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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85404	Neophytopresbyteros, or, The yongling elder, or, novice-presbyter. Compiled more especially for the Christian instruction and reducement of William Jenkin, a young presbyter, lately gone astray like a lost sheep from the wayes of modesty, conscience and truth. And may indifferently serve for the better regulation of the ill governed Society of Sion Colledge. Occasioned by a late importune pamphlet, published in the name of the said William Jenkin, intituled Allotrioepiskopos; the said pamphlet containing very little in it, but what is chiefly reducible to one, or both, of those two unhappy predicaments of youth, ignorance, & arrogance. Clearly demonstrated by I.G. a servant of God and men in the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. Wherein also the two great questions, the one, concerning the foundation of Christian religion: the other, concerning the power of the naturall man to good supernaturall, are succinctly, yet satisfactorily discussed. With a brief answer in the close, to the frivolous exceptions made by C B. against Sion Colledge visited, in a late trifling pamphlet, called, Sion Colledge what it is, &c.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1648 (1648)	Wing G1183; Thomason E447_27	141,216	147

to attend unto the things of his peace as it is said Acts 16. 14. that the Lord opened the heart of Lydia that she attended unto the things spoken by Paul or else a gracious and immediate supporting of the will in the act of consenting and in all other acts requisite hereunto so that a sufficient light of conviction shining in the judgement or understanding God suffereth nothing to intervene to the disturbance of the will so as to prevent or hinder the regular motion thereof which in such a case is to consent or 3 o and lastly if hee meanes by his Physical influence any such representation of things to the mind or understanding of a man whereby the will is brought over after an effectuall and potent manner to give up her selfe in consent unto them I acknowledge a Physicall influence of Grace upon the will But the truth is I doe not well understand what the man meaneth by his Physicall influence and am fully perswaded that himselfe understandeth himselfe as little in it as I so that I cannot give that particular and distinct answer which upon a distinct explication of the queree I am ready to doe But they that propound blind questions must expect answers accordingly Onely let me add this further in the point in hand that for any other Physicall influence upon the will than that which I have expressed and acknowledged which I confesse to be very untowardly and unproperly so called himselfe acknowledgeth none at least if he meanes as he saith page 51. For here more like a reasonable man than himselfe he writeth thus To whatsoever object it the will is carried it is not without the preceding counsell of the practicall judgement The will being a rationall appetite never moveth but per modum judicij upon apprehension of some goodnesse to which it moves Nor is it in any motions compulsorily overswayed but worketh according to its own proper motion and to the condition of its own nature Surely he that saith these things if he be of a consistent brain doth not suppose the will capable of any other influence in order to the moving of it but onely that which is suasory and morall The profundum Sect. 72. or bottom of his querees is this If I grant that Grace is certain infallible and determinative in its operation upon the will he desires to know whether I mean that this invincibility and infallibility of the working of grace be onely to be look'd upon as such respectu eventus in regard of what doth fall out and de facto doth come to passe or whether the certain determination of the will by grace proceedeth from the powerfull nature of that grace of God which as Austin saith no hard heart is able to refuse They that clearly understand this question may give a cleare answer to it All that I clearly understand of it is a parcell of absurdities what I conjecture of sense in it I shall give answer unto First he maketh the invincibility and infallibility of the working of grace and the certain determination of the will by grace to be one and the same whereas it is evident 1 o. that invincibility and infallibility are but modifications of the act or working of grace whereas a determination of the will is either the act it selfe or else if it be understood passively the product or effect of such an act Secondly he supposeth that if there be an invincibility and infallibility in grace there must needs follow a certain determination of the will by grace Wherein Supponit quod non est supponendum a misbehaviour very incident to novice Disputants For grace may be invincible and infallible in the working of it i may invincibly and infallibly produce such an effect in the soule which answeres the nature measure and degree of it and yet not necessarily produce a certain determination of the will to a saving consent or a through act of beleeving Thirdly Sect. 73. is it not a very ridiculous queree to demand Whether the certain determination of the will by grace proceedeth from the powerfull nature of grace considering first