Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	effect_n	will_n	1,670	5	6.6468	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39377	An Abstract of some letters to an eminent learned person concerning the excellency of the Book of common-prayer, &c.		1679 (1679)	Wing E7; ESTC R23206	15,276	30

Aversion of the Heart fro Our HOLY ONE My using these words Secundum Naturam Bonitatis Infinitae was not as you say to hide the Sense but to prevent your Opinion that I should hold such an Absurdity as this that God Acts any thing ad ultimum Posse which words can in no wise be spoken of God but it seems I had not my Aim For in the Close of your Letter you tell me that you think my work is to Prove that God communicateth Good Naturally to the utmost of his absolute Power as the Sun doth its influence of Light Heat and Motion God Forbid that I should undertake to Prove that God acts like a Finite Agent as Finite as having any Vtmost or Limited Power Whether I misunderstand Goodness which is another Passage in your Letter I shall entreat you to Consider by what I shall say of it in my present Reflexions upon these words of yours His Goodness even his infinite Perfection and Love to Himself This is GOD Himself He is His own infinite Joy and Life and Glory He is All in all Things and events Sin only excepted Enjoying Himself in these small Creatures which are so contemptible in the Sight of Men no less than in the most Glorious of the Heavenly Hosts And the more we Partake of the Divine Nature the more we Delight Ourselves in all the Works both of Creation and Providence Here I cannot but tell you that I Hate as the Gates of Hell the Folly and Madness of some of the Adversaries of Our Liturgie which prompted them to speak contemptuously under Pretence forsooth of Zeal for the Pure Service of God of that Excellent Hymn O all ye Works of the Lord Bless ye the Lord Praise him and Magnifie Him for Ever O all ye Angels of the Lord Bless ye the Lord c. There is say you a Negative Limitation which is not in Gods Power and you seem to grant it to be in his Wisdom which you truly call the Councell of his Will But what Wisdom doth it doth as the Guide of the Will and therefore as Wisdom is the reason of it I suppose you mean of a man 's not being Actually better than he is for you say in the next Page that our want of Goodness is the consequence of a meer Non Velle negatione Directionis so the Will must needs be the cause of it negatione Volitionis To this I Answer that the cause that any man is not better than he is is not that God cannot make him Better i. e. that there is any Defect of Power in God neither can it be rightly said that God can make him Better than he is For I understand those words as you rightly conjecture in sensu composito But perhaps you will say God could have made him Better than he is To this I Answer that the making him better than he is was never the Object of the Divine Power of which there can be no other Object ad Extra but what is judg'd fit to be brought to pass by that Wisdom which is Essentially the Same with Infinite Goodness This deep thing let me presume to tell you in all Humility requires your Utmost Attention Neither are these Negations if we may put a Periphrasis of Nothing in the Plural number of Wisdom to Direct of Will to Execute the Cause c. For of meer Negation there is No Issue or Consequence All that you say Reflecting upon my words concerning the Object of Gods Volition or Nolition c. I do most Affectionately Approve as importing very much of the same Truth for want of which Dr. Twisse whom you mention seems to me in many Passages of his Controversial Writings to Rave and Talk indeed like a Scholar but like one out of his Right Wits rather than to Dispute But you seem to Faulter very much when you come to say that our want of Goodness is the Consequence of meer Non Velle For as I said but now of a meer Negation or Nullity i. e. of Nothing there is no Issue or Consequence at all I think say you that it is not true that Volitio quà Talis efficit ad Extra sed tantùm quatenus per Potentiam Operatur To this I Answer Volitio Divina ad Extra quà Talis Divina inquam Efficit ad Extra nam Essentialitr includit Sapientiam Potentiam Infinitam To these words Omnis Volitio non est Efficiens for God willeth himself much less omnis Nolitio I Answer thus Gods Willing of Himself may not properly be term'd Efficient but it is Effectual or to the Purpose that is which He Willeth to Be And every Object of His Volition ad Extra Is or Shall be Through the Efficacy of His Power set on work by the Infinite Goodness of the Councel of his Will As for the Divine Nolition this I say By it we mean not the Negative of Volition but an Adverse Act of the Will which Essentially implying Infinite Wisdom and Power can never be Frustrated but alwayes Effects the Opposite to that to which it is Adverse So that if any man's being Actually Better than he is were the Object of Divine Nolition it must needs