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	sin_n	will_n	1,571	5	7.0624	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34850	Vindiciæ veritatis, or, A confutation [...] the heresies and gross errours asserted by Thomas Collier in his additinal word to his body of divinity written by Nehemiah Coxe ...	Coxe, Nehemiah.	1677 (1677)	Wing C6719; ESTC R37684	130,052	153

Believe slays my heart It is my duty I confess and ever to be admired is Grace that found out such a remedy But oh my unbelief I am shut up under it what shall I do whether shall I flee Lord Faith is thy Gift and by thine Almighty power it hath been wrought in some such as I am Oh magnifie Grace in me a lost Creature even me also renew my Soul change my Heart make me a Believer work in me both to will and to do of thy good pleasure else I may as ●●●n reach Heaven with my finger as Believe my impotency my blindness the perverseness of my heart is so great I must confess O Lord thou art just if thou damn me but oh pity and save a Soul without might that is now sinking under thy wrath if free free Grace prevent not by working in me what thou requi●●st of me I return to Mr. C. who will now give us instances to illustrate his former assertion and that he may take this opportunity to let out more of his poisonous Doctrine chiefly insists on original sin which he endeavours to perswade men is an harmless thing and of it self lays them under no more guilt then doth a fit of sickness or any other affliction of the like kind that no man can help c. only thus much he grants It s true the first death is come on all men by Adams transgression they having the same original nature of sin and death it s come into all men as a Judgement for the first transgression but not as a sin to the second death Although it may not be easie to find out any good sense of these words the Original nature of sin and death yet it is easie to understand what is the drift of his discourse which he also farther explains anon and which I before touched And therefore to prevent him before I examine what he saith I will briefly propose the truth concerning this point as it is taught in the Scriptures Rom. 5. and other places viz. Job 14. 4. Psal 51. 5. Joh. 3. 6. c. From whence I gather 1. That Adam in his primitive state was to be considered as a publick person in whom all mankind that in an ordinary way of generation came of him were and in whom they sinned and fell when he fell And they are to be considered in him legally and naturally 1. Legally as he was according to the terms of the Covenant in which he stood related to God their representative and so received his perfections or original righteousness for them as well as for himself and they as well as he lost it by the fall 2. Naturally as he was the root of all mankind which were virtually in his Loins when he fell So then 2. Original sin is either Imputed or Inherent The imputation of Adams sin to his posterity by which they are most justly accounted to have sinned in him who was the root and both generative and faederal principle of mankind is in some sort the meritorious cause of the inherent pravity of the humane nature derived from him which is diffused through all the parts of the Soul and is a just punishment for the first offence by which we are turned away from God and disposed to all wickedness it being the root seed and principle of all actual transgressions and sins and is therefore so frequently by the Apostle Paul called sin in a way of emphasis and the flesh of which all the abominations that are in the world are the proper fruit and off-spring and are so represented by him Rom. 7. 8 c. ch 13. 14. Gal. 5. 19. Col. 2. 11. Eph. 2. 3. 3. When therefore we affirm with the Apostle Rom. 5. 18. That by the offence of one Judgement came upon all men unto condemnation neither doth the holy Ghost in that Text nor we intend to assert that any are actually damned for Adams particular fact but That by his sin and our sinning in him by Gods most just ordination we have lost original righteousness and so as darkness necessarily is where light is taken away or denied and sickness where health is not contracted that exceeding pravity and sinfulness of nature which deserveth the curse of God and Eternal damnation and it is inherent uncleanness that actually excludes out of the Kingdom of God From what hath been said it is easie to gather how pernicious Mr. C's doctrine is who teacheth that Original sin exposeth only to temporal or bodily not Eternal death The Apostle constantly affirms Rom. 5. that it is the death and condemnation that Christ saveth his people from which surely is the second not the first death only which by our fall in Adam we were exposed to and guilty of But why doth not Original sin deserve the second death Is it because Adams transgression was but trivial certainly the aggravations of his sin were exceeding great There was contempt of God dis-belief of his word pride breach of Covenant Theft Murther c. all combined in that one sin so that a greater the sin against the holy Ghost excepted and ●ore 〈…〉 ex evi 〈…〉 e of the Sons of ●●n were ever guilty of But if 〈…〉 had 〈…〉 n There 〈…〉 in in ●●s own nature so small but ratione obj 〈…〉 in that it is ●●ainst an infinite Majesty it deserv●● Eve●lasting p 〈…〉 shment a● 〈…〉 ry one that fears God and knows his te●rour 〈…〉 Is it because ●●e corruption of our nature derived from Ad 〈…〉 ●t a small thing who trembles not at such a thought that ha●●●ot cast off all sense of a Deity and the holiness thereof We hav● before proved That it is the spring of all the evil that is done ●●der the Sun it is in its own nature a principle of enmity to G●d that from whence the heart of man is denominated to be dec●i 〈…〉 above all things and desperately wicked If there be any thing therefore in what he saith besides his bold affirmation it is only this Because it is a Judgement for the first transgression ●t cannot be a sin to the second death But he may learn from the Scriptures that God oft-times punisheth sinners by giving them up to sin and yet that sin which hath also in it a punishment of former transgression will sink a Soul under divine wrath as well as any other L●t him take for instance Rom. 1. 21. ad finem 2 Th●s 2. 10 11 12. I thought in my reply to this and what followeth to have shewed how Mr. Collier in some things takes the Pelagian notion of Original sin in effect plainly enough denying it and also how in asserting the defilement of our nature not to be ou● sin he agrees with Bellarmine and other Jesuites in their opposition to the Protestant Doctrine in this point But I must be brief and shall therefore content my self only to shew his repugnancy to the truth of God in the Scripture Thus he goes on

