Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	able_a	absence_n	case_n	12	3	5.2025	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07536	Sapientia clamitans wisdome crying out to sinners to returne from their evill wayes: contained in three pious and learned treatises, viz. I. Of Christs fervent love to bloudy Ierusalem. II. Of Gods just hardning of Pharaoh, when hee had filled up the measure of his iniquity. III. Of mans timely remembring of his creator. Heretofore communicated to some friends in written copies: but now published for the generall good, by William Milbourne priest.	Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640.; Donne, John, 1572-1631. aut; Milbourne, William, b. 1598 or 9.	1638 (1638)	STC 17918; ESTC S112664	68,848	322

this I rest perswaded that all the exhortations of the Prophets and Apostles to worke humility and true repentance in their Auditors suppose a possibilitie of humiliation and repentance a possibility likewise of acknowledging and considering our owne impotency and misery a possibility likewise of conceiving some desire not meerely bruitish of our redemption or deliverance Our Saviour yee know required not onely a desire of health of sight of speech in all those whom he healed restored to sight or made to speake but withall a kind of naturall beleefe or conceit that he was able to effect what they desired Hence saith the Euangelist Marke 6 5. Mat. 13. verse last Hee could not doe many miracles among them because of their unbeleefe Yet CHRIST alone wrought the miracles the parties cured were meere patients no way agents And such as sollicited their cause in case of absence at the best were but by-standers Now no man I thinke will deny that Christ by the power of his Godhead could have given sight speech and health to the most obstinate and perverse yet by the rule of his divine goodnesse he could not cast his pearles before swine Most true it is that wee are altogether dead to life spirituall unable to speake or think much lesse to desire it as wee should Yet beleefe and reason morall and naturall survive and may with Martha and Marie beseech Christ to raise up their dead brother who cannot speake for himselfe The third Objection will rather be preferred in Table-talke discourse than seriously urged in solemne dispute If God so dearly desire and will the life and safety of such as perish his will should not alwaies be done Why Dare any man living say or thinke that hee alwaies doth whatsoever God would have him doe So doubtlesse he should never sin or offend his God For never was there woman so wilfull or man so mad as to bee offended with ought that went not against their present will Nor was there ever or possibly can be any breach unlesse the will of the Law-giver be broken thwarted or contradicted For he that leaves the letter and followes the true meaning of the Lawgivers will doth not transgresse his law but observe it And unlesse Gods will had beene set upon the salvation of such as perish they had not offended but rather pleased him in running headlong the wayes of death Yet in a good sense it is alwayes most true that Gods will is alwayes fulfilled We are therefore to consider that God may will some things absolutely others disjunctively or that some things should fall out necessarily others not at all or contingently The particulars which God absolutely wils should fall out necessarily must of necessity come to passe otherwise his will could in no case be truly said to be fulfilled As unlesse the Leper to whom it was said by our Saviour I will be thou cleane had beene cleansed Gods will manifested in these words had beene utterly broken But if every particular which hee wils disjunctively or which he wils should be contingent did of necessity come to passe his whole will should utterly be defeated For his will as wee suppose in this case is that neither this nor that particular should be necessarily but that either they should not be or be contingently And if any particular comprised within the latitude of this contingency with its consequent come to passe his will is truly and perfectly fulfilled As for example God tels the Israelites that by observing his Commandements they should live and dye by transgressing them Whether therefore they live by the one meanes or dye by the other his will is necessarily fulfilled Because it was not that they should necessarily observe his Commandements or transgresse them but to their transgression though contingent death was the necessary doome so was life the necessary reward of their contingent observing them But the Lord hath sworne that he delighteth not in the death of him that dieth but in his repentance if then hee never repent Gods delight or good pleasure is not alwayes fulfilled because hee delights in the one of th●se not in the other How then shall it be true which is written God doth whatsoever pleaseth him in the Heaven and in the Earth if hee make not sinners repent in whose repentance hee is better pleased than in their death But unto this difficultie the former answer may bee ●ightly fitted Gods delight or good pleasure may bee done two wayes either in us or upon us In the former place it is set upon our repentance or obsequiousnesse to his will For this is that service whereto by his goodnesse