These changes are frequently ascribed, by unthinking mortals, to mere chance, or at least to the uncontrolled operation of second causes.
Some philosophers, among others the illustrious Malebranche, have denied the efficacy of second causes, thus reducing them to mere occasions.
We must therefore say that fate, considered in regard to second causes, is changeable; but as subject to Divine Providence, it derives a certain unchangeableness, not of absolute but of conditional necessity.
In all that follows, the power of mercy remains, and works indeed with even greater force; as the influence of the first cause is more intense than that of second causes.
The ordering itself of second causes, which Augustine (De Civ.
It is impossible to be submissive and religiously patient, if ye stay your thoughts down among the confused rollings and wheels of second causes; as, "Oh the place!
If the modification took place in that part of the chain of second causes out of our sight, the final effect would be no miracle; because it would be brought about by natural laws, and these would perfectly explain it.
Now, if any one of this series of second causes be modified, the effect will be a modification of the final result.
This doctrine does not ignore the efficiency of second causes; it simply asserts that God over-rules and controls them.
He applies this doctrine even to miracles, which he regards as effects produced by second causes of which we are ignorant, that is, by some higher law of nature.
Ordinarily God brings things into existence through the operation of second causes.
The maxim is therefore applicable only to the realm of second causes, and does not bar the creative power of the great first Cause.
Since will is the only cause of which we have direct knowledge, second causes in nature may be regarded as only secondary, regular, and automatic workings of the great first Cause.
Thus they ascribe to him no action, but that which the general concurrence of second causes produces.
It means what are called genera and species; but even in the order of second causes, genera are generative or productive only as specificated, and species only as individualized.
Second causes are a capitulation of the unbelieving intellect with the still believing heart.
Second causes in nature are only secondary activities of the great First Cause.
This idealism of Bowne is not pantheism, for it holds that, while there are no second causes in nature, man is a second cause, with a personality distinct from that of God, and lifted above nature by his powers of free will.
For advocacy of the substantive existence of second causes, see Porter, Hum.
It holds to the abolition of second causes, and to the perfect passivity of the human instrument; denies any inspiration of persons, and maintains inspiration of writings only.
These phenomena are not the appearances or manifestations of the Infinite Power or Being which Mr. Spencer asserts as unknowable, but of the finite and dependent substances which God, the Infinite Being, creates and upholds as second causes.
Pantheism denies the creation of substances or second causes, and asserts that all phenomena are simply the appearances of the one infinite and only substance; and this is precisely what Mr. Spencer undeniably does.
Whether the created powers are above man or below him in the scale of existence, they are equally natural, and so is whatever they are capable, as second causes, of doing.
But he creates substantial existences capable of acting as second causes.
Having no conception of the creative act, they could have none of its immanence, or the active and efficacious presence of the Creator in all his works, even in the action of second causes themselves.
Generation is in the order of second causes, and is simply the development or explication of the race.
They are in the order of second causes, and second causes, without the first cause, are nought.
More than this, if there are not also second causes outside of the will of free intelligent personalities, the whole universe must be a gigantic deception; for it seems to be full of second causes.
Let us first consider the scientific aspects of the doctrine of second causes, and the doctrine of God's immediate acting in various departments (or all departments) of nature.
The above list will hopefully provide you with a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "second causes" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this group of words.
