Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	adam_n	death_n	sin_n	5,480	5	6.3830	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26935	Gods goodness vindicated for the help of such (especially in melancholy) as are tempted to deny it, and think him cruel, because of the present and future misery of mankind, with respect to the doctrine of reprobation and damnation / by Richard Baxter ... ; published and prefaced by a friend at whose desire it was written, and to whom it was committed.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1671 (1671)	Wing B1278; ESTC R5256	19,834	110

have power to make God Ignorant and another thing to have power to do otherwise than that which he foreknoweth you will do No man hath power to make God ignorant But all sinners may have power to do otherwise than that which God foreknoweth we will do For God doth not foreknow that e. g. Gehezi shall not have Power to forbear a lye but only that he will not forbear it Yea more Gods foreknowledge doth prove that sinners have power to do otherwise For that which God foreknoweth will be But God foreknoweth that men will abuse their power to sin or will sin when they had Power to do otherwise Therefore it will be so in the Event Now if you will call their power to do otherwise a power to frustrate Gods foreknowledge you will but speak foolishly For the Power it self is foreknown And the object of knowledge in esse cognito is not after the act of knowledge And if the person will not actually sin God could not foreknow that he will sin So that foreknowledge is here when it is not causal but a medium in a Syllogisme and inferreth only the necessity of the consequence in arguing and doth not cause the thing foreknown Now when Dr. Twisse saith that all the Schoolmen agree that no necessity Consequentis or of Causation but only Consequentiae doth follow the decree of Reprobation see how far he and Arminius are in this agreed Though I know some give another fence of necessitas consequentiae But I come closer to the matter yet 4. God Decreeth no mans sin Neither Adams nor any others He may decree the effect which sinners accomplish as the death of Christ And he may over-rule men in their sin and bring good out of it c. But sin is not a thing that he can will or cause and so not Decree which signifieth a volition 5. God cannot be proved to Decree or Will the Permission of mans sin For to Permit is nothing It is but not to hinder which is no act And to Decree and Will is a Positive Act And if you fain God to have a Positive Volition or Nolition of every nothing or Negative then he must have positive decrees of every meer possible Atome Sand Worm Name Word Thought of Man c. That such and such a nothing shall never be whereas there needeth no more to keep any thing from being in this case than Gods not Causing it not Willing it not Decreeing it The Creatures Active Nature Disposition Objects and Circumstances are here presupposed And the Impedition necessary is by Act or substraction of these aforesaid And Gods non-agere needs no positive decree I must tell the Learned Reader that this room will not serve to Answer his foreseen objections but I hope I have done it sufficiently elsewhere 6. God hath not only Decreed to give but actually given a great deal of mercy to them that perish which had a natural tendency to their Salvation Christ hath so far dyed for all as that none shall perish for want of a sufficiency in the satisfaction made He hath purchased and given for all a grant or gift of himself with Pardon Justification Adoption and right to glory on condition of acceptance where the Gospel cometh In a word so that none of them shall perish that do not finally refuse the Grace and Salvation offered them 7. Men are not Impenitent and Vnbelievers for want of that called natural faculty or Power to choose and refuse aright but for want of a right disposition of their own wills And by such a moral Impotency which is indeed their viciousness and the wickedness of their wills and doth not excuse but aggravate the sin see Mr. Truman of Natural and Moral Impotency 8. To rectifie mens wicked wills and dispositions God giveth them a World of means The whole Creation and Documents of providence all the precepts promises threats of Scripture Preaching Example Mercies Judgements Patience and inward motions of the spirit All which might do much to mens Conversion and Salvation if they would but do what they could on their own part 9. Adam could have stood when he fell without any more Grace than that which he abused and neglected Gods grace which was not effectual to him was as much as was necessary to his standing if he would have done his best And it was left to his free-will to have made that help effectual by improvement He fell not because he could not stand but because he would not 10. For ought any can prove multitudes that believe not now but perish may have rejected a help as sufficient to their believing as Adams was to his standing 11. All men have power to do more good and avoid more Evil than they do And he that will not do what he can do Justly suffereth 12. Heathens and Infidels are not left unredeemed under the remediless