Selected quad for the lemma: mind_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mind_n	clear_a	distinct_a	idea_n	1,335	5	10.6173	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59814	A discourse concerning the divine providence by William Sherlock ...	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1694 (1694)	Wing S3286; ESTC R8109	271,248	406

and he spoke the Language of Human Nature in it That the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made 1. Rom. 20. For if that which is made must have a Cause if there be no visible Cause there must be an invisible Maker And therefore this World which has no visible must have an invisible Cause And as it is natural to the Reason of Mankind to conclude the Cause from the Effect so is it to learn the Nature of the Cause from the Nature of the Effect for whatever is in the Effect must be either specifically or virtually in the Cause for whatever is in the Effect which is not in the Cause that has no Cause for nothing can be a cause of that which it is not it self And therefore whatever has life and understanding must be made by a living and understanding Cause whatever has art and skill and wise contrivance in its frame as every Worm and Fly has must have a wise designing Cause for its Maker And then it is certain that this whole World was not made by chance or the fortuitous concourse of Atoms but by an infinitely wise Mind This way of reasoning is easy and natural to our minds all men understand it all men feel it Atheists themselves allow of this kind of proof in all other cases excepting the proof of a God or a Providence and therefore it is no absurd foolish way of reasoning for then it must not be allowed of in any case and they have no reason to reject it in this case but that they are resolved not to believe a God and a Providence And yet this way of reasoning from Effects to Causes must be good in all Cases or in none For the Principle is universal That nothing can be made without a Cause and if any thing can be made made without a Cause this Principle is false and can prove nothing And I challenge the wisest and subtilest Atheist of them all to prove from any Principle of Reason that the most beautiful and regular House that ever he saw which he did not see built for that is a proof from Sense not from Reason was built by men and is a work of Art and that it did not either grow out of the Earth nor was made by the accidental meeting of the several Materials which without knowledge art or design fell into a regular and uniform Building Had these men never seen a House built I would desire to know how they would prove that it is a work of Art built by a skilful Workman and not made by chance and by what medium soever they will prove this I will undertake to prove that God made the World though we did not see him make it But the present Enquiry is only this Whether this be Human Reason the natural Reason of Human Minds If it be then men who will be contented to reason like men must acknowledge and assent to this Argument from Effects to Causes which unavoidably proves a God and a Providence and this is all I desire to be granted That those who will follow the Notices and Principles of Human Reason must believe that God made and governs the World for I know not how to reason beyond Human Reason those who do may please themselves with it Those who have found out a Reason which contradicts the natural Principles of Reason must reason by themselves for Mankind cannot reason with them But let us consider how Atheists reason when they have laid aside this Principle of Reason from Effects to Causes They tell us That a most Artificial World may be made without Art or any wise Maker by blind Chance without any designing Efficient Cause That Life and Sense and Reason may result from dead stupid sensless Atoms Well! we hear this and bear it as patiently as we can but how do they prove this why they say it may be and they can go no farther But how do they know this may be Have they any such notion in their minds have they any natural sensation that answers these words does Nature teach them that any thing can be without a Cause adequate to the Effect that any thing can be wisely made without a wise Cause that one contrary can produce the other that sensless stupid Matter can produce Life Sensation and Understanding Can they then tell me what it is that can't be I desire to know by what Rule they judge what may be and what can't be And if they can find any can't be more absurd and contradictious than their may be I will renounce Sense and Reason for ever If nothing can be without a Cause according to the Reason of Mankind this can't be and therefore all that their may be 's can signify is this That if the Reason of Mankind deceive us such things may be as the most unquestionable Principles of Reason tells us can't be And this is the glorious triumph of Atheistical Reason it can get no farther than a may be and such a may be as is absolutely impossible if the Reason of Mankind be true Set aside the relation between Causes and Effects and all the Arguments from Causes to Effects and from Effects to Causes and there is an end of all Knowledge and set aside all those first Principles and Maxims of Reason which all men assent to at the first Proposal the truth of which they see and feel and there is an end of all Reason For there can be no reasoning without the acknowledgment of some first Principles which the mind has a clear distinct and vigorous perception of And if men will distrust their own minds in such things as they have an easy natural perception of and prefer some Arbitrary Notions which seem absurd Contradictions and impossible to the rest of Mankind and which they can have no Idea of beyond the sound of words they may be Atheists if they please at the expence of their Reason and Understanding that is they may be Atheists if they will not judge and reason like Men But if we are as certain of the Being of a God and of a Providence as we are that nothing can be without a Cause we have all the certainty that Human Nature is capable of CHAP. II. The general Notion of Providence and particularly concerning a Preserving Providence HAving proved as largely as my present Design required That the same God who made the World is the Supream Lord and Governour of it I proceed to consider the Nature of Providence The general Notion of Providence is God's care of all the Creatures he has made which must consist in preserving and upholding their Beings and Natures and in such Acts of Government as the good Order of the World and the Happiness of Mankind require which divides Providence into Preservation and Government which must be carefully distinguished in order to answer some great Difficulties in Providence I