follow that God would be the Direct Cause of the Opposite thereof viz. that the man is Actually so Bad as he is What then is the Cause c I say again Onely the Preverseness of his own Will Sin only can be the Cause of Sin What Cause than had the first Sin why as in effect I have say'd already none at all Man 's own Perverseness of Will say you was not the Cause of his First Perverting or Sin When we speak of Perversness of Will with Reference to the First Sin we mean nothing but the First Sin under that Notion not that this Perverseness of Will is Really Distinct from the First Act of the Will Perverted I cannot translate OPTIMA into any English so suitable to my Conceptions as these words FVLL of Goodness I did not retire into Silence as you speak at the Instance of the Heathens but Told you this Certain Truth That we Ought not to Deny our Assent to such Evident Propositions as this that 'T is Essential to Infinite Goodness to Fill the Capacities of all Creatures so that properly and in the strictest sense there is no Evil but the Aversion of the Will of the Creature from the Will of the Infinitely Good and Wise and Powerful Creator To this I say we ought not to Deny our Assent because we cannot give an account of some Particular Wayes of Providence i. e. of the Modes or several Kinds of the Influence of Infinite Goodness upon some Parts of the Creation Modes c. we Attribute only ab Extrinseco to the Divine Providence they being only in the Creatures The Reason or Proof of this Consequence if God cannot be the Direct cause of Stainting c. is this because if He cannot be the Direct Cause of Stinting his

Influence c. It is on His Part Vnstinted that is to say in an Vnlimited Abundance But say you God may Non Agere without any Stinting Cause what restrain'd him from making the World from Eternity To this I Answer though God may Non Agere without a Cause in such a Sense as you Instance in yet there is alwayes some Cause of his Not-Giving Grace to any man to Do what He Commands him not that there can be any Impediment put upon God but that He is ab Extrinseco Denominated Not-Giving Grace for that the Creature does not Receive it from him the Cause of which Non-Reception is only the Perversness of his own Will which indeed is nothing else but his Aversion from the Divine Goodness To your Objection against my Description of Gods Offering of Grace viz. Offering is less than making and making is more than offering c. I Answer thus Every Real Offer must needs imply the Presenting of the Object of Reception wherever there is an Object of Reception there is a Capacity or Power to Receive There can be no Power to Receive that which is Good but only from GOD Therefore I do again most Confidently averr that Gods Offering of Grace is the making of men Presently Capable of Doing His Will or as we may speak of receiving His Commands By the Assistance of His Holy Spirit From my Description of Gods Offering of Grace there may be an Objection rais'd against what has been so Earnestly insisted on viz. that the Divine Goodness fills all the Capacities of His Creatures c. But the Answer is Easie viz. that the Present Capacity of Doing the Will of God is Fill'd i. e. the Will of God is Done According to that Capacity where the Capacity is not Instantly Nullifyed by the Creatures Sinning or Averting itself from the Divine Goodness The Sense whereof that I may more vigorously Excite in the Mind of the Learned and Pious Reader I shall here give him my Latine Translation together with the Original of an Excellent Prayer compos'd in English Verse by the Incomparable Mrs. K. P. The Same Sense in two Languages seems to me to Condense the Thoughts of the Reader and to give the greater Strength to their Influence upon His Affections ETernal Reason Glorious Majesty * * In cujus Essentiae comparatione Esse nostrum non Esse est S. GREG. Mor. 16. c. 16. Compar'd to whom what can be say'd to be Whose Attributes are Thee who art alone Cause of all various things and yet but One Whose Essence can no more be searcht by man Then Heav'n thy Throne be grasped with a Span. Yet if this great Creation was design'd To sey'ral ends fitted for ev'ry kind Sure Man the Worlds Epitome must be Form'd to the best that is to Study Tree And as our Dignity 't is Duty too Which is summ'd up in this to Know and Do. These comly Rowes of Creatures spell thy Name Whereby we grope to find from whence they Came By thy own Chain of Causes brought to think There must be one then find the Highest Link Thus all Created Excellence we see Is a Resemblance faint and dark of Thee Such Shadowes are produc'd by the Moon-Beams Of Trees or Houses in the running Streams Yet by Impressions born with us we find How good great just Thou art how unconfin'd Here we are swallow'd up and gladly dwell Safely Adoring what we cannot Tell. All we know is Thou art Supreamly Good And dost Delight to be so understood A spicy Mountain on the Universe On which thy Richest Odours do disperse