Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	action_n	good_a	sin_n	1,408	5	4.8951	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13083	True happines, or, King Dauids choice begunne in sermons, and now digested into a treatise. By Mr. William Struther, preacher at Edinburgh.	Struther, William, 1578-1633.	1633 (1633)	STC 23371; ESTC S113854	111,103	162

he will not daigne to be possessed with another chief good for he loveth God lesse who loveth any thing beside him which he loveth not for him A question here ariseth Whether there be a chief Ill as there is a chief good And some have made two eternall principles one good and one ill as the Manicheans They taught also that everie man had two souls one from the authour of good and the other from the authour of evill But I answer plainly that there is not a chief ill in that sense as there is a chief good A chief ill implies contradiction as we would say Being no-being highest-lowest perfection-annihilation For the chief good is a substance infinite in goodnesse and eternall in durance But ill is no substance but a fault in substance it hath no subsisting in it self but in another as a sicknesse that is thrust on an whole body Neither is ill infinite as goodnesse but only potentially as number because there are innumerable Ills or respectively in demerite because sin deserveth infinite punishment neither is it eternall but came after the creation for God looked on all his creatures and they were exceeding good but ill came afterward by the falling of angels and men The created eye was good but blindnesse came afterward The vice of the soul is not the nature of it but contrarie to nature wherefore no Nature nor substance nor essence are ill Men fell on that opinion of two chief principles upon three speciall grounds One that they looked not to the universall cause but to particular causes of particular effects The other because they considered apart particular contrarie actions of good and ill and reduced them not to a common cause Thirdly they were ignorant of the degrees of good and ill for when they saw in good there was good and better and so an ascending to best of all the chief good so seeing in ill there was ill and worse they thought there were degrees ascending to some chief ill But it is contrarie for the degrees of good ascend to a biding terme and the greatest degree is the best nature But the degrees of ill are descending go not to a biding terme but to annihilation the greater ill the lesse good or being and the greatest degree of ill is not highest but lowest so that if there could be a chief ill it would destroy it self Whatever maketh against it self destroyeth it self and what ever becometh lesse than it was is ill not in so farre as it is but in so farre as it becometh lesse and so tendeth to death Sinne hath a motion but it is a defective motion because it is a falling from God But good hath a perfective motion because it is an approaching to God But if we speak popularly four things come under the name of the chief ill A principle or root a fruit the punishment and a substance in whom these three do meet The root or principle of all ill is free-will in angels and men for when God had made all good and his work stood in perfect beautie Sathan brought in the first ill not of any provocation without nor corruption within but of his own free-will He would not be subject to God but would set himself in a sort of dominion In like manner he tempted man who without either necessitie in his lot or corruption in his soul upon the bait of equalitie with God of his own free-will would break the command The worst fruit is sin for Sathans sin was great because in a great angel and directly against God and his will keepeth the stamp of his first defection so that he cannot repent because he will not yea he will not so much as wish a will or power to repent and mans sins likewise are great because they flow from that same free-will which now is a slave to sin The worst punishment is damnation because the just reward of the worst fruit from the worst root and an eternall torment of soul and bodie And the worst natures in whom these do meet are evil angels and men and Sathan the worst of them all because his worst will hath greatest sin and shall finde greatest punishment In a word the worst ill in man is sin and the punishment That is a willing defection from the chief good and an unwilling labour among extreme evils Which otherwise we may call libertie from Justice and a flavery to sin Two uses rise of this question The first is a comfort that good is greater than ill for good is in God and God himself and ill is nothing but the losse of good and falling of creatures from him Therefore when our conscience checketh us for the greatnesse of our sin we should remember there is greater goodnes in God than ill in us And the sin against the holy Ghost is not called unpardonable as though Gods goodnesse could not pardon it but because the guiltie will not repent for the very nature of that sin standeth in a malitious oppugning and hating of God and his grace The second use is our warning concerning ill that albeit there be not a chief ill yet every ill is great There is some ill comparatively lesse than another as fornication is lesse than adulterie and an officious lye is lesse than a pernicious yet there is no ill properly little but the least ill is great enough to cut us off from the chief good For were a sin never so little in the sight of the world yet if we live and dye in it without repentance it shall prove a bar to hold us out of heaven and a weight to pull us down to hell SECTION II. Of the authour of happinesse From the Lord. YE have heard the first part of this doctrine concerning on● thing followeth the second concerning the authour of happinesse and this is the Lord Jehovah One thing have I sought of the Lord. This is clear both by the properties of a fountain and some instances The properties of the fountain of happines are three That it be happy it self that it impart happinesse to other without diminishing it self and that it preserve that happines it imparteth These three are proper to God alone for he is the fountain of the gardens and well of living waters With him is the fountain of life and in his light we see light And he is the father of lights from whom every good gift and donation cometh down Next though he impart happines to all yet his fulnesse is never diminished Though all the vessels of the world were set at the sea shore and filled the sea would not be known to be lesse If this be in the creature how much more in the Creatour And therefore the apostle crieth out O the deepnesse of the riches It is a deep richnesse that cannot be sounded and a rich deepnesse that can neither be lessened nor