which they were equally with others by their own nature into a condition of futurition and there can be no cause assigned of this migration or passage without God for there was nothing before time but himself It remains therefore that the cause thereof was in God and indeed it was the will purpose or decree of God that some things should be others should not that alone made this change So that the foreknowledge of things to be that is in God supposeth his Decree that they shall be and in truth the foreknowledge or Decree of God considered as in him is the same and the Scripture indifferently useth either term to denote the same thing though we because of the imbecility of our understanding form differing conceptions of them we conceive of the Decree as an act of God willing that such things should be and of Divine prescience as an act of God foreseeing or knowing the coming to pass of the things willed by him Amongst things future some are good some are evil viz. morally Those that are good God decreed to effect those that are evil to permit or suffer to be done knowing how and having purposed in himself to order them and over rule the doing of them for his own glory in the end Again some things we see are the effects of causes that work necessarily necessitate consequentis others of free agents which are to us wholly contingent yet do also necessarily come to pass necessitate consequentiae And things are therefore thus effected in time because God had decreed this order before time Hence is the certainty of Gods foreknowledge which dependeth not on any thing without himself and so a necessity as to the event that whatsoever hath been or shall be should so come to pass as it doth But this is a necessity of infallibility not of coaction and doth establish not infringe the liberty of free agents I shall briefly apply these things to the case in hand It will be granted I suppose that the utmost end intended by God in all that comes to pass is his own glory He hath made all things for himself and in the making of man God had an eye to the manifestation both of his mercy and justice Rom. 9. 22 23. In order hereunto he purposed to create man upright but mutable and to permit his temptation and falling by sin and to save a remnant of fallen man-kind by Jesus Christ through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth that his free grace might be everlastingly glorified in the Vessels of mercy which he before prepared untoglory so also he purposed to leave the rest in their fallen state to the wickedness of their own hearts and justly to punish them for it therein shewing his wrath and making his power known on the Vessels of wrath which he had endured with much long-suffering who were fitted for destruction Thus the end of all men is foreknown unto God and nothing falls out casually unto him yet is there no force put upon man nor injustice or hard dealing from God for him to complain of But Mr. Collier saith p. 36. It is dishonourable unto God and pernicious to men and layeth all the wickedness and plagues of the world at Gods door to affirm as some do That God decreed Adams fall before he made him or at least so far foreknew it as that it must be i. e. so as to necessitate it An heavy charge And we know right well who M. Collier intends it against But it will be far more easie for me to manifest That the men of his controversie have no concernment in it then for him to vindicate his own truth and honesty inasmuch as what they hold infers no such thing as you may see by what I have already written of this matter and whatsoever in his report of their opinion looketh this way is untruly imputed to them His best plea will be that he slandered them by hearsay and that himself knew not nor understood what they affirmed of this matter yet will not this excuse him But to the business Himself confesseth That God foreknew that Adam would fall I ask then Could the Almighty have prevented this or not If he could and yet did not we conclude that he willed or decreed not to prevent it though no ways approving thereof having determined to raise glory to his own name out of it And if the most high decreed to permit it and so from Eternity foreknew it as future this inf●rs a necessity of Infallibility that in time it would so come to pass but leaves man as a free agent to the liberty of his own will without any coaction thereto This notwithstanding therefore the sin and plagues of the world lye at the door of rebellious man And if Mr. Collier mean by foreknowing it so as to necessitate it such a foreknowledge or decree of God concerning it as in the execution thereof man should be compelled to sin and his fall effected by God I detes● such a notion and so do all those whom he reflects upon And it is expected that he either make good his charge out of their Writings or else right them by a publick acknowledgement of his fault in thus misrepresenting their Doctrine And if Mr. Collier cannot yet conceive of a necessity of infallibility respecting the event of things arising from the decree or foreknowledge of God without a necessity of coaction respecting those that are to act in the accomplishment of them I will endeavour to help him by one plain instance Act. 4. 27 28. For of a truth against thy holy Child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and People of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done It is evident their design was not to fulfill the counsel of God But thus it fell out for whatsoever they did to the Lord Jesus God had in his counsel determined before to be done yea had foretold by the mouth of all his holy Prophets that so it should be unto every circumstance of Christs passion viz. his Crucifying having Gall and Vinegar given him to drink the parting of his Raiment piercing of his side c. Now either these things must so come to pass or else the counsel of God must be disappointed and his word falsified will Mr. Collier then lay the Murther of Christ at Gods door were not all the agents by whose hands these things were immediately done free from coaction and therefore responsible for their wickedness all this notwithstanding And to make this yet more clear I will transcribe a few lines from Mr. Norton in his Orthod Ev. p. 75. These two proposioions 1. Adam might not have sinned 2. It could not be but that Adam would sin are both true and notwithstanding they may so seem yet they are not opposite one unto the other not being both of the same kind Adam might