he ordained us● but if we crosse his good will and pleasure as it respects this point that is if wee will not suffer our selves to be saved the same delight or pleasure is set upon our punishment and fulfilled upon us And if wee would enter into our owne hearts wee might see the Image of Gods will hitherto manifested by his word distinctly written in them and that the Rule which his justice observes in punishing the wicked and reprobate is to measure out their plagues and punishments according to the measure of their neglecting his will or contradicting his delight in their subjection That as the riches of his goodnesse leading them to repentance hath beene more plentifull so they by their impenitencie still treasure up greater store of wrath against the day of wrath To this purpose doth the Lord threaten the obstinate people before mentioned in Esay These are as a smoake in my nose and a fire that burneth all the day as hee hath spread out his hands to them all the day Behold it is written before mee I will not keepe silence but will recompence into their bosomes your iniquities and the iniquities of your Fathers together saith the Lord which have burnt incense upon the mountaines and blasphemed mee upon the Hils therefore will I reward their former workes into their bosome Both these parts of Gods delight are fully expressed by Salomon Wisdome cryeth without shee hath uttered her will in the streets shee cryeth in the chiefe places of the concourse in the opening of the Gates in the Citie shee uttereth her words saying How long yee simple ones will yee love simplicitie and the scorners delight in their scorning and fooles ●ate knowledge Turne you at my reproofe behold I will powre out my spirit upon you I will make knowne my words unto you These passages infallibly argue an unfained delight in their repentance and such a desire of their salvation as the wisdome of God hath expressed in my text But what followes Because I have called and yee refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but yee have set at nought all my counsell and would none of my reproofe I also will laugh at your calamitie I will mock when your feare commeth This his delight remaines the same but is set upon another

true moral cause or the only blame-worthy cause of his owne death or danger following Just according to the importance of this supposition or similitude is the cause of hardening in many cases to be divided betwixt God and man The Israelites did harden their owne hearts in the wildernesse and yet their hearts had not beene so hardened unlesse the Lord had done so many wond●rs in their sight In every wonder his purpose was to get beleefe but through their wilfull unbeleefe the best effect of his greatest wonders was induration and impenitencie Now as it suits not with the rule of good manners for Physicians to tie a mans hands of discretion or place lest hee use them to his owne harme so neither was it consonant to the rules of eternall equitie that God should necessitate the Israelites wils to a true beleefe of his wonders or mollifie their hearts against their wils that is Hee neither hard●ns nor mollifies their hearts by his irresistible will nor did he at all will their hardning but rather their mollification All this is true of Gods ordinarie manner of hardning men or of the first degrees of hardning any man But Pharaohs case is extraordinarie Beza rightly inferres against Origen and his followers that this hardening whereof the Apostle here speaketh was irresistible that the party thus hardened was uncaple of repentance that God did shew signes and wonders in AEgypt not with purpose to reclaime but harden Pharaoh and to drive him headlong into the snare prepared for him from everlasting All these inferences are plaine first that interrogation Who hath resisted his will is equivalent to the universall negative No man no creature can at any time resist his will That is according to the interpretation premised Whatsoever particular Gods will is to have necessary or so to be as the contrary or contradictorie to it shall not be the existence of it cannot be prevented or avoyded Now that God did in this peremptory manner will Pharaohs hardening is evident from the Emphasis of that message delivered unto him by Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even for this very purpose and for no other end in the world possible have I raised thee up that I might shew in thee my power and his power was to be shewed in his hardening For from the tenor of this message the Apostle inferres the latter part of this conclusion in my text Whom hee will hee hardneth yea so hardneth that it is impossible they should escape it or his judgements due unto it In all these collections Beza doth not erre Yet was Beza with reverence bee it spoken more to blame than this filthy Writer for so it pleaseth him to entitle Origen in that he referres th●se threatnings For this very purpose hare I raised thee up that I may shew my power in thee not only unto Pharaohs exaltation unto the Crowne of Egypt as I thinke Origen did we need not we may not grant but to his extraction out of the wombe yea to his first creation out of the dust as if the Almighty had moulded him by his irresistible will in the eternall Idea of reprobation before man