that effects doe not proceed from the natures of their causes but from the actuall engagements of their causes in a way of efficiencie to produce them 2 o. That Grace is not a naturall but a voluntary or free working cause and so doth not necessarily act or work when it doth work ad extremum potentiae to the uttermost extent of its power but according to such measures and degrees of efficiencie as it selfe pleaseth So that how powerfull soever the nature of grace be it no way followes that a certain determination of the will must necessarily follow upon the motion acting or working of it It was the grace of God which is so powerfull in the nature of it for God hath but one Spirit of grace which is alwayes in respect of his nature uniformly and equally powerfull which wrought upon the stiff necked and hard-hearted Jewes for many succeeding generations yet we know that they resisted this grace and Spirit of God neither were their wills penitently or savingly determined by it Ye have alwayes saith Stephen to the latter brood of them resisted the holy Ghost as your Fathers did so doe yee Fourthly Sect. 74. nor is there any over-plus of acumen in that distinction exhibited in this queree between an invincibility and infallibility of a cause respectu eventus in respect of the event or effects and the powerfulnesse of the nature of a cause I doe not understand how a cause may be termed invincible and infallible in respect of the event or effect which is not very powerfull in the nature of it But Fifthly and lastly that which the young man would demand in this Queree as farre as my soule is able to enter into his secret is briefly this whether the act or worke of God in and about the conversion of a man be so strong powerfull and over-hearing as to carry or produce the effect of his actuall conversion against all the possibility that is in him to hinder it If this be the intent of his queree I answer My sense clearly is that according to the ordinary course of the grace of God acting and working in and about the conversion of men there is no man actually converted but might possibly have acted or demeaned himselfe so as never to have been thus converted The account of my judgement herein for the present is briefly this I conceive that though the grace of God acting in and towards the conversion of a man subdues and takes away all the actuall rebelliousnesse or gainsayingnesse of the will yea and possibly all inclination towards any rebellion in this kind which is abundantly sufficient as to his actuall conversion yet it doth not remove or take away all possibility from the will of rebelling or of doing wickedly Nor doe I apprehend how it is possible for the will either of men or

unrighteousnesse Cannot a man call a spade a spade but hee must needs rage against the mattock Or cannot a man charge darknesse with misdemeanors and many evill works without raging against the light or the Sons of Belial without raging against the Ministers of Christ or say to a Cosmocraticall imperious bloody government thou art the cause of these and these mischiefes but he must presently rage against the Government of Christ Would a man thinke that such a Consequentiary as this should offer to ingage in the profound disputes about the efficacie of Grace and the liberty or power of the will yes why not as well as Phaethon undertook to drive his Fathers Chariot Quem si non tenuit magnis tamen excidit ausis Which how to manage though he could not tell Yet brave was the attempt from which he fell He speaks pag. 50. of having me sent to the children Sect. 29. He had need be sent both to children and to men to the former to learne modesty to the latter to be taught the rudiments of learning and discourse Having so demonstratively proved my rage reaching up to heaven against Christs Ministers and Government as you have heard he conceives this cordiall and devout prayer for me The Lord smite his conscience and touch his heart for this expression before it be wounded so as it will be without cure Speaker not my Lords Grace just as if he were in his Metropoliticall visitation Or was it not the manner of the Arch-Prelates and their Commissioners to amuze the poore ignorant people with the profoundnesse and solempnity of their devotion when conscientious and godly persons were brought before them either for going from their Parish Churches to partake of the Word where it was preached or for repeating Sermons in their houses or the like to lift up their eyes and hands towards Heaven and make devout prayers unto God for such heynous Delinquents as these that God would smite their conscience and touch their hearts and give them repentance for the great dishonour they had done unto God and Jesus Christ by these refractory and schismaticall practices by their disobedience unto those Rulers and Governours which he had set over them c. Nec lacte lacti nec ovum ovo similius 'Twixt milke and milke the likenesse is not greater Nor egge to egge more parallel in feature Then Mr. Jenkin's devotion in this and other places of his book is to that of our late Prelacie whereby they sought to commend both their Persons Office and Government unto the poor simple people as sacred and such whose honour could not be impeached or impaired without great impiety and dishonour unto Christ even as this