yet willingly is bound by the bonds of his owne making For what is our faith challenging him of his promise but his owne grace in us telling he is minded to yeeld because he worketh in us that strength to wreastle with him like Jacob till wee prevaile His Fatherly love that preveneth us with that disposition meeteth us with the desire to answer It is most profitable even in this that by our prayers we partake of all the prayers of the godly that have beene made from the beginning God hath them all in register and they are a treasure of the Church but above all the prayer of Christ that gives life unto them If therefore we put in our mite in this treasure we have a right to the whole Some have questioned of what thing men made most gaine as twentie fourtie fiftie in the hundreth but prayer exceedeth all for we gaine a million for one Neither let us be discouraged if sometimes we finde our prayers but faint few words no order weake desires and no satisfying of our selves therein For as a mother will sooner heare her sicke babe in the cradle and run to him if he begin to weepe than a stronger boy that cryes strongly so God is more neere and ready to helpe when we can scarcely cry than when wee finde greater freedome Wee please God best when wee please our selves least and we please him worst when wee please our selves best our cutted and broken desires are our voice and these desires are as acceptable to him as our long prayers Oftentimes wee come to prayer with a trembling and withered heart but continuing therein sometimes grace is suddenly infused the heart is filled with joy and we finde the libertie we crave Praise is the other part of this beautie The floods returne to the sea so should we give thankes to God our Maker in creation our Benefactour in providence our Redeemer in Christ our Rewarder in crowning his owne mercies in us That affection is dead that powreth not out it selfe wholly in thanksgiving Therein people with heart and voice render him thanks And with prayer it maketh up the sweet respect betwixt God and man for in the first wee pull downe grace for grace in the second we send up praise for prayers In the first the sense of our miserie filling the heart with griefe openeth it with a desire of reliefe In the second the sense of mercie filling the heart with joy maketh it with an unspeakable delight to thrust it selfe upon God That heavenly thanksgiving that closeth Gods service is some token that people have gotten what they sought and that God sendeth them away in peace with his blessing pronounced upon them as a seale thereof It is the peoples triumph over sathan who is more grieved with the Saints praising than with all the charmes of his confederats Some have thought strange why wee are commanded by the Apostle both to pray and praise continually But that continuall is not as though we should be ever in the action of prayer or praise which is impossible but of our disposition and affection rising therefrom That as we have rooted in us the affections of griefe and joy so when God sendeth grievous things wee should pray and when he sendeth joyfull things we should praise They stand well with our mixed state here for there is no man who wanteth his owne daily miseries and so hath need to pray continually and none wanteth his owne daily blessings and so hath cause to praise continually Even our affliction is a secret cause of praise for as it telleth Gods love and foretelleth the happie fruit so God leaveth ever better behind him than he taketh from us For if he take away our health or fame c. yet if he leave remission of sins peace of conscience c. they are better than the blessings removed Lastly these two are mutuall causes to other for when our heart is soaped with sorrow and teares run downe our face wee have cause to rejoyce in that disposition as a speciall worke of grace so bruising our heart And in our greatest joy wee have cause of sorrow For while God is filling our heart with joy yet at that time we will be grieved because that joy will bide but shortly and that on our default For we can no more keepe it than a riven lanterne can keepe a candle in a storme or a cold hearth a sparkle of fire This is the sett debt which the Church acknowledgeth different from all other Civill debts oppresse men but this relieveth them And the debt of sinne maketh us wearie and laden but this easeth us We owe a heavie debt to Gods justice It is first directing when we obey it not turneth into a vindictive justice to punish us and we lye under a double burthen of sinne and punishment whereof Christ biddeth us pray for pardon Forgive us our debts But this is a debt to Gods mercie because it ingageth us by blessings so with new grace it helpeth us to pay that contracted debt In other debts the more wee pay the lesse is to pay but in this the more wee pay the more we owe because the thing that we pay is a new gift of God Thankfulnesse receiveth continually greater blessings and the opened thankfull heart keepeth Gods hand and treasure open We crave not to be freed of this debt but to be drowned in it so that we be not able to pay till we be in heaven eternally This life is too short a time and our soules and bodies now are ill tuned instruments to praise him Here we have but beginnings and preparations of praise for griefe the basse-string of our harp soundeth now highest but in heaven God shall take away that basse and tune our harps like the harps of the Angels when he hath wiped all teares from our eyes Now Christ giveth us a prayer for the way but then he shall put a new song in our mouth New for matter because Evangelicall not Legall New for the forme because all joy without mixture of griefe And new for Indurance because eternall Of this beautie of the sanctuarie we may gather First that when the Saints are met with God in the sanctuarie they are the most beautifull congregations of mankinde Other meetings as triumphs coronations c. have their owne shew and glorie but nothing to this Their expectation is more than their being and their being evanisheth at the height God is also in other meetings but not so as in the sanctuarie For there he is as Creatour ruling all things for this present life But here he is as Redeemer working true happinesse in his children that we may justly say That his presence elsewhere comparatively is a desertion to his presence in the sanctuarie His worke in the sanctuarie is the kernell and his providence in all things is the husk and the shell He hath more delight to see