Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	air_n	element_n	fire_n	13,062	5	7.1789	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51689	A treatise of nature and grace to which is added, the author's idæa of providence, and his answers to several objections against the foregoing discourse / by the author of The search after truth ; translated from the last edition, enlarged by many explications.; Traité de la nature et de la grace. English	Malebranche, Nicolas, 1638-1715.	1695 (1695)	Wing M320; ESTC R9953	159,228	290

are abrogated than the ways of God that are changed for those Laws which God had given to the Jews by the Ministry of Angels were to be abrogated at the coming of J. C. The Figures were to cease in the presence of the true Messias and his Mysteries But the Power which the Angels have over Men shall never be changed because the general Laws by which God hath given them this power shall never be abolished unless perhaps when the holy City shall be built and Jesus Christ shall have given up his Kingdom to his Father and brought to nought all Powers and God shall be all in all till this happy time the Angels in dependance upon J. C. their Head will always work in the Spiritual Building of the Church and God acting in them and by them according to the same Laws will produce a thousand and a thousand different effects and yet according to my Principles cannot be supposed to be in the least unconstant For tho by particular wills he cures as I may say the defects which might follow these Laws when order requires it I have sufficiently explained this elsewhere tho he guides our Conductors that they may faithfully execute his designs yet since his ways are always the same it sufficiently appears that it is not through inconstancy that he sometimes acts against the ordinary course of his Providence but because he is obliged to have respect unto all his Attributes as well as his Immutability Object VI. The Author of the Treatise says That he is perswaded that these two natural Laws which are the most simple of all viz. That all Motion proceeds or tends to proceed in a right line And that when Bodies strike upon one another their motions are communicated proportionably to the magnitude of the Bodies which strike upon one another are sufficient to produce such a World as we see I mean the Heaven the Stars the Planets the Comets the Earth the Water the Air and the Fire in a word the Elements and all Bodies except those which are organized and animated This therefore would have been the most simple way of producing the World to have stayed till it had formed it self of the matter which God had created and put into motion according to these two Laws without imploying therein particular wills This supposed I see not what the Author could answer to a Libertine who should thus accost him Therefore according to you that which is said in Genesis is not true For on the one hand you maintain It is evident that God cannot falsifie himself and being infinitely wise cannot but act wisely and that it would not to be to act wisely to do that by compounded ways and particular wills which he may execute by simple ways and general wills And on the other you teach me that the World such as we see it to be might have been produced by these two natural Laws which are the most simple of all other Therefore God has made it after this manner and not as it is said in Genesis where the Creation is described as if it had been made by particular wills and not by these simple ways which yet you teach us is unworthy of the wisdom of God Would you tell him that God has his Reasons for this But this Libertine will answer That there can be no reason why God should falsifie himself why he who is infinitely wise should not act wisely why it being in his power to have form'd a work worthy of himself by an uniform constant and regular Conduct he has chosen one which is unequal changeable irregular and which shews inconstancy and ignorance in him who observes it c. Answer I should say to this Libertine that he little understands what he says and he who undertakes to overthrow the sentiments of any Author should take them aright for nothing is more easie than to confound things when the matters treated of are obscure in themselves According to your opinion says this Libertine that which Moses relates of the Creation of the World in Genesis is not true Fairly and softly I should answer you neither understand what the Scripture saith nor what my sentiments are as for Genesis I shall not explain it to you But this is my sense observe it well I maintain that God always acts by the most simple ways but it must be always supposed that there is an equality in all things else whether in the ways or in the works as I have so often explained it must also be supposed that Order doth not require that he should compound his ways God never falsifies himself Very well But to change Conduct is not always to falsifie himself God may nay he ought to compound his ways when that which he owes to his Wisdom his Justice to any one of his Attributes is more considerable than that which he owes to his Immutability God would falsifie himself if upon some occasions he did not change his Conduct for he would not do that Justice which he owes to himself and his divine attributes and thus would not observe that immutable Order which is properly his Law or the inviolable Rule of his proceedings He would cease to love himself to act for himself he would sin You look upon things only on one side You compare the Conduct of God only with his Immutability Compare his ways with all his attributes and you may easily comprehend that tho there can be no reason which obliges God to falsifie him self there may be many which oblige him to change his Conduct And do not ask me in such and such occurrences what are his reasons for neither I nor any person else can be assured that we know them This in reason is enough to silence this Libertine for tho I do not take upon me to know the particular reasons why God ceases to follow his general Laws or to act by the most simple ways I think I know that he never ceases to follow these Laws and that he never compounds his ways but when Order obliges him thereunto And this I think I have proved so many ways that it is to no purpose to do it any more Nevertheless let us examine the difficulty to the bottom I maintain that God has made the World by the most simple ways For I say that in forming the World he has observed these two Laws as far as 't was possible The form of Bodies proceeds only from the various motions of those Bodies which are about and within them Now I maintain that this variety of motions which is at present observed and that of the Motions which have been made from the beginning of the World is the effect of the same Law of the communications of motions by which this Libertine would have had the World made successively by little and little that God might have spared his particular wills This Libertine doth not observe that he puts into his consequence that condition which renders it