Prelaticall piece of Presbytery a little after would needs make the world believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest suffer of them all by my Pamphlet The truth is that none of them all need to have been any sufferer at all by the Pamphet he speaks of the face of it being clearly set not to curse them but to blesse them altogether If they suffer by it they may thank the pride and stiffenesse of their own necks w ch will not stoop to the yoke of sound counsel or a through Admonition But for the booke whatsoever now they suffer from it they have only some such cause of complaint against it as they have against that corner-stone wch God hath laid in Sion who by stubbornnesse impenitency and unbelief dash themselves in pieces against it As for his intituling Jesus Christ to the preheminence of martyrdome amongst them it is but a straine of Rabshekah his rhetoricke of old who went about to perswade the people that what Hezekiah had done with speciall acceptation from God in taking away the Idolatrous Altar and high places was matter of deepe provocation in his sight a Isa 36. 7. and that God was a loser or sufferer thereby His second proofe of that sore rage of mine which you heard of against Christ in his Ministery and Government Sect. 30. is that I say concerning the Reverent Ministers of Christ in the Citie that they foment dions multiply distractions obstruct the quiet composure and setling of things in the Land c. I answer 1 o. That I speake no such words as these concerning any Reverent Ministers of Christ at least not concerning any whom I had any more reason to know or to take notice of for such then Paul had to know or acknowledge him for Gods high Priest who commanded him to be smitten on the mouth by the standers by whilst he was soberly pleading his cause and to whom he said God shall smite thee thou painted wall b Acts 23. 3. Concerning some Ministers in the City I confesse I spake those words but that I spake them concerning the Reverent Ministers of Christ in the Citie lies upon Mr. Jenkin 〈◊〉 prove in his next and in the meantime to be suspected not only for a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a simple accuser but for a false accuser of his brethren 2 o. For the truth of the words applied to those of whom they were spoken and meant I appeale to ten parts of twelve throughout the Kingdome viz. whether the Ministers of Sion-Colledge amongst them for of all of them the words were neither spoken nor meant doe not foment divisions multiply distractions obstruct the quiet composure of things amongst us So that thus farre here is no rage reaching up to heaven proved in opposing Christ either in his Ministers or government It is a certaine rule that Christ is never opposed with truth Whereas he addes that the genuine paraphrase is the Ministers are the Troublers and Traytors of the Kingdome I wish that if this be the paraphrase it be not too genuine to the originall Text. I heare a bird called the Pulpit-Incendiary sing a note very neare to the old dolefull tune By Clergie-men we are undone Whereas I adde Sect. 31. and Mr. Jenkin repeats and recompence no degree of all this unworthiness with any considerable good he gravely demands would any Atheist in England have said more Truly Mr. Jenkin I thinke not nor perhaps halfe so much I would be sorry to say no more for Christ nor for his friends nor in his cause than an Atheist would say Atheists are not like to put their fingers into any such fire as I have done for the honour and service of Jesus Christ my Lord and his Gospel Whereas hee addes with much seeming regret as if those words of mine did imply that all their labours though never so successefull in converting or building up of soules amount not to any considerable good I cleerly answer that for all the successe either in converting of soules except it hath been from God and godnnesse unto the power of Satan and so for building up of soules except it hath been in wrath and disaffection against the Parliament Armie and faithfull servants of God under the name of

exceptions against me Sect. 126. about my mis-notioning of Sion Colledge which together with his essayes to jeere and flout make up the greatest part of what he pamphlets against me I shall only touch two or three particulars of somwhat another nature in the charge whereof he magnifies himselfe at an extream rate of height and grandure against me His first-born charge against me upon which he runnes a long division in a multiplicity of words p. 14. and again p. 19 20. is this that I say in my Epistle which yet doth not begin with it neither as C. B. stumbleth that the Lord Jesus Christ the great Bishop of their souls some few months since was pleased to administer by the hand of his weak and unworthy servant a monitory visitation unto some professing themselves his Ministers c. upon occasion of these words he chargeth me first with inward rancor of heart against the Colledge and then with a presumptuous fathering of all little short of blasphemy upon Christ and the Almighty himselfe And soon after at a man fallen into a new trance of astonishment or as not recovered out of the former he epiphonema's it thus O horrid presumption thus to entitle his railings and slanders to the Almighty But first good C. B. where are the railings and slanders