or Angell had actuall being as if the only end of his being had beene to bee a reprobate or vessell of wrath Beza's collections to this purpose unlesse they be better limited than hee hath left them make God not only a direct and positive cause but the immediate and onely cause of all Pharaohs tyrannie a more direct and more necessarie cause of his butchering the Israelites infants than he was of Adams good actions during the space of his innocencie For of these or of his short continuance in the state of integritie he was no necessarie nor immutable cause that is hee did not decree that Adams integrity should be immutable But whether Gods hardning Pharaoh by his irresistible will can any way inferre that Pharaoh was an absolute reprobate or borne to the end he might bee hardned wee are hereafter to dispute in the third point All wee have to say in this place is this If as much as Beza earnestly contends for were once granted the objection following to which our Apostle vouchsafes a double answer had beene altogether as unanswerable as impertinently moved in this place Let us then examine the pertinencie of the objection and unfold the validitie of the answers The second generall point concerning the pertinencie of the objection WHy doth hee yet finde fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Why doth hee yet chide with whom doth he find fault or whom doth hee chide All that are reprobates doth hee only chide them is this all that they are to feare the very worst that can befall them were this speech to bee as farre extended as it is by most Interpreters no question but our Apostle would have intended the force and acrimonie of it a great deale more than he doth thus farre at least Why doth he punish why doth he plague the reprobates in this life and deliver them up to everlasting torments in the life to come seeing they doe but that which bee by his irresistible will hath appointed Or suppose the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might by some unusual synecdoche which passeth our reading observation or understanding include as much or more than we now expresse all the plagues of the life to come yet it is questioned what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath here to doe It must be examined whence it came and whither it tends It naturally designes some definite point or section of time and imports particulars before begun and still continued it can have no place in the immutable sphere of eternitie no reference to the exercise of Gods everlasting wrath against the reprobates in generall The quaere's which here naturally offer themselves though for ought that I know not discussed by any Interpreters have occasioned mee in this place to make use of a Rule more usefull than usuall for explicating the difficult places of the New Testament The Rule is this To search out the passages of the old Testament with their historicall circumstances unto which the speeches of our Saviour and his Apostles have speciall reference or allusion Now this Interrogation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was conceived from our Apostles meditations upon those expostulations with Pharaoh Exod. 9. 16. And indeed for this cause have I raised thee up for to shew in thee my power and that my name may be declared throughout all the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And yet exaltest thou thy selfe against my people or oppressest thou my people that thou wilt not let them goe Chap. 10. vers 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee yet chides and threatens him againe How long wilt thou refuse to humble thy selfe before mee Let my people goe that they may serve mee Else if thou refuse to let my people goe behold to morrow I will bring the lo●usts into thy coasts That which makes most for this

passe his will might be resisted being set only on this By the same immutable and indivisible will hee ordained that other events should be mutable or continguent viz. that of more particulars proposed this may be as well as that the affirmative as well as the negative And of particulars so willed no one can bee said to bee willed by his irresistible will If the existence of any one so willed should be necessarie his will might bee resisted seeing his will is they should not bee necessarie Each particular of this kinde by the like denomination of the thing willed hee may be said to will by his resistible will The whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or list of severall possibilities or the indifference betwixt the particulars he wils by his irresistible will The Psalmists oracle is universally true of all persons in every age of Adam specially before his fall Non Deus volens iniquitatem ●ues God doth not he cannot will iniquitie And yet wee see the world is full of it The Apostles speech againe is as universally true This is the will of God even your sanctification that every one of you should know to possesse his vessell in honour 1 Thess. 4. 