But as the Sea to fill a Vessel heaves More greedily than any Cask receives Besieging round to find some gap in it Which will a new Infusion admit So dost Thou covet how Thou mayst dispense Upon the empty World thy Influence Lov'st to disburst thyself in Kindness thus The King of Kings Waits to be Gracious On this account O Lord enlarge my Heart To entertain what Thou would'st fain impart Nor let that Soul by sev'ral Titles Thine And most Capacious form'd for things Divine So nobly meant that when it most doth miss 'T is in mistaken pantings after Bliss Degrade it self in sordid things delight Or by prophaner mixtures lose its right O that with fixt unbroken thoughts it may Admire the Light which does Obscure the Day And since 't is Angels Work it hath to do May its Composure be like Angels too When shall these clods of Sense and Phantsy break That I may hear the God within me speak When with a silent and retired Art Shall I with all this empty hurry part To the Still Voice Above my Soul advance My Light and Joy plac'd in his Countenance By whose dispense my Soul to such frame brought May tame each treach'rous fix each wandring Thought With such distinctions all things here behold And so to separate each dross from Gold That nothing my free Soul may Satisfie But t' imitate enjoy and Study Thee ORatio Omnipotens Majestas Gloria Summa Cui si * * In cujus Essentiae comparatione Esse nostrum non Esse est S. GREG. Mor. 16. c. 16. Confertur Quicquam Non Esse probatur Cui Quod inest est Tu Qui cunctis Rebus habere Esse suum Varium das Vnus Semper Idem Cujus non magis Explorari Essentia possit Humano Ingenio quàm Summi Culmina Coeli Comprendi Palmo At fuerint si Cuncta per Orbem In certos generis diversi condita Fines Ipsum Hominem Quò Maxima Spiret Nasci constat id est Quò se Tibi MAXIME Reddat Hoc Nostrum Officium est haec Nostra est Gloria Scire Et Facere usque Jubet quicquid Divina Voluntas Condita quaeque Tuum quasi Sculpta Vocabula Nomen Designant Fontem hinc pervestigamus eorum Scilicet ostendit Causarum longa Catena Esse Vnam Summam à Quâ Pendent Singula Causam Naturae quicquid Praeclarae lumina spargit Hoc levis IMMENSI perhibetur LVMINIS Vmbra Quales in Fluviis Tectorum aut Arboris Vmbras Producit tenni splendescens Cynthia Cornu Idêis tamen Innatis BONITAS Manifesta est Illa Tua nullis Te clausum Finibus esse Hîc Alto Absorptos nos LVX IMMENSA recondit Tutò Admirantes Non Enarrabile Verum Novimus hoc solum de Te BONITATE SVPREMA Gaudentem Titulo Te Velle Agnoscier Isto Mons es Aromaticus Jucundos Suavis Odores Divite profluvio totum diffundis in Orbem Vt coit Vnda aliquod Vas impletura receptum In Mare scrutando Rimas quibus Influat usque Prosiliens plus quàm possit Vas accipere urgens Vt Pater Alme Tuâ possit Bonitate repleri Sic urges Vacuum Foecundo Numine Mundum Ipse Benignus Amas Te Dispensare Favorem Exhibet Indignis condonat Crimina gratis Rex Regum Amplifica DEVS O Ter Maxime nostrum Cor Avidè Arripiat quod Tu Largiris Amanter O Anima haec Titulis Tibi soli Debita multis Magna Tuique Capax tam purum nobile cui sit Ingenium ut Sitiat Verum quod Devia linquit Ne se Deliciis Pravis illapsa Minorem Quàm Quae Facta fuit Faciat revoluta deorsum Jus adeo Antiquum potiundi Numine perdens O utinam certis immotae viribus Ipsa Mentis in Augustum sit Sacro Rapta Stupore Lumen quo victi vel lucida Tela Diei In Tenebras abeunt Quam fungi Munere Oportet Angelico Angelicam tandem Pater OPTIME reddat Illi Temperiem Quando ista Repagula Sensus Claudentes Animum penitus Rumpentur ut Intus Alloquio DEVS ipse Suo me Personet Arte Quando Ego Tranquillâ Curâ semota Metuque Despiciam stolidi Bacchantia Gaudia Mundi Tu Rape sursum Animam Lenem super Aethera Vocem Audiat inque Tuo semper Mea Gaudia Vultu Ponantur Nostras Te Disponente Medullas Nè Superet Fallax Agitet nec Mobile Coenum Clariùs ut valeam rerum cognoscere causas Atque Auro cautè Scoriam distinguere vilem Vt ruptis tandem Mens evolet Ignea Vinclis Et Tibi se jungens Aeternâ Pace Quiescat FINIS Page 7. of the Letters line 12. for Punishes read Purifies Books Newly Printed this Year 1678. for William Crook 1. THe Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire commonly called the Devils Arse of Peak 2. Reflections upon Antient and Modern Philosophy Moral and Natural treating of the Philosophers of all Countreys and Ages 80. 3. Melpomene or the Muses Delight being New Poems and Songs written by several of the great Wits of the present Age. 4. Decameron Physologicum or ten Dialogues of Natural Philosophy By Tho. Hobbs of Malmsbury 80. 5. Tunbridge Wells or a Dayes Court-ship a Comedy Acted at the Dukes Theatre 6. The Man of New-Market a Comedy Acted at the Theatre Royal. 7. A Discourse Whether it be lawful to take Use for Money Written by Sir Rob. Filmer and published by Sir Roger Twisden 120. 8. The School of Righteousness A Sermon Preached before the King by Dr. Sandcroft Arch-bishop of Canterbury 40. 9. Praxis Curiae Admiralitatis Angliae