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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	dead_a	great_a	open_v	5,672	5	8.2508	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62636	Several discourses upon the attributes of God viz. Concerning the perfection of God. Concerning our imitation of the divine perfections. The happiness of God. The unchangeableness of God. The knowledge of God. The wisdom, glory, and soveraignty of God. The wisdom of God, in the creation of the world. The wisdom of God, in his providence. The wisdom of God, in the redemption of mankind. The justice of God, in the distribution of rewards and punishments. The truth of God. The holiness of God. To which is annexed a spital sermon, of doing good. By the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. Being the sixth volume; published from the originals, by Raph Barker, D.D. chaplain to his grace.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708.	1699 (1699)	Wing T1264; ESTC R219315	169,861	473

in the Kingdom of God but the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into utter Darkness And however Men may bear up themselves now upon their worldly Greatness and Power certainly there is a time a coming when the greatest Persons in the World those who overturn Kingdoms and lay wast Countries and oppress and ruin Millions of Mankind for the gratifying of their own Lusts and Ambition I say there is a Day coming when even these as much nay more than others shall fear and tremble before the impartial Justice of God Rev. 6.15 And the Kings of the earth and the great Men and the rich Men and the chief Captains and the mighty Men and every Bond-man and every Free-man hid themselves in the Dens and in the Rocks of the Mountains for the great Day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand The impartial Justice of God will treat the greatest and the meanest Persons alike Rev. 20.12 I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works All judged according to their Works I should next proceed to vindicate the Justice of God in the Distribution of Rewards and Punishments from those Objections which seem to impeach it But before I enter upon this it will be convenient to satisfie one question which hath occasioned great disputes in the World and that is how far Justice especially as to the Punishment of Offenders is essential to God And for the clearing of this matter I shall briefly lay down these Propositions First I take this for a certain and undoubted Truth that every Perfection is essential to God and cannot be imagined to be seperated from the Divine Nature because this is the Natural Notion which Men have of God that he is a Being that hath all Perfection Secondly The actual constant exercise of those Divine Perfections the effects whereof are without himself is not essential to God For instance tho' God be essentially powerful and good yet it is not necessary that he should always exercise his Power and Goodness but at such times and in such a manner as seems best to his Wisdom and this is likewise true of his Wisdom and Justice because these are Perfections the effects whereof are terminated upon something without himself Thirdly It is essential to God to love Goodness and hate Sin wherever he sees them It is not necessary there should be a World or reasonable Creatures in it but upon supposition that God makes such Creatures it is agreable to the Divine Nature to give them good and righteous Laws to encourage them in the doing of that which is good and to discourage them from doing that which is evil which cannot be done but by Rewards and Punishments and therefore it is agreable to the Perfection of the Divine Nature to reward Goodness and to punish Sin Fourthly As for those rewards which the Gospel promiseth and the Punishments which it threatens there is some difference to be made between the rewarding and punishing justice of God 1. As for that abundant reward God is pleased to promise to good Men the promise of it is founded in his goodness and the performance of that promise in his justice for it is justice to perform what he promises tho' the promise of so great and abundant a reward was meer goodness 2. As for the punishing justice of God about which hath been the great Question whether that be essential to God or not it seems very plain that it is not necessary that God should inflict those judgments which he threatens because he hath threatned them for there is not the like obligation upon Persons to perform their threatnings that there is to perform their promises because God by his promise becomes a Debtour to those to whom he makes the promise but when he threatens he is the Creditour and we are Debtors to his Justice and as a Creditor he may remit the Punishment which he hath threatned But then if we consider God as loving goodness and hating Sin if we look upon him as Governor of the World and concerned to preserve good Order to encourage Holiness and Righteousness and to discountenance Sin under this consideration it is essential to him to punish Sin at such times and in such manner and circumstances as seems best to his Wisdom And I am not at all moved by that which is urged by some learned Men to the contrary that if punishing justice were essential to God then he must punish the Sinner immediately so soon as he hath offended and to the utmost of his Power because whatever Acts naturally Acts necessarily and to the utmost for I do not suppose such a justice essential to God as Acts necessarily but such a justice which as to the time and manner and circumstances of its Acting is regulated and determined by his Wisdom and there is the same Reason likewise of his goodness I come now to the Objections which are taken partly from the dispensations of God in this World and partly from the punishments of the other First As to the dispensations of God in this World there are these two things Objected against the justice of the Divine Providence I. The inequality of God's dealings with good and bad Men in this World II. The translation of Punishments punishing one Man's Sin upon another as the Sins of the Fathers upon the Children of the Prince upon the People I begin with the I. Objection the inequality of God's dealing with good and bad Men in this World In this life things happen promiscuously there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked if the Wicked suffer and are afflicted so are the Righteous if the Righteous sometimes flourish so do the Wicked and is not this unjust that those who are so unequal as to their Deserts should be equally dealt withal or if there be any inequality it is usually the wrong way the Wicked do many times prosper more in the World and the Righteous are frequently more afflicted This was the great Objection of old against the Providence of God which the Heathen Philosophers took so much pains to answer nay it did often shake the faith of Holy and Good Men in the old Testament Job 12.6 The tabernacles of robbers prosper and they that provoke God are secure into whose hand God bringeth abundantly and chap. 21.7 8 9. he Expostulates the same matter again and David says this was a great stumbling-Block to him Psal 73.2 3. and the like we find in the Prophets Jer. 12.1 and Hab. 1.13 This Objection I have else-where considered I shall now very briefly offer two or three Things which I hope will be sufficient to break the force of it 1. It must be granted that it is not necessary to justice to shew it self immediately