3. God willeth and he seriously willeth sanctitie of life in our selves uprightnesse and integritie of conversation amongst men and yet behold a Vacuum in this little world in the sonnes of Adam whom hee created after his owne image and similitude So then hee neither wils mens goodnesse nor wils their iniquitie by his irresistible will Hee truly willed Adams integritie but not by his irresistible will For so Adam could not have fallen What shall wee say then God did will Adams fall by his irresistible will God forbid For so Adam could not but have sinned Where is the meane or middle station on which we may build our faith The immediate object of Gods irresistible will in this case was Adams free will that is Potestas labendi potestas standi Powre to stand and powre to fall By the same will hee decreed Death as the inevitable consequent of his fall and life as the necessary unpreventable reward of his perseverance Thus much briefly of Gods will in what sense it is resistible or irresistible The nature and property of an hardened heart cannot in fewer words better bee expressed than by the Poets character of an unruly stubborne youth Cereus in vitium flecti monitoribus asper It is a constitution or temper of minde as pliant as wax to receive the impressions of the flesh or stamp of the old man but as untoward as flint or other ragged stone to admit the image of the new man The first generall part how God doth harden THe difficultie is in what sense God can bee truly said to be the Authour of such a temper The proposition is of undoubted truth whether we consider it as an indefinite God doth harden or as a singular God hardened Pharaoh or in the universality here mentioned God hardemeth whom he will after the same manner he hardened Pharaoh Concerning the manner how God doth harden the questions are two 1. Whether hee harden positively or privatively onely 2. Whether he harden by his irresistible will or by his resistible will onely To give one and the same answer to either demand without distinction of time or persons were to entangle our selves as most Writers in this argument have done in the fallacie Ad plures interrogationes Touching the first question some good Writers maintaine the universall negative God never hardens positively but privatively onely onely by substracting or not granting grace or other meanes of repentance or by leaving nature to the bent of its inbred corruption Vide Lorinum in vers 51. cap. 7. Act. Apost pag. 322. colum 1a. Others of as good note and greater desert in Reformed Churches better refute the defective extreme than they expresse the meane betweene it and the contrary extreme in excesse with the maintenance whereof they are deeply charged not by Papists onely but by their brethren How often have Calvin and Beza beene accused by Lutherans as if they taught That God did directly harden mens hearts by infusion of bad qualities or That the production of a reprobate or impenitent temper were such an immediate or formall terme of his positive action as heat is of calefaction or drought of heat But if we take Privative and Positive induration in this sense and set them so farre asunder the division is altogether imperfect the former member comes as farre short of the truth as the latter overreacheth it God sometimes hardens some men neither the one way nor the other that is as wee say in schooles datur medium abnegationis betweene them And perhaps it may be as questionable whether God at any time hardens any man merè privative as it is whether there can be Peccatum pu●ae omissionis any sinne of meere omission without all mixture of commission But with this question here or elsewhere wee a●e not disposed to meddle being rather willing to grant what is confessed by all or most That hee sometimes hardens privativ●egrave if not by meere substraction of grace or utter deniall of other meanes of repentance yet so especially by these meanes as may suffice to verifie the truth of the proposition usually received or to give the denomination of Privative Hardening But many times hee hardens Positivè not by infusion of bad qualities but by disposing or inclining the Heart to goodnesse that is by communication of his favours and exhibition of motives more than ordinarie to repentance not that hee exhibites the same with purpose to harden but rather to mollifie and organize mens hearts to the receiving of Grace The naturall effect or purposed issue of the Riches of Gods bountie is to draw men to repentance But the very attempt or sway of meanes offered provokes hearts fastned to their sinnes to greater stubbornnesse in the rebound Hearts thus affected treasure up wrath against the day of wrath in a proportioned measure to the riches of bountie offered but not entertained by them And such a cause as God is of their treasuring up of wrath hee is likewise of their hardening no direct no necessary cause of either yet a cause of both more than privative a positive cause by consequence or resultance not necessary or necessary onely ex hypothesi Meanes of repentance sincerely offered by God but wilfully rejected by man concur as positively to induration of heart as the heating of water doth to the quick freezing of it when it is taken off the fire and set in the cold aire If a Physician should minister some physicall drink unto his patient and heape clothes upon him with purpose to prevent some disease by a kindly sweat and the patient throughly heated wilfully throw them off both may be said positive causes of the cold which would necessary ensue from both actions albeit the patient only were the