when confounded Touching the Religions of the Heathen they being the Inventions of Mortal Men they are no less Mortal than themselves The Caldean Fire is quenched and as the Bodies of Iupiter and the rest were by Death devoured so were their Images and lasting Marble Temples by Time The Trade of Riddles for Oracles and Predictions by Apollo's Priests is now taken up by Counterfeit Egyptians and Cozening Astrologers yet was it long before the Devil gave way For after Six several spoilings and sackings of his Temple at Delphos and as many repairings thereof at last when Iulian sought unto it God from Heaven consum'd all with Fire So when the same Apostate incourag'd the Iews to re-build a Temple God by Earth-quake over-threw all and slew many Thousands § 9. Satan's last Refuge to uphold his Kingdom who being driven off the open Stage of the World crept into the Minds of Men and there set up the high and shining Idol of Glory and all commanding Image of Gold He tells men that Truth is the Goddess of Danger and Oppression Chastity is an Enemy to Nature and all Virtue is without Taste but Pleasure delighteth every Sense and true Wisdom gets Power and Riches to fulfil all our Desires And if this Arch-politician find Remorse in any of his People or any fear of future Judgment he persuadeth them that God hath such need of Souls to re-plenish Heaven that he will accept them at any time and upon any Condition And to interrupt their return to God he layeth those great Blocks of rugged Poverty and Contempt in the narrow way which leadeth to his Divine Presence Neither was he ever more industrious and diligent than now when the long Day of Man-kind draweth fast to the Evening and the World's Tragedy and Time near to an end CHAP. VII Noah's Flood the Vniversality of it and Noah's memory of Antiquity § 1. MOses's Divine Testimony of Noah's Flood natural Men regard no farther than Reason can reach and therefore may have disputed the Vniversality of it and Iosephus citeth Nic. Damascen who reports that many were saved on the Mount Baris in Armenia and the Talmudists held the same saith Annius § 2. Ogyges's Flood the Greeks the Corrupters of all Truth saith Lactantius make the most ancient when yet Ogyges's Flood was sixty seven Years after Iacob and short of Noah's Flood by 500 Years neither do any Authors report that it over-flowed any part of Syria as Mela Pliny and Solinus do of Noah's speaking of Ioppa's Ruins c. As for this Flood as it exceeded not Peloponesus so was it foreseen by a concurrence of Causes which Noah's was not Touching Varro's Report out of Castor of the strange Colour quantity and shape of Venus the Fogs which then rise might cause such Apperances For Galilaeus a Modern Worthy Astronomer by Perspective Glasses observed many undiscover'd things in Stars unknown to former Ages § 3. Deucalion's Flood more certain for Time being in the Reign of Cranaus King of Athens according to Varro cited by Augustin or under Cecrop's after Eusebius and Ierom in whose latter times Israel came out of Egypt which after Functius was 753 or 739 Years according to Mercator after Noah's Flood But following the better Account which giveth Abraham 60 Years more after the Flood I reckon the Flood thus The general Flood Anno Mundi 1656 Iacob's Birth 2169 which is 519 Years after