Curse and Covenant of Innocency which we broke in Adam but are all brought by the Redemption wrought by Christ under a Law or termes of Grace 1. God made a Covenant of Grace with all mankind in Adam Gen. 3.15 who was by Tradition to acquaint his posterity with it as he did to Cain and Abel the Ordinances of Oblation and Sacrifice 2. This Covenant was renewed with all mankind in Noah 3. This Covenant is not repealed otherwise than by a perfecter Edition to them that have the plenary Gospel 4. The full Gospel Covenant is made for all as to the Tenor of it and the command of Preaching and Offering it to all 5. They that have not this Edition may yet be under the first Edition 6. The Jewes under the first Edition were saved without believing in this determinate person of Jesus or that he should die for sin and rise again and send down the spirit For the Apostles believed it not before hand Luk. 18.34 Joh. 12.16 Luke 9.45 Mark 9.34 Luk. 24.21 25 26. Act. 1.6 7 8. yet were they then in a state of saving grace as appeareth by Joh. 14. 15. 16. 17. throughout 7. The rest of the world that had not the same supernatural Revelation were not then bound to believe so much as the Jewes were about the Messiah 8. God himself told them all that they were not under the unremedyed curse of the Covenant of Innocency by giving them a life full of those mercies which they had forfeited which all did tend to lead them to repentance and to seek after God Rom. 2.4 Act. 17.27 and find him yea the left not himself without witness for that which may be known of him and his invisible things are manifested and clearly seen in his works so that the wicked are without excuse Rom. 1.19.20 Act. 14.17 So that all Heathens are bound to believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 and are all under the duty of using certain means in order to their own recovery and salvation and to

not now of the malignant Atheist But of the Melancholy tempted person Alas it is the Melancholy disease and the Devil more than he God pittyeth his Childrens frowardness especially when necessitated naturally by Diseases and he that pardoned pievish Jonas that said I do well to be angry to the death and complaining Job and excused his sleepy Disciples with The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak will not condemn an upright soul for the effect of a feaverish deliration or a Melancholy that overcomes his natural power of resistance Quest 19. Would you thus argue or quarrel against Gods Greatness and Wisdom as you do against his Goodness You suspect him to be unmerciful because he cureth not mens sins and preventeth not their damnation And have you not the like occasion to argue against his other perfections Do you think he reasoneth soberly that saith He that maketh Asses when he might have made them men or maketh Ideots or maketh stones that know nothing He that is the Governour of such a foolish distracted confused world as mankind is is foolish himself or unskilful in Government or wanteth wisdome But God doth thus Is he not worse than a fool that will accuse his God of folly Doth not the admirable harmony of all the world and his wonderful work in every Creature prove his incomprehensible Wisdom And what would you say to him that should thus reason He that maketh impotent wormes that suffereth the Good to die that suffereth the Tyrants of the Earth to persecute his Church and cause is Impotent and not Almighty But so doth God Would you not say I have the wonderful frame of Heaven and Earth the Sun and Staars the Sea and Land to prove to me that he is Almighty This therefore is a proved foundation truth to which all doubts must be reduced And if you dare not be so impudent as to deny his Omniscience or Omnipotence when you think there is errour or impotency in his works Why will you any more deny his Goodness when you dream that there is badness in his works Do you not know that Power Wisdom and Goodness are Gods Three essential Principles of Operation Virtues or Properties And that they are none of them greater or less than other And that his Goodness though not as to be measured by humane Interest is equal to his Wisdom and his greatness And do you not know that to deny any one of the three yea to deny the perfection of any one of them is to deny that there is any God And is he sober that will argue There are Frogs and Toads there are Wormes and Asses there are fools and miserable sinners Therefore there is no God When as there could neither be any of these nor any world or being if there were no God Quest 20. Lastly now Consider whether evidently the root of all this sin be not besides Melancholy and Satan the power of selfishness and sensual or fleshly Interest Alas poor men that were made for their God to rejoyce wholly in Pleasing him and to shew forth the lustre of his Glory are fallen unto Themselves and Flesh and now they that should wholly devote and referr themselves to God do strive to make God a servant to themselves and measure his Goodness by the Standard of their fleshly sence and Interest And God shall be with them no longer Good that is no longer God than he will give them their wills and serve their