Mankind by the confusion of Languages which divided them into distinct Societies Kingdoms and Commonweals opened a new Scene of Providence with all the variety of Wisdom in the government of the world The Judgment it self was miraculous and as plain an evidence of the Divine Power as the Deluge it self for to new form a mind to erace all its old Ideas of words and sounds and to imprint new ones on it in an instant shews such a superior Power over Nature as none but the Author of Nature has and they must have been very stupid if this did not renew and fix the impression of a Divine Power and Providence But the dispersion which this confusion of Languages occasioned and the division of Mankind into distinct Societies made the Exercise of many Moral Civil and Military Vertues as necessary as their own Prosperity and Preservation And if this had not so universal an effect as might have been expected yet it prevented an Universal Corruption and had a good effect in many Countries and by turns in most that the world never wanted Examples of States and Kingdoms which increased and flourished under a prudent and vertuous Government nor of the ruin of flourishing States by Idleness Luxury Injustice Oppression which weakened and divided them at home and made them an easy prey to their provoked or to their ambitious Neighbours But though the state of the world as to some moral Vertues and good Order and Government was much bettered by this means yet Mankind generally declined to Idolatry that the Knowledge and Worship of the one Supream God was in danger of being utterly lost and the lives of men to be corrupted by the impure and filthy Rites and Mysteries of their Religion This required a new and more effectual remedy and brings me to consider a new and wonderful Design of the Divine Wisdom for reforming the World I mean his chusing Abraham and his Posterity to be his peculiar People whom he would govern in so visible a manner that all the world might know and fear the God of Israel This is a large Argument and full of Mysterious Wisdom but my principal intention at present is to consider it with relation to the rest of Mankind and how wisely it was designed by God to give some check to Idolatry to preserve the Worship of the True God at least in Israel from whence in time it might be restored again when lost in the rest of the world It has I confess a very strange appearance at first that God should reject or at least neglect all the rest of Mankind and chuse but one Family out of all the world to place his name among them Is God the God of the Iews only is he not also of the Gentiles 3. Rom. 29. This the Vainglorious Iew imagined who despised the rest of the world as reprobated by God but the Apostle abhors the thoughts of it yes of the Gentiles also and St. Peter was at length convinced by a Vision That God was no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him 10. Acts 34 35. Thus it was from the beginning though the Iews did not think so and the Apostles themselves at first could not easily be persuaded of it and yet how could any man entertain honourable thoughts of God who could conceive him so partial in his Favours as to confine the peculiar Expressions of his Love to one Nation without any appearing concernment what became of the rest of Mankind But if this was and was intended by God for the general good of the world and was admirably fitted to cure Idolatry and to restore the Worship of the one Supream God it gives us a new and more glorious prospect of the Wisdom of Providence And to represent this as advantagiously as I can I shall first give you a general view of this admirable Design of the Divine Wisdom which will enable us the better to understand and to give a more intelligible and sensible account of the various Providences of God towards Israel Now we must consider the world at that time as over-run with Idolatry as we may easily conclude when Abraham 's Family is charged with it as Ioshua told the People of Israel at Shechem Thus saith the Lord God of Israel Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time even Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nachor and they served other Gods 24. Joshua 2. Now all men must confess That it became the Divine Wisdom to restore and preserve the Faith and Worship of the One Supreme God and to keep it alive in the world that it might in time though by slow degrees prevail over Idolatry and the Kingdom of Darkness and reduce Mankind to their natural obedience and subjection to God and since Experience had proved that neither the Creation of the World nor the Universal Deluge nor the Confusion of Languages could preserve the belief of one Supream God the Maker and Governour of the World but the New World was as universally over-run with Polytheism and Idolatry as the Old World was with Violence and that the very dispersion of Mankind and their division into distinct Kingdoms and Societies which was a good remedy against some other Immoralities had probably occasioned a multiplicity of Gods while every Nation desired a God as well as a King of their own to protect and defend them I say this shews what absolute necessity there was that the Divine Wisdom should find out some more effectual and lasting means to convince the world of the Power and Providence of one Supream God What other effectual means God might have chose for this purpose does not belong to us to inquire but it becomes us very much to contemplate the Divine Wisdom in hat method which he did take to reclaim the world Now the way God took was this He chose Abraham and his Posterity for his peculiar People whom he governed in as visible a manner as any Temporal Prince governs his Subjects He forbad them to own any other God besides himself and separated them from the rest of the world by peculiar Laws and Ceremonies of Worship to secure them from the Idolatrous Practises of their Neighbours He made himself known and distinguished himself from all other Country Gods by the name of the God of Israel the God of Abraham and Isaac and Iacob not that he was only the God of that Nation as other Nations had their peculiar Gods but the God of the whole world though he was known and worshipped only in Israel and by this Name he triumphed over all the Heathen Gods and wrought such Signs and Wonders as might have convinced all men if they would have been convinced that there was no God but the God of Israel none like him none that could be compared to him Consider then what more sensible proof the world could possibly have of one