you speak of Certainly the place of them is no where to be found but in your distempered fancy distempered I fear with a more malignant dangerous distemper than that of astonishment You neither do nor can shew any one instance either of the one misdemeanour or the other in that piece against which your transportation so rageth In that Epistle or Preface you speak of you onely find a monitory visitation intituled as you call it unto Christ no railings or slanders Nor doth it follow that because I intitle the body or substance of that visitation unto Christ I must therefore intitle unto him also all or any the infirmities found in the administration A man may and ought intitle God to the act of his beleeving and yet not intitle him to any deficiency or weaknesse therein 2 o. Whereas you are so zealously displeased that I should intitle Christ to the visitation you speak of and cry out of little lesse than blasphemy in it it no wayes troubles me nor need to trouble any other considering there is nothing more incident to men that have too much wil on ways that are sinful than to rise up with deep indignation against those that shall censure or reprove these wayes as speaking of themselves ●ut of the pride or malice of their own hearts and as having no commission or authority from God so to speak or doe When Jeremy had faithfully made known unto the people the mind of God against their going into Egypt upon which accommodation for so it seemed unto them their hearts and minds were inordinatly impotently and importunely set how peremptorily and confidently did they charge this Prophet with speaking unto them those things in the name of God which yet he had no commission from God to speak but spake them out of ill will to them and with an intent to destroy them Now when Jeremiah saith the Text had made an end of speaking unto the people all the words of the Lord their God for which the Lord their God had sent him to them even all these words then spake Azariah the sonne of H●sh●iah and Johanan the sonne of Kareah and ALL THE PROVD MEN saying unto Jeremiah Thou speakest falsly the Lord our God hath not sent thee to say G● not into Egypt to sojourn there But Baruch the son of N●riah setteth thee on against us for to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans that they might put us to death and carry us away captive into Babylon a Ier. 43. 1 2 3. The selfe sam● Spirit which uttered it self in these men against Jeremy worketh at this day after the same manner and uttereth it selfe upon very like terms in C. B. W. I. and some other high-spirited men of Sion Colledge against me and others for reproving such sinfull wayes and practices of theirs unto which they have lift up their hearts very high and are resolved it seems not to let them fall again come life come death whether temporall or eternall It were easie to trace the same spirit by severall other footsteps in the Scriptures See Jer. 5. 12 13. 18. 18. Am. 9. 10 c. But 3 o. and lastly It being the manner of the Scriptures to ascribe those things unto God which are done by vertue of and in obedience to his command I had ground and foundation large enough to inintitle or ascribe unto him that my visitation of Sion Colledge except as before is excepted For is not the command of God expresse Them that sin rebuke before all men that others also may fear 1 Tim. 5. 20. And again This witnesse is true wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith Tit. 1. 13. It seems C B. hath no mind himself to become sound in the faith nor yet to have his Collegiate brethren divided from him upon that point For as to his demand p. 7. How dare these men so boldly and deeply to traduce calumniate condemne and post up a whole Society of Elders without any shew of truth ●or offering to produce so much as one witnesse to make good their charge hee doth prudently to shelter himselfe from the charge of a right-down and most notorious untruth under the wing of an interrogation which yet he conceiveth will serve his turn as well as an assertive affirmation which had been more obnoxious would have done The truth is that the men he speaks of dare not upon any terms whatsoever traduce or calumniate any man or men of what condition soever much lesse a whole Society of Elders they know as well as C. B. himself that in so doing they should d●e the office of the grand accuser of the brethren as Atturneys or Sollicitors the Lawyer still metaphors it in his Act to the Devil But I will tell you what they dare do they dare with the hand of Truth take Lions by the beard they dare in the vindication of the cause of God and of his servants withstand his and their enemies though never so formidable for number rank or other consideration soever to their faces they dare expose their names estates liberties lives to the wrath of men for fulfilling the righteousnesse of God These such things as these they dare do But whereas he would fain intimate that the men he speaks of do not reprove for or charge upon his Society of Elders matters of truth but onely traduce and calumniate them and this without any shew of truth 1 o. evident it is that all or farre the greatest part of all the particulars charged upon them in Sion Colledge visited are extant in their own d●are Testimony not onely acknowledg●d but rejoyced and gloried