flesh and keep them from crosses and losses and pains and govern the World according to their fancies And when they are committing this odious self-exalting Idolatry and abasing God even then will they Judge themselves both Wiser and more merciful than he Yea when a Melancholy man despaireth in the sense of his own sin and badness at that very time he thinketh himself more Merciful than the God of Infinite Goodness and accuseth his God for being crueller than he himself O man into what distraction and confusion art thou faln when thou departest from thy God and sinkest into that blind and wretched self And tell me what if but the wills of all the poor the pained the dying c. were but reconciled to their suffering-state would that which pleaseth the will be matter of any complaint You may see then that it is not Gods providence c. but the wills and waies of sinners that are the diseased causes of all their wranglings And if our wills were cured and reduced to Gods will we should find no fault with him If I can but be truly willing of imprisonment poverty or death how can I feel any thing in it to complain of When even sinners as aforesaid do obstinately here take their misery for their happiness and are contented with it so farr as it is voluntary By that time these twenty Questions are Answered the accusations of God as wanting Goodness will all turn to the accusers shame II. I am next briefly to detect the false opinions which do ordinarily cause these persons errours 1. It is false doctrine to affirm that God condemneth the greater part of his Intectual Creatures as I have shewed though he condemn never so many of this ungodly world 2. It is not true that God decreeth to condemn any man but for sin for sin I say as the cause of his damnation 3. God decreeth to condemn none at age which I add but to exclude foolish cavils for Adam 's sin only nor for any other sin only that is not conjoyned with an obstinate final impenitencie and rejecting offered mercy and neglecting means appointed for their salvation 4. Gods Decrees do cause no mans sin nor his damnation any further than as as supposing sin for Dr. Twisse himself still professeth 1. That Reprobation is an Immanent act and nihil ponit in objecto putteth nothing at all into the person 2. And that Reprobation inferreth no necessity of sin or misery but that which is called necessitas consequentiae and not any necessitas consequentis and Arminius and all confess that Gods bare foreknowledge causeth or inferreth a necessity consequentiae which truly is but a Logical necessity in order of argumentation when one thing is proved by another and not by Physical necessity in order of causation as one thing is caused by another And whereas they say Then man might have frustrated Gods decree I ask them whether man can frustrate Gods fore-knowledge suppose God to foreknow sin without decreeing it of which more anon is not this a good argument All that God foreknoweth will certainly come to pass But God foreknoweth e. g. Judas sin Therefore it will certainly come to pass And what of all this It doth not come to pass because God foreknoweth it no more than the Sun will rise to morrow because you foreknow it And if you say That no power can frustrate Gods foreknowledge I answer They are delusory words of one that knoweth not what he saith For it is one thing to

moreover assert a special Decree and Grace of God which with a chosen number shall antecedently Infallibly secure his Ends in their repentance faith perseverance and salvation Is this any detraction from or diminution of his universal Grace or rather a higher Demonstration of his Godness As it is no wrong to man that God maketh Angels more holy immutable and happy 14. And what if men cannot here tell how to resolve the question Whether any or how many are ever converted and saved by that meer Grace which we call sufficient or rather Necessary and common to those that are not converted and whether mans will ever make a saving determining improvement of it must plain truth be denyed because difficulties cannot easily be solved And yet in due place I doubt not but I have shewed that this question it self is formed upon false suppositions and is capable of a satisfactory solution 15. I conclude in general that nothing is more sure than that God is most Powerful Wise and Good and that All his works to those that truly know them do manifest all these in conjunction and perfect Harmony and that as to his Decrees and Providences he is the Cause of all Good and of no sin in act or habit and that our sin and destruction is of our selves and of him is our Holiness and Salvation And that he attaineth all his ends as certainly as if mans will had no liberty but were acted by Physical necessitation And yet that mans will hath as much natural Liberty as if God had not gone before it with any Decree of the Event and as much moral liberty as we have moral virtue or holiness And these Principles I have laid down in a little room that Tempted persons may see that it is our dark and puzzled braines and our selfish diseased hearts that are the cause of our quarreling with God his Decrees and Providences and as soon as we come to our selves and are cured these odious apprehensions vanish and God appeareth as the unclouded Sun in the Lustre of his Amiable Goodness And when we come to Heaven we shall see to our Joy and his Glory that Heaven Earth and Hell declare him to be all perfectly Good without any mixture of evil in himself or in any of his word or works And we shall find all our sinful suspicions and murmurings turned into a joyful consent to the Angelical praises Psal 136.1.2 26 c. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is Good for his mercy is for ever O give thanks unto the God of Heaven for his mercy is for ever Rom. 4.8 11. Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for thou hast Created all things and for thy Pleasure they are and were Created Rev. 7.12 Amen Blessing and Glory and Wisdome and Thanksgiving and Honour and Power and Might unto our God for ever and ever Amen The Lord is Good to all and his tender Mercies are over all his works The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and of great Mercy Psal 145.8 9. The Word of the Lord is right and all his works are done in truth He loveth righteousness and judgements the Earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Psal 33.4.5 O how great is thy Goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men Psal 31.19 O therefore that men instead of quarrelling with his unknown mysteries would praise the Lord for his Goodness and for his wonderful works to the Children of men Psal 107.8 15 21 31. In the Conclusion I take it to be wholsome advise to those that are under this Temptation 1. That they will oft read over the Psalms of Praise and think when they read them whether David and the ancient Church were not like to know what they said than a self-conceited or a melancholy tempted sinner 2. That they would consider who it is that is the Grand enemy of the Glory of Gods Goodness And they shall soon find that it is no other than the Devil None but he that is most evil can most envy Infinite Goodness his honour And is the Devil fit to be believed against God And that after the warning of our first Parents ruine which befell them for believing Satan when he slandered both Gods Wisdome Truth and Goodness to them 3. That they would bethink them to what end it is that the Tempter and the Enemy of God doth thus deny his Goodness Is it not a plain act of malice against God and us Is it not that he may disgrace God as evil and rob him of his Glory and also that he may hinder man from Loving him and so destroy all piety and virtue and goodness in the World Who can Love him whom he believeth to be bad and so unlovely And what Grace or happiness can there be without the Love of God 4. That they would think what horrid wickedness this sin containeth where Melancholy and involuntariness doth not extenuate it Is it any better than a denying that there is any God As is said before To be God is to be Perfectly Powerful Wise and Good And if be none such there can be no God And then who made the World and all that is Good in it by derivative goodness Yea is it not to represent the most amiable blessed God in Satans Image who is most evil and a Murderer from the beginning Joh. 8.44 that so men may hate him and fly from him as they do from Devils And can you tell how great a crime this is 5. That they would consider how this impious conceit is calculated for the licensing of all manner of villany in the world and to root out all the relicts of goodness from among mankind For who can expect that any man should be better than his Maker and that he should have any Good which denyeth God to be Good 6. That they would labour hard to be better themselves For he that hath a true Created Goodness is thereby prepared to relish and admire Gods primitive uncreated goodness Whereas a wicked or a guilty sinner cannot much value that which he is so unsuitable to and which he thinks will be to him a consuming fire Truly God is good to Israel and to such as are of a clean heart Psal 73.1 But he that liveth in the Love of sin will be doubting of the Love of God and fearful of his wrath and unfit to relish and delightfully perceive his goodness Psal 34.8 Taste and see that the Lord is Good blessed is the man that trusteth in him 7. Study Gods Love as manifested in Christ Then you shall see what man on earth may see But think not falsly narrowly basely of his office his performance or his Covenant 8. Dwell in the believing foresight of the Celestial Glory The reflections of which may wrap up a believing soul on earth into extasies of gratitude and delight 9. Remember what Goodness there is in the Holiness of God which is demonstrated in his severest Justice Yea what mercy it is to forewarn men of the punishment of sin that they may want no necessary means to scape it 10. Remember how unfit the selfish Interest of obstinate despisers of Grace and salvation is to be the measure or index of the Goodness of God And how much more credible the concordant testimony of the Heavenly Host is who Live in the Love of Love it self and are everlastingly delighted in the Praises of the Infinite Greatness Wisdom and Goodness of the most perfect blessed Glorious God FINIS